ballet explained: swan lake, act 3

It is the evening of the Royal Betrothal Ball. It’s a lavish affair, and everyone is excited for Prince Siegfried to pick a bride. There are a lot of potential roommates at the event, but Siegfried’s still into the idea of hooking up with Odette, despite the fact that for most of the day she’s a bird.

The Queen has rounded up six princesses/bridal candidates for Siegfried to choose from, and they perform a pas de sex six for him. Guests are placing bets on who Siegfried will pick to be his bride, but they’re all wrong. Because Siegfried isn’t into princesses; he’s into birds. *snicker*

Von Rothbart shows up in disguise with his daughter, Odile. He has cast a spell on Odile so she looks just like Odette, except she’s black. Von Rothbart figures the Prince will be duped by the doppelgänger and pledge eternal love to the wrong girl.

And Prince Siegfried? Well, von Rothbart was right. He doesn’t even notice that the swan at the party is a totally different colour than the swan he was chatting up the night before.

Odette (the white swan) is watching the Betrothal Ball from afar. She’s watching Prince Siegfried gettin’ his jive on with Odile (the black swan), and probably thinking: what a dope.

Odette tries to warn Prince Siegfried with some wing flapping and muted bugle calls – hoping he’ll remain faithful to her – but then Siegfried the Genius says, “I love you,” to Odile. HE PLEDGES ETERNAL LOVE TO ODILE! Because the doofus thinks she’s Odette. So, Odette throws her wings up in the air and heads back to the lake.

After some time – and a bunch of dancing – Siegfried is all: Wait… what? Because he finally figures out that the swan he’s dancing with isn’t Odette.

Von Rothbart is all: Oh, yah, you just told Odile that you’ll love her forever! Now you’ve gotta to marry my little owlet and Odette is going to be a swan forever! 

And Siegfried is all: Oh, crap.