Saturday, May 3, 2008

Coppelia


Coppelia was told by Margot Fonteyn and illustrated by Steven Johnson and Lou Fancher. It was published in 1998 by Harcourt Brace & Company. It is a multicultural informational text.
This is the story behind a ballet called Coppelia. The story goes that an old creepy man who lived in a town in Europe liked the make life size dolls. One day he left one of his beautiful young lady dolls sitting in the window of his shop and everyone who walked by thought she was real. They tried to greet her but she would, of course, never answer. A young man named Franz came by and tried to greet her while his fiancé, Swanilda watched, just then the old man wound up the doll and she blew kisses to Franz who returned them excitedly. This did not make his on looking fiancé happy. That afternoon there is an announcement from the Burgomaster saying that any couple who decide to get married the next day will be granted a large dowry from the government. Swanilda listens to the wheat as the tradition says, but the wheat is silent, meaning that Franz is not a good man. The old man soon leaves the shop and Swanilda and her friends see that he has dropped his key. They decide to go into his shop to see what the young lady is doing blowing kisses to her fiancé. When they go inside they find all the dolls and make a mess winding them up and playing with them. The old man returns while they are still there and all of the girls quickly run away except Swanilda who hides behind a curtain with the beautiful doll that charmed her fiancé. No sooner have the other girls left than Franz comes climbing through the window searching for the beautiful girl. The old man accuses Franz of being a thief but he quickly explains that he has fallen in love with the doll, who he thinks is a girl. The old man talks Franz into sitting down to have a drink, but gives him a poisoned drink and Franz is quickly thrown into a deep sleep. The old man starts to work his magic and starts to pull the life out of Franz to give to the doll. Suddenly the doll comes to life and starts to dance around the room. She is really Swanilda in the dolls clothes. She starts asking all kinds of questions about Franz and the other dolls and the old man is not happy with how she is asking. Franz finally wakes up and Swanilda shows him the doll that he thinks he has fallen in love with. They run out of the shop and she takes him back because she loves him so much.
This is a cool story because it is really a ballet. I took ballet for many years and it is really interesting that a ballet can be written down in a book like this one has. The other really beautiful parts of this book are the illustrations. Each page is a detailed and beautiful acrylic art piece. They really put you in the mind set of being in Europe many years ago. I really liked this book, I think mostly because of the pictures. The story was a classic tale and a good ballet, but the pictures really made the book.

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