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skygiantsA couple weeks back, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
genarti, rushin_doll and I went to go see Swan Lake at the Metropolitan Opera.
First of all, it was 100% amazing and I am now totally bitten by the ballet bug - which I can already tell is going to be a tragically expensive passion, but I DON'T CARE. The swan chorus: beautiful! Odette dancing her transformation into a swan: insanely beautiful! Villainous Von Rothbart being a total pimp with all of Siegfried's ladies and Siegfried's mom and then literally SMOKEBOMBING his way out of the scene: insanely HILARIOUS! (And, uh, that is not even factoring in how I was clutching Gen's arm every ten minutes hissing "that's the music from the bit that Kraehe dances to with Mytho! And that's from the bit that Tutu does her solo to, and HEY LOOK that's the exact choreography oh man!" I am not proud of being that ridiculously obsessed, but Princess Tutu remains my One True Fictional Love at this point in time and I can't help it.)
Anyway, after seeing the show, I had an overwhelming urge to reread Mercedes Lackey's retelling, The Black Swan, which I first read during my Lackey-devouring phase as a thirteen-year-old. Basically, the story of The Black Swan is "It's Swan Lake . . . IF ODILE WAS AN AWESOME YA-STYLE HEROINE AND SAVED THE DAY. Also I guess Siegfried has a story of personal redemption somewhere in there too."
To be honest I didn't care much about Siegfried's story of personal redemption or his evil mother or his and Odette's true love, which is kind of shoehorned into the last hundred pages anyways. I wanted the whole book to be about Odile bonding with Odette! And learning about the ~*~power of friendship!~*~ And, you know, enough of it was that I was happy.
It was also super fun reading it right after seeing the show - Lackey spends a lot of time describing set pieces that are taken straight from the traditional ballet's stage settings. The lake itself is the big one ("and there is this GIANT DRAMATIC CLIFF right next to the lake! Funny how that is!") but the party scene with all of the visiting princesses doing their national dances is also pretty notable.
(It did not, however, give me many Princess Tutu associations - the two stories are both working off Swan Lake, obviously, but taking it in completely different directions. Um, unsurprisingly.)
genarti, rushin_doll and I went to go see Swan Lake at the Metropolitan Opera.First of all, it was 100% amazing and I am now totally bitten by the ballet bug - which I can already tell is going to be a tragically expensive passion, but I DON'T CARE. The swan chorus: beautiful! Odette dancing her transformation into a swan: insanely beautiful! Villainous Von Rothbart being a total pimp with all of Siegfried's ladies and Siegfried's mom and then literally SMOKEBOMBING his way out of the scene: insanely HILARIOUS! (And, uh, that is not even factoring in how I was clutching Gen's arm every ten minutes hissing "that's the music from the bit that Kraehe dances to with Mytho! And that's from the bit that Tutu does her solo to, and HEY LOOK that's the exact choreography oh man!" I am not proud of being that ridiculously obsessed, but Princess Tutu remains my One True Fictional Love at this point in time and I can't help it.)
Anyway, after seeing the show, I had an overwhelming urge to reread Mercedes Lackey's retelling, The Black Swan, which I first read during my Lackey-devouring phase as a thirteen-year-old. Basically, the story of The Black Swan is "It's Swan Lake . . . IF ODILE WAS AN AWESOME YA-STYLE HEROINE AND SAVED THE DAY. Also I guess Siegfried has a story of personal redemption somewhere in there too."
To be honest I didn't care much about Siegfried's story of personal redemption or his evil mother or his and Odette's true love, which is kind of shoehorned into the last hundred pages anyways. I wanted the whole book to be about Odile bonding with Odette! And learning about the ~*~power of friendship!~*~ And, you know, enough of it was that I was happy.
It was also super fun reading it right after seeing the show - Lackey spends a lot of time describing set pieces that are taken straight from the traditional ballet's stage settings. The lake itself is the big one ("and there is this GIANT DRAMATIC CLIFF right next to the lake! Funny how that is!") but the party scene with all of the visiting princesses doing their national dances is also pretty notable.
(It did not, however, give me many Princess Tutu associations - the two stories are both working off Swan Lake, obviously, but taking it in completely different directions. Um, unsurprisingly.)
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Date: 2009-07-14 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-07-14 05:13 pm (UTC)I feel sure that
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Date: 2009-07-14 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-07-19 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 06:51 pm (UTC)I am now slashing Odette & Odile I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY.
(NB "Swan Lake" is one of those ballets that I know about but haven't gotten to see yet, sadface.)
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Date: 2009-07-14 06:58 pm (UTC)(It is so so pretty and worth it, see it if you can! I actually haven't seen much ballet at all before this - only multiple versions of The Nutcracker really - so it was extra awesome.)
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Date: 2009-07-14 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 07:04 pm (UTC)Also, chorus of Evil Ghost Girls!
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Date: 2009-07-14 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 03:45 am (UTC)Also- Siegfried was so the worst part of that book. He drags the whole thing down.
(And you remind me that I need to post about Reserved for the Cat.)
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Date: 2009-07-15 05:54 am (UTC)And yeah, he totally was. Every time we got a Siegfried/Back At the Castle perspective I was like "yes yes, that's fine, are we back at the swans yet?"
(Oh yeah! That is her latest, right? Or second-latest?)
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Date: 2009-07-15 06:40 pm (UTC)I remember that the first time I read it, I had a friend that told me "Just trust me, once Siegfried improves and there is less of him it gets really good!" I tended to skim over anything with him (especially when rereading).
(I think it's still her latest as far as the Elemental Masters books are concerned. It had a few problems, but I quite liked it overall and was in some ways pleasantly surprised!)
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Date: 2009-07-20 02:38 pm (UTC)(I have yet to reread The Black Swan. One of these days! Because I too am curious about it, having forgotten all of it just as you had. Heeeee, party scene.)
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Date: 2009-07-20 02:58 pm (UTC)(I will be curious to see what you think! The party scene was hilarious though - especially since the princesses had not been set up as nationality-identified at all before then or affiliated with entourages or anything, so when all of a sudden Mercedes Lackey is like "AND HERE THEY ARE STANDING IN COLOR-CODED GROUPS AND DOING BASQUE DANCES" I cracked up!)