Swan Lake
New York City Ballet, George Balanchine
Illustrator: Valeria Delcampo
Series: The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty
Original language: English
Published: November 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN13: 9781481458337
Price: € 13.99 (HC)
Age: 4 - 12 years
Another beautiful picture book by the New York City Ballet today, this time Swan Lake from 2020. A worldwide beloved ballet by the Russian Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky from 1877. Who after this ballet wrote both The Sleeping Beauty (in 1890) and The Nutcracker (in 1892). Swan Lake is the dramatic story of a young prince and a beautiful queen, an evil sorcerer and his daughter, a curse and enchantment, of love and deceit.
The young Prince Siegfried falls deeply in love with the beautiful Swan Queen Odette, who has been cursed by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart. By day she is a swan, but every night she is allowed to assume her human form for a few hours. The Prince can break the spell, but through a nefarious trick by the evil sorcerer and his equally evil daughter Odile, he loses that chance. The queen will forever remain a swan but their love for each other is unbreakable.
The story is - as in the two previous books - beautifully portrayed by Valeria Delcampo. The beautiful Swan Queen, the delicate ballerinas and the colourful prints of the court, we are glad she was chosen to illustrate the books. Brilliantly done!
3 icy shining stars for Swan Lake, from the readers and all the young listeners!