March 4 — the premiere of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” took place on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The libretto was written by the director of the Moscow theatres, Vladimir Begichev, and the ballet dancer Vasily Geltser, and the production was staged by the balletmaster Wenzel Reisinger. Hard to believe, but the premiere—the only production mounted during the composer’s lifetime—was not a success.
It was close to a fiasco. Among the reasons, experts cite weak choreography, which ultimately determined the generally cold reception of the performance by audiences and critics. Only eighteen years later, in St. Petersburg, in the choreography of Petipa and Ivanov, “Swan Lake” would amaze both spectators and critics.
Since then, “Swan Lake” has become a classic of world choreography and the signature work of the best ballet stages worldwide. The Petipa–Ivanov version became the canonical one.
It underlies most subsequent productions of “Swan Lake,” except for extremely modernist ones. Most often, the canonical choreography of the white act and the “black” Pas d’action by Marius Petipa are used.
But the influence of the St. Petersburg production on the ballet’s entire subsequent fate is far broader than the mere repetition of individual elements.
It established the main traditions that shaped how new choreographers approached Tchaikovsky’s original text. A free revision of the libretto and an equally free reworking of the score, supplemented with fragments of Tchaikovsky’s non-ballet music, became firmly embedded in theatrical practice.
Magazine publication of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”.
April 24 — Russia declared war on Turkey. Under the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano concluded at the end of the war, Russia received part of Armenia and the portion of Bessarabia that had previously been taken from it. Turkey was forced to recognize the independence of Romania, Montenegro, and Serbia, and also undertook to grant self-government to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the Ottoman Empire, an autonomous principality of Greater Bulgaria was formed, under the direct influence of Russia.
December 28 — the Turkish army capitulated at Shipka.