Swan Lake at Arts Centre Melbourne State Theatre

From the first yearning bars of Tchaikovsky’s score, Swan Lake beckons you to another world. With its bewitched Swan Queen, its doomed Prince, its glittering villainess and its drifts of white tutus, this is the ultimate night at the ballet.

Stephen Baynes’ traditional production, commissioned in 2012 for The Australian Ballet’s 50th anniversary, combines grand scale and psychological intimacy. His lost, forlorn Siegfried is drawn to the lake and its secret realm of mystery and enchantment, where he falls in love with the Swan Queen Odette. Tricked and betrayed by the seductive Black Swan Odile, he can redeem himself only in death.

Hugh Colman’s magnificent designs pit Edwardian splendour against the spectral beauty of the white acts. This is a timeless Swan Lake that will tingle your spine and stir your soul.