Love Lessons From Swan Lake
Ballet Jorgen was in Regina last week putting on Swan Lake. I'm a bit of a fan of ballet and there aren't a lot of opportunities to see it in Regina, so of course I went.
The basic story of Swan Lake is that there is a beautiful young woman, Odette, who has been turned into a swan by an evil sorceress, Von Rothbart. A young man, Siegfried, meets Odette and falls for her, but Von Rothbart keeps them apart. Later, Siegfried is at a party and a woman dressed in black comes in who he thinks is Odette. He confesses his love for her, but then it turns out she's not Odette, but another woman, Odile, who has been enchanted to look like Odette by Von Rothbart. Odette is heart broken. Siegfried tries to win back Odette and a fight between Von Rothbart and Siegfried ensues. Von Rothbart is defeated, but Siegfried is killed in the fight and Odette is released from the spell.
Or at least, that's more or less how it is normally told, but there are variations. When I saw the Joffrey's version in Chicago a couple of years ago, it was set in a 19th century in a ballet studio and the magical aspects were replaced by dream sequences and in the end, Odette is stuck as a swan but Siegfried survived.
The Ballet Jorgen version was set in the 1700's in New Brunswick. Siegfried's mother has found a number of suitable women and he is supposed to marry one of them. Angered by this Siegfried goes hunting, meets Odette, comes back to the ball arranged by his mother, rejects all her choices, and then Odile comes in. It was very well done, but as I'm watching, I'm thinking that there is some advice for all of us in Siegfried's plight:
The basic story of Swan Lake is that there is a beautiful young woman, Odette, who has been turned into a swan by an evil sorceress, Von Rothbart. A young man, Siegfried, meets Odette and falls for her, but Von Rothbart keeps them apart. Later, Siegfried is at a party and a woman dressed in black comes in who he thinks is Odette. He confesses his love for her, but then it turns out she's not Odette, but another woman, Odile, who has been enchanted to look like Odette by Von Rothbart. Odette is heart broken. Siegfried tries to win back Odette and a fight between Von Rothbart and Siegfried ensues. Von Rothbart is defeated, but Siegfried is killed in the fight and Odette is released from the spell.
Or at least, that's more or less how it is normally told, but there are variations. When I saw the Joffrey's version in Chicago a couple of years ago, it was set in a 19th century in a ballet studio and the magical aspects were replaced by dream sequences and in the end, Odette is stuck as a swan but Siegfried survived.
The Ballet Jorgen version was set in the 1700's in New Brunswick. Siegfried's mother has found a number of suitable women and he is supposed to marry one of them. Angered by this Siegfried goes hunting, meets Odette, comes back to the ball arranged by his mother, rejects all her choices, and then Odile comes in. It was very well done, but as I'm watching, I'm thinking that there is some advice for all of us in Siegfried's plight:
- Don't fall in love with a woman who's been enchanted into a swan. (Or that you've only met after eating unknown mushrooms in the woods.)
- Don't fall in love with the first person you meet. (Read up on your optimal stopping theory.)
- Don't drive your son into the woods by insisting he marry one of three people at your party.
- If you have an identical twin and your boyfriend confesses his love for you to her by mistake, you might want to forgive him for that.
- If you've only met someone once and you see them at a party, you should probably make sure you know who they are before deciding to marry them. Maybe talk to them when you haven't been drinking.
- If your girlfriend breaks up with you because you proposed to her twin sister, be careful of her angry magician friend when you try to explain what happened.
Well, maybe some of those aren't that helpful in normal life. Now I should probably go to Beauty and the Beast and see what I can learn from that. From what I've heard, there's something in there about being aloof and taking proper care of your roses.
