The Swan Lake

Obverse

the two-headed eagle designed by artist I. Bilibin. The inscriptions along the rim: at the top — «10 РУБЛЕЙ 1997 г.» (10 RUBLES 1997), at the bottom — «БАНК РОССИИ» (BANK OF RUSSIA). The letters below indicate the metal sign, the fineness, the fine metal content and the mint trademark.

Reverse

the picture of Odette dancing against a background of the lake. The inscription along the rim: «ЛЕБЕДИНОЕ ОЗЕРО» («THE SWAN LAKE»).

Authors

The artist: A.V. Baklanov
The sculptor: I.S. Komshilov
St. Petersburg Mint (ЛМД)
The edge: 90 corrugations

The ballet «The Swan Lake» (music by P. Tchaikovsky) staged by Y. Reusinger was first performed on February 20th 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. The plot is based on the all-conquering power of love. Prince Siegfried rejects all the brides for the sake of his love to beautiful Odette, who was turned into the Queen of swans (the White swan) by wicked genius Rothbart. The perfidy of Knight Rothbart, who came with his daughter Odile (the Black swan) to the ball in the castle of the Prince, makes Siegfried forget his love to Odette. Siegfried’s involuntary treachery is supposed to ruin Odette and the swan-girls. However, the power of Siegfried and Odette’s love ruins the evil spells of the wicked magician. After its premiere and a few unsuccessful seasons at the Bolshoi Theatre, the ballet was taken off the repertoire: «Swan Lake» was the first symphonic ballet on the Russian stage and neither the company nor critics or the public were prepared to comprehend and appreciate this really innovatory work. «The Swan Lake», staged by Marius Petipa – the ballet master of the Mariinsky Theatre – and choreographer Lev Ivanov, was revived two years after P. Tchaikovsky’s death (Libretto by V. Begichev, and V. Helzer; artists I. Andreev, M. Bocharov, G. Levot, and E. Ponomariov). The premiere of the ballet took place on January 15th 1895 in the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg. Later on many new versions of the ballet were successfully performed practically at all theatres of the world and it is still one of the world’s best ballets.