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Why did the Soviet regime want to change Swan Lake?
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Swan Lake premiered in 1877, 40 years before the Russian Revolution.
But in the 1930s, with the ballet still a popular staple of the Russian stage, the Soviets decided that the original, tragic ending wouldn鈥檛 do. Tom Service meets the former prima ballerina and ballet expert Olga Rosonova to find out more.
This is the fourth of Ten Icons of a Russian Century, part of the Radio 3 season Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture.
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Ten Icons of a Russian Century—In Tune
Tom Service travels through the arts to find the essence of a century of Russian history.
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