Where is Siegfried's father?

[felursus]

I've always wondered why there is no King. Is he dead? Is the Queen the Regent? How old is Siegfried? If the Queen is regent then he must be under whatever age was considered to be the age of "majority" in those times. If Siegfried is really all that young, it would explain why his mother is so concerned about his carousing with peasants and not taking getting married very seriously. It might also explain why he was so easily fooled by Odile and VR: no experience at all. What do you think?

[Mel Johnson]

Looks to me as though the country is one of those tiny principalities of the Holy Roman Empire not ruled by a king, but any of a number of subordinate titles (Erbprinz, Landgraf, Margraf, etc.) Women under the HRE (Salic Law, you know) could not inherit in their own rights, but might act as regent for a minor heir male, which seems to be the case here. And "majority" could be construed as anything from sixteen to thirty.

[Alexandra]

There are a lot of ballet heroes and heroines who are the products of one-parent homes. (Or even orphans.)

[Jane Simpson]

Peter Wright's production for the Birmingham Royal Ballet starts with a prologue showing the funeral of Siegfried's father - so in Act 1 the reason his mother is angry about his drinking is not that she disapproves on principle but that he's partying while the court is still in mourning. (Actually it's all Benno's fault - he's arranged the party to cheer Siegfried up.)

[Manhattnik]

Yeah, can you imagine if there were a King around? "Sonny, say hi to the new Mrs. Siegfried!"

[doug]

Raymonda doesn't seem to have a father OR mother. She's got an aunt, the Countess Sybille.

[Mel Johnson]

And Raymonda is one of the few ballets to make use of actual historical persons, like Jean de Brienne, Crusader King of Jerusalem, and King Andrew II of Hungary, but it sort of flip-flops their ages in the few productions I've seen. De Brienne was a good twenty-five years Andrew's senior.