I agree that the ballet is not about a man unable to choose between two women (and that is NOT in the RDB's version.) But it's more than "grass is greener," although some Jameses have used that as an acting motivation. The Sylph is a dream, an Ideal. The ballet is the poster child for Romanticism: a man leaves his comfortable life to follow a dream. When he touches his dream, it dies.
I'd echo what Leigh said about being careful not to retrofit ballets. Often we see a production, especially one that's half-baked, and it doesn't make sense to us, and we use logic to figure out what's going on, using present-day glasses. And often what is logical doesn't help! One of the many things I learned from the Danes is to start with what is there and try to figure out why, how it DOES (or did) make sense, and work from there.
This is an interesting topic, though, and I'm glad jrhewit raised it (a belated welcome!). There certainly are a lot of dancers in "small roles" who deserve our attention, and in the best of companies in the best of times, all of these "small parts" are done with such care that they make the ballet complete, and turn it from being a star turn into a ballet.
Oh Dear - I did not intend to accuse Bournonville of frivolity. I intended simply to draw attention to the difference between the Bournonville/Danish choreography and that of Lacotte/POB. In a direct comparison between these two, The POB version is, in my opinion, correctly serious and 'formal' while the Danish version is rather more frivolous and 'informal'. I base this opinion on three aspects. In judging these I claim no particular 'choreographical' expertise, but I do claim the expertise of being Scottish! First, the dress. In both versions the dress is, of course, tartan. However, in the Danish version the dancers are kitted out messily in a variety of different tartans whereas in the Lacotte version there are only two tartans, red and blue. In Scotland, people dress in individually different tartans for informal activities, whereas the groupwise wearing of uniform tartans indicates joint, clannish, formal occasions. For example, when a girl gets married in Scotland she will probably ask all of the male guests to wear the same tartan - she knows that the photographs of her, in white, flanked by a cohort of uniformly dressed men will look better than if the men's kilts are all different, as if just thrown on. Also, for formal dancing in a group, such as highland or country dancing seen at events such as the Edinburgh Festival Tattoo, the dancers will be in uniform tartan - it just looks a lot better. The place to see the wearing of individual tartans is on the members of the Tartan Army as they lurch hopefully after the Scottish football team. Second, Madge. Madge MUST be a deeply serious character - the entire tragedy of the story stems from her. In the POB version, Madge has immense gravitas and conveys her powerful malice with great conviction - perhaps this is achieved by using a man to portray her. The Danish version, on the other hand, has Madge as a thin shrewish harridan, more intent on wheedling another glass of whisky out of the guests than in subjecting them to supernatural oppression. We can see and hear her any Friday or Saturday night in the centre of Glasgow trying to get a taxi to take her home after another night on 'the bevvie'. Thirdly, Gurn. In the POB version Gurn is portayed as a depressed loser, a nice-enough guy but someone who knows he has no real chance of getting Effie. You feel that when he does get her following James's departure he can't quite believe his luck. In the Danish version, Gurn is played as a chirpy Jack-the-lad who fancies his chances of getting Effie all along. Because of these three differences, the POB version comes across as the unfolding of an inevitable and unstoppable tragedy, while the Danish version seems too light and less substantional (and hence more 'frivolous').
These three differences, to me, give the POB version the