When a sports team plays with its third string, the results may be miserable.

In ballet, not so much.

“Swan Lake” is such a long, demanding drama that the Swan Queen and certain others need a couple of nights off, minimum, after performing. So at the third S.F. Ballet performance, such as last Sunday, you might get the No. 3 Swan Queen (newcomer Wona Park), No. 3 hero Siegfried (Wei Wang), and so on. And the evil eagle-like sorcerer Rothbart was Nathaniel Remez, plucked from the lowest echelon of regulars called the corps de ballet.

And the performance worked, garnering gratifying ovations from the crowd at the end. Ballerina Park had of course to play a dual role. As the (good) White Swan Queen, she was an effective technician, short on emotion but long on classical steps—a run-of-the-flock, you could say. But when she moved to the Black Swan persona, she became a subtle temptress, not only leading witless Siegfried astray, but also carrying off what many consider technically the most challenging steps in all classical ballet, the exhausting 32 fouetté whipping rotations on pointe, without a break. She showed a stamina beyond belief, with her 32nd kick-turn as well-formed as her first. No question, the latter role was playing right in her strengths.

You also had to admire how the troupe dealt with surprise mid-performance mishaps. In the act-three variations, two dancers lost their hats in the whirlwind of movement, carrying on with total aplomb. And in the two previous acts, Siegfried’s military tunic refused to stay buttoned, misbehaving till the finale. Like true professionals, none of them even blinked an eye or missed a step.

Siegfried was Wei Wang, who looks more like a short and bashful teenager than an assertive macho hero. Clearly miscast as the doomed lover, he nonetheless proved himself a capable virtuoso and a partner showing (and turning) the queen swans to good advantage.

The stars of this massive show were the perfectly attuned swans, some 37 of them together. Every step, knee and gesture was expertly aligned, producing a mesmerizing effect on audiences. Within the ensemble there were four Cygnets doing a famous Allegro to a woodwind music in straight-line unison, as always a sure-fire showstopper.

If you think you’ve seen “Swan Lake,” you haven’t seen it. The complete ballet is a Tchaikovsky score long enough to stretch it to four hours if done uncut. This 2009 version by choreographer Helgi Tomasson runs 15 minutes short of three hours. He varies the mix and the endless ensemble dances with some puckish elements, plus a group of unbridled Hungarians in flying capes and stamping boots that I feared might kick themselves unexpectedly in the hind quarters.

But the music and the melodrama are devastatingly effective. It makes you believe, for a while, in an enchanted woman turned into a (white) swan as victimized by a reckless sorcerer who accumulates gobs of alluring dancing swans in his atelier. He creates a black-swan clone who seduces Siegfried, prompting him to swear his eternal love to her, breaking his earlier vow to the real white-swan heroine. Fickle is as fickle does.

The winged wizard was played by Nathaniel Remez, a huge athletic figure short on malevolence but long on leaps across the stage and attacks on the lovers. As he dies of unnatural causes he sees the lovers ascend an immense rock of precious stones (straight out of the opera “Rheingold,” act one) and jump off, united in a love-death out of yet another Wagnerian opera.

The astonishing solo work this day came from yet another dancer from the corps de ballet: the Australian Joshua Jack Price. Partnering two ladies, he danced the act-one Pas de Trois with soaring leaps, immense gusto, and heroic countenance. You had to think he will eventually be a prime Siegfried himself, once (or if) he’s working his way up the ladder.

So this may have been “only” third-string, but once again the irresistible 19th-century dance drama about lovelorn swans by the lake at night worked its magic and enkindled audiences.

The pit orchestra acquitted itself well and spiritedly, even though veteran conductor Martin West is not given to extravagant gesticulating.

“SWAN LAKE” in three acts, Tomasson choreography, “after Petipa and Ivanov,” danced by the S.F. Ballet as seen May 1. Through season’s end May 8. Opera House, S.F. For info, (415) 865-2000, or go online: www.sfballet.org.

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