Have you ever seen ballet? If you have, what was the program? There are many stories for ballet. I want you to know some famous stories.
There are very famous stories called 3 large ballet:"Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", and "The Nutcracker". These three stories are played with the music composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
I think "Swan Lake" (in Japanese "Hakutcho-no mizuumi") is the most famous and a little sad story.
A princess called Odette was changed from woman to swan by Devil called Rothbart. She can be woman at night, but she is a swan in the daytime. A prince called Siegfried fell in love with Odette and asked her to marry him. Odette can return woman when a man swears to love her to the end of his life. At the party in which he choose his marrige partner, a beautiful woman appeared. She resembles Odette, but actually she is Rothbart's underling. She is a black swan and her name is Odile. Siegfried couldn't notice that she is not Odette. He swore to love her forever...Odette cannot return her original figure forever. After that Odette and Siegfried met again at the lakeside. She forgave him. Rothbart tried seperating them, but the two jumped into the lake. Their love made Rothbart dead, and the two became happy in Heaven.
 |
Odette and Siegfried |
 |
Odile |
The story of "Sleeping Beauty" (in Japanese "Nemureru mori no bizyo") resembles Disney's story. A princess marries a prince after sleeping for 100 years. There are many characters (not only human but also animals and fairies) and the music is very beautiful. In the wedding ceremony, some characters in the other tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Blue Bird” and “Cinderella” appear. I like this story and music the most.
 |
falling princess |
 |
Chracters of "The Blue Bird" |
“The Nutcracker” (in Japanese “Kurumiwari ninngyo”) is the story of Christmas. A girl called Clara received a nutcracker as the Christmas present at the party. That night she had a wonderful dream. The nutcracker became a prince and guided the dream world. Clara and the nutcracker traveled some countries and saw a lot of people. Most famous part is confetti fairy (in Japanese “Konpeito-no sei”). Clara admired her and started on a trip to the future.
These three stories are often presented by many ballet companies and loved by many people. I would like you to see one of them in near future.