La Sylphide is a ballet, first choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, then again by Augustus Bournonville in 1836. It tells the story of James Rubens, a Scottish farmer pursued by a sylph on the eve of his wedding to his fiancee Effie. Act 1 is composed of the preparations for the wedding party while Act 2 is James and the sylph dancing in the woodland as everyone else is out searching for them.
Taglioni created ballet specifically for his daughter Marie. The choreography for this version has been mostly lost; modern productions use Bournonville's instead.
Not to be confused with the 1909 ballet Les Sylphides (also known as Chopiniana) by Michel Fokine.
La Sylphide provides examples of
- The Bad Guy Wins: Old Madge gets her revenge on James by tricking him into poisoning the sylph and, in some versions, urging Gurn to propose to Effie. As such she denies him both romantic options.
- Betty and Veronica:
- James has to choose between his loving fiancee Effie (Betty), and the elusive and free spirited sylph (Veronica). Thanks to Old Madge, he ends up with neither.
- Effie herself has two suitors. James is essentially the Veronica, being the more exciting but less reliable option while Gurn is the Betty as he is definitely the more steadfast one. She ends up with Gurn.
- Cassandra Truth: Gurn catches James with the sylph and rushes off to tell Effie. When she returns with her bridesmaids the sylph has disappeared so they assume he made it up out of jealousy.
- Did Not Get the Girl: James loses both the Sylph (she dies) and Effie (she marries another man).
- Disposable Fiancé: Effie. James abandons her to chase after the Sylph.
- Downer Ending: James wraps Madge's scarf around the sylph's shoulders and arms so she can't fly away, only for her to lose her wings and die. Then, to rub salt in the wound, Effie and Gurn's wedding procession walks past the sylphs' glade, leading to James collapsing in shock.
- Dying Alone: In some productions James dies alone in the forest after he loses the Sylph and he sees Effie leaving the wedding happily married to Gurn.
- Fortune Teller: Old Madge. She offers to tell the fortunes of the wedding guests. She predicts that Effie will marry Gurn instead of James. This causes James to kick her out.
- Interspecies Romance: A romance occurs between a man (James) and a wood nymph (the Sylph).
- Love Triangle: There are actually two:
- James is engaged to marry Effie, but on the day of their wedding he meets the Sylph and runs off with her.
- The other is between James and Effie and a local man named Gurn who is also in love with Effie and is jealous of her impending marriage.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The sylph is a rather literal example as she is very childlike and playful, not to mention an actual fairy. Unfortunately, her and James's romance ends badly for both of them.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Gurn. He's also in love with Effie and is jealous of her impending marriage to James. When James runs off, he joins the search for the runaway groom. He finds James's hat in the forest, but instead of saying anything, he hides it. He then tells Effie he could find no trace of her fiance, and then he proposes marriage. She accepts and the wedding resumes with Gurn taking James's place as the groom.
- Our Fairies Are Different: The sylphs are very airy and playful with the titular sylph falling for James quite quickly. Unfortunately she always flies away from him until James catches her in Old Madge's scarf, which kills her.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: James is the passionate and lustful Red while Gurn is the calmer, more reliable Blue. In some versions of the ballet, this extends to their costumes where James wears red and Gurn wears blue.
- Runaway Bride: James leaves Effie at the altar at the end of Act 1. It appears to be because the sylph stole his ring but in Act 2, it's clear that was just a convenient excuse.
- Scotireland: The story of the ballet takes place in Scotland because, at the time it was first choreographed, Scotland was seen as a strange and exotic place. To emphasise the point the men all wear kilts and expect a lot of tartan on the non-supernatural characters.
- Shipper on Deck: In some versions, Old Madge will encourage Effie and Gurn to get together. Although this is likely to get her revenge on James and ensure her prediction at the start of the ballet comes true.
- Why Waste a Wedding?: When James leaves Effie at the altar to chase after the Sylph, she gets married to Gurn instead.
- Wicked Witch: Old Madge. She's initially sympathetic as she's simply looking for shelter from the cold outside and she offers to tell everyone's fortunes if they let her stay. Things only go south when she predicts Effie will marry Gurn due to James's infidelity and James promptly throws her out.
