The Swan King

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake hit me in the gut when I first saw it. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on what affected me so much in it. Now, 1 year later, I come back to it from a different angle, having read La Bas. While a seemingly unrelated story, La Bas touches on the idea of escaping from reality by diving into a dark fantasy - a fantasy which consumes one entirely in the end.

I didn't know back than that the story of the prince was in part inspired by Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria, otherwise known as the Swan King.


A member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, Ludwig became king of Bavaria at the age of 18. He was said to have an unhealthy obsession with Swans. A lover of the theatre and music, especially that of Wagner, Ludwig became Wagner’s patron for a number of years. The King of Bavaria was certified insane in his bedroom at Neuschwanstein and, a few days later, on 13 June 1886, he and his physician were found drowned in the Lake Starnberg.


Interestingly, many of Wagner’s works carried the theme of death being the only true state where love and purpose could be found. A theme also suggested in Bourne’s final image in Swan Lake where, as the Prince lies dead on his bed, the Young Prince is seen through the window being carried away by the Swan. The insanity of Bourne’s Prince, a possible reference to Ludwig, is seen when the Private Secretary and the Queen keep him imprisoned in a clinical, white washed room.

In 1972, Luchino Visconti directed a film about the life and death of the king. Ludwig was played by Helmut Berger.


Ludwig is a very languidly paced film, but with an impressive sense of tragic crescendo. The fully restored version, running over four hours, builds sympathy in the viewer for Ludwig's decadent, yet ultimately firmly constricted life. Visconti’s meticulous realism gives a bright picture of court life in the nineteenth-century Bavaria and shows with impressive dramatic pathos how a dreamy romantic idealist as Ludwig succumbs to the strenuous and urgent demands of his responsibilities as king. The political sphere of counselors, clergymen, princes and kings, as well as the intricate and often tense relations between the members of the royal family are treated in the film with an acute and refined sensibility to aristocratic decorum and way of living. However, in the 19th century the Bavarian king lacked real political power, causing Ludwig to indulge in his Wagnerian fantasies while more or less ignoring the political reality at the time.

And now, I must have this book: