Looping Swans

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When tanks rolled into Moscow on 19 August 1991 during a dramatic anti-Perestroika coup by Soviet hard-liners, the USSR’s state-controlled airwaves offered a curious response - a continuous loop of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. We trace the strange and elaborate pas de deux between Tchaikovsky’s ballet classic and the Russian psyche – revealing how a work, considered a flop upon its premiere, emerged as a powerful instrument of Soviet propaganda, and later – a soundtrack that failed to disguise impending political turmoil.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was an absolutely funny story, an absolutely funny story.
0:10.0	On 18th of August, 1991, it was Sunday.
0:14.0	I remember that.
0:15.0	We had friends who came from Moscow and we had a party and I was absolutely drunk.
0:26.0	And when I woke up on Monday, so I was about, let's take water to say something like this,
0:32.0	feeling absolutely bad.
0:35.0	For me, I just was trying to find the good position for my body to be a little bit relaxed
0:42.0	because my headache, so I just switched on TV and just fall down on sofa.
0:51.0	And I wasn't the sofa TV set was in Azakona and I heard that it was one lake.
1:07.0	For how long it was and what particular part of Swan Lake it was.
1:12.0	I don't remember exactly, but it was one lake and many many times, like look.
1:18.0	Many, many times, like look, many, many times, like look, many, many.
1:22.0	Of course, the first session, this is the great music, Chikoshka who created this, he was great.
1:29.0	But about 50 minutes, I thought this was just excellent sign.
1:37.0	Oh, someone died.
1:43.0	Someone died.
1:45.0	Someone died.
1:49.0	Lupin Swans.
1:51.0	Once again.
1:52.0	Lupin Swans.
1:54.0	Lupin Swans.
1:56.0	Lupin Swans.
	...

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