Swan Lake At London Coliseum Review
The world’s most loved ballet has returned to London. After a triumphant sold‑out 2024 season, the State Ballet of Georgia — led by the legendary Nina Ananiashvili — brings a restaging of Swan Lake to the London Coliseum.
First premiered in Moscow in 1877, the ballet follows Prince Siegfried as he encounters Odette, a princess cursed by Rothbart to live as a swan by day and a woman by night. Their love is tested when Rothbart disguises his daughter Odile to deceive Siegfried into pledging himself to the wrong woman.
At our performance on Wednesday 22 July, Odette/Odile was danced by Anastasiia Miliachenko, who embodied grace and elegance throughout. Marcelo Soares’s Baron Von Rothbart was a standout — a powerful, dark presence whose feathered costume and sweeping wings made his entrances especially striking. If anything, we would have liked even more of him.
The evening moved quickly; when the curtain fell for intermission, it felt as though barely any time had passed. Unfortunately, three audience members talking loudly and using their phones did detract from the atmosphere. During scenery changes, when the orchestra briefly stops playing and the stage noise becomes audible, bursts of audience chatter emerged. I wonder if the orchestra could keep playing softly to stop the audience drifting out of the moment.
The production’s most striking visual remains the moonlit swans, their coordination and timing beautifully precise. The dancers’ technical ability and stamina are impressive, and even in the ballroom scene the ensemble’s poised arm‑lifting and hand‑crossing gestures added a refined elegance.
The aesthetic throughout is firmly medieval‑fairytale, and the production commits to it with gorgeous detail. The scenery ranges from a castle perched on a mountain beside the lake to the soaring ceilings and side‑panel paintings of the palace ballroom, and the lake scenes draped in hanging branches and deep greens washed with purply‑blue moonlight. From row J in the stalls, it genuinely felt as though we were stepping into those spaces ourselves.
The costumes extend this fairytale world: the court’s colourful attire, the Queen’s towering headdresses and metallic fabrics — including silver hearts trailing down her sleeves — and the glittering white tutus all contribute to the spectacle. The princesses from different lands add vibrant variety, with the Spanish dancers full of energy. A trio of black swans appears during ensemble sections, perhaps a deliberate foreshadowing, though it slightly softens the impact of Odile’s reveal.
Tchaikovsky’s timeless score — performed by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under conductor Levan Jagaev — remains the emotional heart of the production. Hearing it live is a reminder of how deeply music can move you and the orchestra played brilliantly throughout. Odette’s theme, with its gentle strings and soft oboes, felt haunting, while the Dance of the Cygnets brought a bright, quick liveliness. Odile’s music, sharper and more urgent, brought a different energy into the auditorium.
Tchaikovsky’s timeless score- performed by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under conductor Levan Jagaev- remains the emotional heart of the production. It’s powerful storytelling through expressive music. The iconic Swan Lake for Odette with its strings and oboes is hauntingly beautiful, whilst the dance of the cygnets brings quick, precise woodwind instruments and a faster and fiercer theme for Odile.
The orchestration, and choreography, remind us why Swan Lake endures: it continues to captivate. We left enchanted.
Address: London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Website: https://londoncoliseum.org/events/swan-lake/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/londoncoliseum
