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Here’s another opening: “Once there was a King who had a pear tree which bore four-and-twenty golden pears. Every day he went into the garden and counted them to see that none was missing. But, one morning . . . ” That’s the start of Howard Pyle’s “The Swan Maiden.”

One especially prominent swan maiden actually decides to wander back in the direction she came, and at the same tempo.

Siegfried in “Swan Lake” is hunting swans when he loses his heart to Odette the swan maiden, beneath the trees and beside the water.

Delia Mathews, who also made a notable debut as Odette-Odile this month, commands the attention with a Swan Maiden of serene authority.

The ballet’s final act should give us the full drama and beauty of the couple’s sacrifice, magnified by the swan maiden corps.