Transformations

I was trying to describe a fabulous collection of short fantasy tales,The Beastly Bride and other tales, and my interlocutor said, "Why do straight women always like that sort of story?" Well, I don't know, but ever since Beauty and the Beast, I've had a fondness for tales of selkies and other changelings. This doesn't include the Little Mermaid: she's too sappy and her tragedy isn't that she wants to be human but that she trusts in the love of a total stranger. No, I'm thinking of books like Owl in Love, in which the eponymous Owl grows into her dual self and eventually grows beyond her crush, or The Changeling Sea, which is atmospheric and wonderful like all Patricia McKillip's books.

So, when the Met broadcast Rusalka in HD, I was all over it. E was not, but I talked her into it by playing a YouTube of Renee Fleming singing her signature aria, Song to the Moon. It's a truly beautiful song, and she is a truly beautiful singer. I had watched her a few weeks before, singing the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl, and I swear, it brought a patriotic tear to my eye. For the first time in my life, I heard the power of those lyrics. My god, it was a battle! And the flag was still there!! Yes, get an opera singer at the Super Bowl, and magic will happen. (It was the only magic of the day, the game being a major rout.)

Sadly, the screening of Rusalka was a disappointment. Don't get me wrong. The set was gorgeous, the singing beautiful, the actors excellent. In particular, Jezibaba played her witchiness with humor and wisdom - a crone, not a hag. But, but, but....Rusalka, the water nymph, makes her first appearance in a tree and doesn't come down for ages. She sits up there, writhing around the branches, and I am distracted, waiting for her to fall. Then, she becomes mute with the spell that turns her into a human, and she writhes all through the second act. Oy.

Still, it is a powerful story, the story of transformation, of wanting to be one with The Other. And it rarely seems to turn out well. In Beauty, the beast turns back into a prince and loses much of his attraction. But usually the transformation goes from beast to human and back. In Rusalka and The Little Mermaid, the transformation doesn't stick, and everyone dies. In Dark of the Moon, the Witch Boy is betrayed by his lover, she dies and goes to heaven, and he goes back to being an imp with nothing to look forward to but 2000 years.

The question is....can the transformation stick? and does anyone learn anything through the experience? Why do these stories have such a hold on us? Is it because we want to change, or because we are afraid to change, and we need the cautionary tales to give us an excuse to stay where we are?