Nureyev’s dark “Swan Lake” in Milan

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La Scala’s revival explores brooding psychological terrain and themes of repression and unspoken desire, testing dancers and audience alike, while it struggles to fully convey emotional nuance, leaving the finale strikingly unresolved

by Alessandro Bizzotto

Nureyev’s Swan Lake, revived now at La Scala and running until July 18, refuses to be merely a fairytale of doomed romance. Instead, it probes darker terrain: a forensic exploration of repression and sublimated longing. In this vision, Siegfried is no passive victim of fate, but a young man paralysed by unspoken desires. The lake itself is less an enchanted refuge than a mirror reflecting his fractured psyche.