Brown calls Tchaikovsky's first ballet, Swan Lake, "a very remarkable and bold achievement."Brown, Crisis, 77. The genre on the whole was mainly "a decorative spectacle" when Swan Lake was written, which made Tchaikovsky's attempt to "incorporate a drama that was more than a convenient series of incidents for mechanically shifting from one divertissement to the next ... almost visionary." However, while the composer showed considerable aptitude in writing music that focused on the drama of the story, the demand for set pieces undercut his potential for complete success. The lengthy divertissements he supplied for two of the ballet's four acts display a "commendable variety of character" but divert action (and audience attention) away from the main plot.Brown, Crisis, 80, New Grove (1980), 18:613–4 Moreover, Brown adds, the formal dance music is uneven, some of it "quite ordinary, a little even trite."Brown, Crisis, 80. Despite these handicaps, Swan Lake gives Tchaikovsky many opportunities to showcase his talent for melodic writing and, as Brown points out, has proved "indestructible" in popular appeal.Brown, Crisis, 85. The oboe solo associated with Odette and her swans, which first appears at the end of Act 1, is one of the composer's best–known themes.Evans, 194.
