In La Morte del Cigno, the Italian choreographer Mauro de Candia gives a cast-iron contemporary, male interpretation of The Dying Swan, the short solo that immortalized the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The Candia retains the well-known music, Le Cygne from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Le Carnival des Animaux. But unlike the fragile, vulnerable bird from the original choreography by Michel Fokine (1905), his ‘dying swan’ is a stubborn, proud beast that tries to make its way towards freedom with enormous animal strength, passion and flexibility.