She is cursed to transform into a swan by day and only return to human form at night. The reason for this enchantment isn't explained in the ballet, but most adaptations assume Rothbart kidnapped Odette to force her to marry him and her curse is a ploy to prevent her from meeting other men.
The reason for his curse upon Odette is unknown; several versions, including two feature films, have suggested reasons, but none is typically explained by the ballet. He is rarely portrayed in human form, except in act 3. He is usually shown as an owl-like creature.
As the story goes, Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette, the queen of the swan maidens who was cursed by the sorcerer Von Rothbart to turn into a swan by day. She regains her human form at night. The spell can only be broken if someone who has never loved before would swear to love her forever.
Previously, Baron Von Rothbart transformed Princess Odette into a swan, which is the symbol of beauty and purity. Because she refused his hand in marriage, he bewitched her so that she could not marry another. Von Rothbart's expectation was that in captivity, she would eventually consent to marry him.
Odile and Odette. Shonibare's film Odile and Odette is inspired by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 19th-century ballet Swan Lake, in which the princess Odette is cursed by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, to live as a swan by day and a woman by night.
Siegfrieds love with is potential to humanize Odette can free her from her curse so she can shed her swan identity and be the woman she was born to be. The implicit meaning here is that real love liberates the authentic self from the trap of a fraudulent persona and allows for integration.
Because the character of Odile is actually the evil Von Rothbart's daughter magically disguised as Odette, the two roles are most often portrayed by the same dancer, but occasionally they are danced by two different dancers in the same performance.
Odette was considered to be the best dancer of her generation before an accident caused her to become disabled. She would become a cleaner to the Opera house for the next ten years, at the same time she would work under Regine Le Haut.
Swan Lake is popular for its fascinating representation of good versus evil, depicted through two opposing swans: the vulnerable, ethereal White Swan and the seductive, deceptive Black Swan.
Odette flings herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. Siegfried's and Odette's steadfast love breaks the enchanter's spell and Von Rothbart, too, collapses and dies. With the curse removed, the lovers' spirits are freed. Their spirits take flight and are reunited for eternity.
Princess Odette is the titular protagonist of The Swan Princess. She's Prince Derek's wife and later on his queen in The Swan Princess: A Fairytale Is Born and a loving, caring adoptive mother to her young adopted daughter, Princess Alise, who will take her mother's place as future Queen of Derek and Odette's kingdom.
Derek was three and a half years old. When Derek, Bromley and Odette had their accident at the treehouse, Odette was 11 and Derek was 14. This makes Derek's age at the time of the marriage proposal 21 years and Odette 18 years.
Like any Mage, Odette suffers from terribly low defense -- this makes Odette a squishy target. However, this weakness can be overcome with the Shield she can generate with her Swan Song.
The final twist reveals that Nina had hallucinated Lily's death and instead stabbed herself in the abdomen. However, given the artist she is, she continues performing the ballet's final act as a dying Odette, landing on a mattress with thunderous applause.
The story of the ballet is based on a German fairy tale. This tale was probably tweaked by Tchaikovsky and his friends during the ballet's early discussion stages. Swan Lake is about a prince named Siegfried. He falls in love with the Swan princess, Odette.
The main characters tend to remain constant across productions: the White Swan Queen Odette, Prince Siegfried, the owl-magician Baron Von Rothbart, and his Black Swan daughter Odile.
Now, there are actually two endings for Swan Lake- the “happy” ending and the “tragic” ending. The former has Siegfried and von Rothbart fight, after which Siegfried tears off von Rothbart's wing and the curse is broken.
The story imparts that through Siegfried's love Odette can experience the freedom she desires, as his love will break the Sorcerers spell, which preserves her as a swan. Breaking the spell is a potent theme in Swan Lake. Odette embodies beauty and purity, but cannot fulfill her natural birthright as a woman.
The night before she is set to perform, Nina becomes convinced that Lily is going to take her place. Her paranoia and mental strain cause her to hallucinate that she's physically turning into the role of Odile, the Black Swan, complete with red eyes and black feathers protruding from bird-like skin.
Odette and her companions transform into swans under the spell cast by evil sorcerer Baron von Rothbart. Their days are spent gracefully gliding on a lake only to return to their human form at night. The only thing that can break the spell is true love and Rothbart will do anything in his power to stop it.
The spell was broken and Odette comes back to life. Derek says that he truly loves her for her courage and kindness, and he always truly loved her for that. At the end of the film, Derek and Odette are married and they become future king and queen, thus; uniting their kingdoms as Derek and Odette's parents hoped.
This unique name of German origin means "fortunate or prosperous in battle." As the enigmatic twin of Odette in Tchaikovsky's iconic ballet Swan Lake, this firecracker maiden–or black swan–is a force to reckoned with.
Most versions of Swan Lake pit the purity of the white swans against the evil of the black-cloaked magician von Rothbart and his daughter, Odile, the Black Swan.
That “sublime tragedy” of Swan Lake, she describes, is what differentiates the ballet as a vehicle of the human experience: the universal fight for love when we are so often completely and utterly doomed but eager to witness the stunning beauty along the way.
