#myrtha queen of the wilis

[hckat]

Hikaru Kobayashi as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, who summons Giselle from the grave [x]

[dyinggirldied]

[staticsnowfall]

giselle and albrecht

🪦 ˚✧₊⁎

above are alessandra ferri and mikhail baryshnikov as giselle and albrecht, respectively. ferri is one of the greatest ballerinas in modern history, being one of eleven women granted the highest ranking and rarest title, prima ballerina assoluta. baryshnikov was the preeminent male dancer of the 1970s and 1980s, usurping rudolf nureyev off his “throne” as the most famous defected soviet danseur of the era. he is still considered one of the greatest danseurs in modern history.

🕊️ ˚✧₊⁎

giselle is a two act romantic ballet created in 1841, with choreography by jean coralli and jules perrot. it is inspired by heinrich heine’s “de l'allemagne” and victor hugo’s “fantômes”.

the first act focuses on a blossoming romance between the peasant giselle, and the duke — albrecht — who is disguised as a peasant in order to join in on the fun of the village harvest festival. upon the arrival of albrecht’s fiancée, the noblewoman bathilde, giselle learns of albrecht’s true identity, becoming inconsolably distraught and succumbing to insanity. she dances erratically, and eventually stabs herself with albrecht’s sword. her suicide leads her to be buried deep in the forest, on unhallowed ground.

in act two, giselle’s spirit is inducted into the wilis by their queen, myrtha. the wilis are vengeful ghosts, women who were betrayed by their lovers in the mortal world. meanwhile, albrecht arrives at giselle’s resting place, bearing lilies, to weep over her and the guilt he feels. the wilis emerge, and giselle forgives albrecht for his actions. however, myrtha, filled with disdain and resentment towards all men, forces the nobleman to dance to death. the two are separated both literally and metaphorically by the mortal and immortal planes — giselle dances languidly, having all eternity to express her emotions; while albrecht is quick, desperate to escape being pulled to his death by the rapid exertion of dance. fortunately, giselle’s love for the duke spares him at sunrise. this also frees her from the hatred the wilis share, no longer haunting the forest. the ballet concludes with giselle tenderly bidding farewell to albrecht, before returning to the grave to rest peacefully for all eternity.

🪦 ˚✧₊⁎

the footage above is sourced from the film dancers (1987), directed by herbert ross and featuring alessandra ferri and mikhail baryshnikov.

[agried]

okay so i saw @lunar-stagelights, @enstars-syndrome and @reblogsquire's tags on my art and went insane and had to confirm some guesses for my giselle au. here's some real sketchy pencil brush scribbles for fun

hiiro takes the place of albrecht, a nobleman visiting the village where aira lives to oversee and help with the grape harvest. after a rocky first meeting with aira, one full of misunderstandings, he only divulges that he's a traveler visiting for the harvest.

aira is giselle, a peasant boy with a weak heart but a deep love for dance. though his health makes it difficult for him to leave the village he was born and raised in, he dreams of leaving it one day... and the stories hiiro shares with him on their late night meetings makes him yearn ever more. but when hiiro's true identity is revealed, his shock and panic overtax his weak heart.

and as some folks guessed, kohaku is myrtha, the queen of the wilis. after aira dies, kohaku revives him as a wili, a vengeful spirit that dances betrayers to death. and though hiiro never meant to hurt aira... the wilis cannot disobey the orders of their queen.

i've got more plans for this au, so perhaps some of the other roles will be revealed in future... but i gotta go sleep now lol

[gorbigorbi]

Marfa Fedorova as Myrtha (Queen of the Wilis), "Giselle, ou Les Wilis", libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jean Henry Saint Georges, choreo by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa, music by Adolphe Adam, stage and costume design by Vyacheslav Okunev, Mikhailovsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Photographer Stas Levshin

[comparativetarot]

King of Swords. Art by Nara Lesser, from Neurotic Owl’s Faerytale Tarot.

Myrtha

I’m back to a ballet source, although the Wilis in Giselle are absolutely based in a variety of traditional folktales about vilis/vilas (and of course you may be familiar with veelas, the version created in a book series by notable TERF and all around asshat JKR). In Giselle, the Wilis are the souls of women betrayed in love, and they appear to dance men to death. Giselle defies the queen, Myrtha, and saves Albrecht even though he ABSOLUTELY deserves no grace at all from her. So when I was looking for a powerful, rule-bound figure Myrtha sprang to mind. She’s ready to take revenge on oathbreaking men, but she’s also bound by the rules – when Giselle manages to keep Albrecht alive till dawn she has to let him go.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Giselle FE has received one (1) note, so therefore I shall elaborate

obviously there's a lot to embellish and modify here because Giselle is very intimate and contained as a story. yeah I wouldn't mind FE drawing back a little bit in terms of scope, but it's still a character-focused SRPG series with pretty large casts, I don't think a small village + neighboring forest would exactly create a fitting setting without some extensive rework.

I think it would make for a very interesting subplot for an FE game, though. for those who aren't ballet nerds, rough outline of Giselle's plot: noble guy (Albrecht) disguises himself as a peasant (using the alias "Loys") and falls in love with a sickly peasant girl (Giselle) despite being betrothed to a noblewoman (Bathilde) -> Albrecht's deception is revealed in front of the entire village and nobility at the harvest festival by Giselle's childhood friend (Hilarion, who is also in love with her btw) -> either Giselle commits suicide or her health gives out on her due to extreme distress depending on which version of the story you go with -> Giselle is buried in a nearby forest and becomes a wili, spirits of girls betrayed by their lovers, ruled by their queen Myrtha -> the wilis kill Hilarion by drowning him in a lake -> they try to kill Albrecht, but Giselle manages to keep him alive until dawn -> Giselle forgives Albrecht and returns to her grave to rest in peace

maybe the player recruits Albrecht earlier into the story. throughout the game, Albrecht randomly disappears for a few days at a time. later into the game, the player arrives at the village in time for the festival and learns about the spooky ghost stories about the neighboring cursed forest. Albrecht's deception is revealed and Giselle dies. Myrtha and the wilis can be used to tie into the overarching plot of the game, maybe some connection to the main villain? both Albrecht and Hilarion venture into the forest, and the player has to find and rescue them before the wilis kill them. as for like the actual gameplay uhhhhhhhhhhhh

this is a fun exercise. i wanna do this with other ballets

-- 👻 horror anon

👀

[thesolemnhour]

🩰for an oc of mine of your choosing? i also really love ballet and would love to hear your thoughts

OMG we have to talk shop in that case, but first I will give a variation! Upon Balaerra, I’d like to bestow my highest honor: female ballet villain.

I think Nela’s Myrtha Variation here is so on point (lol) for her. As a fellow ballet head, you might already know, but for the uninitiated, Myrtha is the tragic primary antagonist of Giselle. She is Queen of the Wili’s, the ghosts of young women who died having been betrayed by their former lovers.

In revenge, they rise from their graves at night and lure men to their deaths. We can assume that Myrtha’s cold, imperious demeanor throughout the ballet is a reflection of a pretty agonizing abandonment in life.

Marianela (as always) does a wonderful job of conveying Myrtha’s icy fury, but there’s a quiet sadness to her interpretation that really gets me and reminds me a lot of the kind of desperation/fear that underlies Balaerra’s scramble for power.

[hurrl]

Myrtha, Queen Of The Wilis

Kalani performing in her favorite ballet, Giselle.

Wilis are the spirits of young women who have died of heartbreak. Though they are only active at night they are considered very dangerous. Those who encounter the Wilis will be enchanted by them, engaging in them to dance until their inevitable death.

[daffodil--lament]

not to post about myself on my own blog but myrtha queen of the wilis era lol! (or just ghost I guess.) I wore it to school but unfortunately I don't think everybody realized I was dressed up because I dress like this regularly so.

[hckat]

Hikaru Kobayashi as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, who summons Giselle from the grave

[dyinggirldied]

Giselle AU where Diana is Giselle, Penelope is Myrtha and Claude is Albrecht.

[amaya-veerapen]

Costume: Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis 

The curtain opens in a dark and gloomy forest on the banks of a pond. Giselle’s tombstone can be seen at the left; the bluish gleam of the moon gives a cold and misty appearance to the scene. Several gamekeepers arrive, hoping to set up an observation post, but Hilarion warns them away: this is the place where the Wilis gather at night, attacking any men who stray into their territory, drowning them or forcing them to dance themselves to their death. Distant chimes strike midnight—the hour when the Wilis appear—and the men flee in terror as will-o’-the-wisps flash threateningly around them.

Myrtha, the queen of the Wilis, arrives on the scene, mysteriously radiant and piercing the shadows of the night. She summons the other Wilis to join her in a fantastic ball. The Wilis, including Moyna and Zulma, present themselves to their sovereign, and soon all of the Wilis are waltzing with abandon, gratifying their love for dancing which they were unable to fulfill in life. Before long, at a sign from the queen, the dance comes to an end, and Myrtha announces the arrival of a new Wili. Giselle appears, rising from her grave, wrapped in a shroud. When Myrtha touches her with her rosemary branch, the shroud falls off and Giselle is transformed into a Wili. She dances with fervor until a sound is heard in the distance. The Wilis disperse and hide themselves.

Some youths are returning from a festival in a neighboring village. The Wilis seek to detain them and try to force them to dance. However, an old man throws himself in their midst warns them of the danger; they barely escape, with the Wilis in hot pursuit.

The grief-stricken Albrecht appears with his faithful squire, Wilfride. Though Wilfride begs his master not to linger near the fatal tomb, Albrecht sends him away. Soon thereafter, Albrecht, in his state of sorrow, believes he sees the ghost of Giselle. He tries to embrace her, but he cannot. She looks at him lovingly and throws him some roses. Giselle disappears back into her tomb. Albrecht is about to depart the scene when he sees Hilarion.

Hiding behind a tree, Albrecht watches as the poor hapless gamekeeper, frightened nearly to death and begging for pity from the Wilis, is forced to dance himself to exhaustion. The cruel Wilis throw him into the pond and then begin dancing amongst themselves.

As a last resort, and seeking revenge on the Wili who robbed her of her prey, Myrtha extends her hand toward Giselle and casts a spell on her. Giselle begins a slow, graceful dance, as though transported by an involuntary delirium. Albrecht is unable to resist the Wili Giselle and he leaves the cross—the only thing that could protect him—and begins dancing ardently with her. Giselle has no choice but to keep dancing, for she is under Myrtha’s spell. Albrecht becomes exhausted.

Just as it seems Albrecht will dance himself to death, the first rays of the sun appear. It is morning! The chimes strike four. Albrecht’s life is saved. Because the Wilis lose their power in daylight, they must withdraw. Giselle, too, must return to her grave. Albrecht kneels by her and gives her a kiss, as if to restore her to life, but Giselle seems to say that she must obey her fate and leave him forever. Suddenly, loud fanfares are heard; Wilfrid, the faithful squire, arrives on the scene with the Prince and Bathilde, whose efforts, he hopes, will be more effective than his own in persuading Albrecht to leave this place of sadness. Giselle points Albrecht toward Bathilde, as if to tell him it is her last wish that he marry the young noblewoman. Albrecht is heartbroken, but the Wili’s command to him seems sacred. With sorrow, Albrecht gathers up the flowers on her grave and lovingly presses them to his lips and to his heart. As he falls into the arms of those who surround him, he reaches out his hand to Bathilde.

[charlottebunny95]

Hi Charlotte! I wanted to ask, what is your favourite ballet dance to preform? And why?

There are so many to choose from! There are of course the most well known ones like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, etc. Those are fun, but my favorite is Giselle. I love the story and that performance is where I met my darling.

Synopsis:

A ghost-filled ballet that tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl named Giselle and a disguised nobleman named Albrecht, who fall in love, but when his true identity is revealed by his rival, Hilarion, Giselle goes mad and dies of heartbreak. After her death, she is summoned from her grave into the vengeful, deadly sisterhood of the Wilis, the ghosts of unmarried women who died after being betrayed by their lovers and take revenge in the night by dancing men to death by exhaustion (a popular theme in Romantic-era ballets). Led by Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis, they target Albrecht when he comes to mourn at Giselle's grave, but her great love frees him from their grasp. They gain their power in numbers as they effortlessly move through dramatic patterns and synchronized movements and control the stage with their long tulle dresses and stoic expressions, creating an ethereal atmosphere that builds as they gradually close in on Albrecht. By saving him from the Wilis, Giselle also saves herself from becoming one of them

[ballet-identifier]

Play: Giselle, second act.

Characters: The Wilies and Queen Myrtha.

Giselle - Dutch National Ballet

[ballet-symphonie]

tw// suicide in Giselle

I'm always interested in Giselle ballet story, and I'm particularly curious about Moyna and Zulme (or Zulma) who appeared during the white act. Unlike Myrtha who is known as The Queen of the Wilis (although her life story is remain unknown), I'm not sure about those two. Are they some kind of Myrtha's ladies-in-waiting, or maybe the prominent members of the wilis' sisterhood...

I also read in a forum post that they died by suicide (I won't say the methods) and it was reflected in their choreographies. Is that true? I'm trying to find something about them in legit sources to confirm it, but I find nothing :(

To be honest, I'm not sure if that post is true.

I know that Zulme and Moyna were originally an odalisque and a bayadère (SOURCE) and this masterpiece of an article, Giselle: Ninety-Three Questions and Ninety-Three Answers, by the former New York Times writer Alastair Macaulay, has some other fascinating details.

They discuss in detail the dual nature of the Willis, their sensuality, and their viciousness contributing to their portrayal as more than just "figures of man-hating vengeance." They're not supposed to be "robotic, cruel zombies." There is a reference made to Filippo Taglioni’s La Révolte au Sérail, where Marie Taglioni’s character was called Zulme, noting the connection between ballets set in thinly veiled sexually explicit settings, harems and seraglios are everywhere in ballet.

So not really sure I answered your question, but I did a bit of searching and couldn't easily find anything that confirms that post...