Swan Lake at Opera House, Manchester – the Swan Queen steals the show

Swan Lake is an icon of the ballet world, for good reason – and now this hauntingly beautiful ballet is back in Manchester for one weekend only.

Set to Tchaikovsky’s equally iconic score, Swan Lake tells the love story of Prince Siegfried and Swan Queen Odette, with plenty of magic and sorcery along the way.

There’s a lot of depth and intrigue to this tale, even if it a good half of it is essentially a load of people peacocking around a ballroom trying to prove they’re the most compatible for one another.

Throughout the two hour performance by the Mergaliyev Classical Ballet you’ll be witness to deception, enchantment, love, and plenty more, as evil sorcerer Von Rothbart meddles in Siegfied and Odette’s love and tricks him into falling in love with his daughter, Odile, instead.

The mirroring roles of Odette and Odile are both played by Nilay Tahiroglu, who is possibly the most captivating dancer to have ever graced the stage at the Opera House.

It’s remarkable how she can make the human body so closely resemble a swan – the way the shape of hands can mimic a swan’s long neck, or the avian way her arms rotate in their sockets and gracefully unfurl like wings, or how she literally looks like she’s on water when she glides across the stage balanced en pointe.

When Tahiroglu transforms into Odile she’s still the same captivating dancer but now she’s bolder, braver. There’s a sharpness to her grace that wasn’t there before. 

While Odette’s eyes are almost always cast downwards and soft, Odile stares straight at the audience with a glittering secret in her eyes.

She’s the most beautiful, other-worldly dancer I’ve ever seen.

Cristo Civancos Prunes is excellent as Prince Siegfried, a man so classically handsome and sure-footed you could put him on the cover of a romantic novel at the airport and it’d sell a million copies.

And Marek Bobosik shines as the cunning Von Rothbert too, even if his character is let down by an underwhelming costume that’s more ‘onesie at a Halloween party’ than ‘lead villain in a world-class ballet’.

It’s not a perfect performance – during Dance of the Cygnets, possibly the world’s most iconic dance sequence, the four cygnets stumble and lose time. Our glittering principal also loses her footing once, prompting a sharp intake of breath from the audience, but regains it quickly.

And the first act, before we even meet Odette and are instead watching the wealthy types parade in front of one another in a ballroom, drags on – in fact, there are a lot of empty seats after the first of two intermissions, with many calling it a night early.

Compared to the English National Ballet, which brought Swan Lake to Manchester in 2022, this production could do with a little more polish and pizzazz.

But it’s still a truly magical sight to behold – even if you just come for Odette.

Get your tickets for Swan Lake at the Opera House Manchester HERE.

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Featured image: Supplied