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This piece of fanart is originally drawn by one of my good friends here on DeviantArt the one and only PhantomBlacke . Please join me in commending her for a job superbly done, as this was my request to her from last month. Furthermore, please give her a watch and give her works the favorites they deserve.

Last month, PhantomBlacke opened up her Halloween-related requests for all of us to send our OCs and the costume ideas we had in store for them. For my OC, Princess Alexandra Sofiya Mikhailova of Ukraine, I thought that her donning Ortrud's garb would be the best idea ever. I can confirm that it was. For those of you not in the know, Ortrud is the main villainess from Richard Wagner's 1850 opera Lohengrin, and she is assigned to either a dramatic soprano or a dramatic mezzo-soprano. She is a Pagan sorceress as well as a worshipper of the old Norse gods such as Odin and Freya who might be perceived as evil and unsympathetic at first glance, but she is a misguided yet clever and intelligent woman who is one of Duke Radbod of Frisia's successors. Because of her position as a woman in the Middle Ages, Ortrud has to use her husband, Friedrich von Telramund, as leverage to attain her goals of making the old gods return to Brabant. This also entails manipulating Elsa von Brabant into thinking that her younger brother, Gottfried, vanished because of her and that her champion, the knight Lohengrin, is not what he seems. By the opera's end when Lohengrin reveals his name and is about to say farewell to Elsa, Ortrud wildly exclaims in triumph that she was the one who transformed Gottfried into the swan that transports Lohengrin. Lohengrin hears all of this, falls on his knees in prayer, and Gottfried is transformed back into a youth. Ortrud, on the other hand, loses her powers and collapses in defeat.

Out of all the characters in Lohengrin, I definitely love Ortrud the most. Her cunning and her justifiable desire for vengeance against the people who have underestimated her and undermined her are all too real and relatable. Since she steals the show from nearly everybody's feet, it is also justifiable that she has to have singers who can do her justice whether it is her solo "Entweihte Götter" (Ye, gods profaned!) or her solo before she collapses in the third act "Fahr Heim, du stolzer Helde!" (Go home, you proud hero!). Fortunately, I have fourteen favorite interpreters of the role namely Kerstin Thorborg, Gertrude Rünger, Marta Fuchs, Margarete Klose, Helena Braun, Margaret Harshaw, Roszi Delly, Astrid Varnay, Ludmila Dvorakova, Irene Dalis, Rita Gorr, Christa Ludwig, Sigrid Kehl, and Nadine Denize. Speaking of Astrid Varnay, Princess Alexandra's pose is also inspired by Varnay's pose during her tenure in Bayreuth. The costume in question is inspired by Johanna Jachmann Wagner's costume as Ortrud.

I chose Princess Alexandra to don Ortrud's costume because, aside from her being a princess who serves her country of Ukraine exceedingly well, she is also an opera singer, more specifically a dramatic soprano who can also do mezzo-soprano roles. Ortrud is a wonderful fit for Princess Alexandra because she is just as strong as this sorceress. Granted, Princess Alexandra is far more sympathetic than Ortrud will ever be, but that is just how dedicated she is to her craft as an opera singer.

I hope you enjoyed this, I will see you in the next submission, and please show your support to PhantomBlacke by watching her, favoriting her works, and just be as supportive as you can to her. Take care and stay safe, everybody.

Princess Alexandra Sofiya Mikhailova belongs to me .

Description
This piece of fanart is originally drawn by one of my good friends here on DeviantArt the one and only PhantomBlacke . Please join me in commending her for a job superbly done, as this was my request to her from last month. Furthermore, please give her a watch and give her works the favorites they deserve.

Last month, PhantomBlacke opened up her Halloween-related requests for all of us to send our OCs and the costume ideas we had in store for them. For my OC, Princess Alexandra Sofiya Mikhailova of Ukraine, I thought that her donning Ortrud's garb would be the best idea ever. I can confirm that it was. For those of you not in the know, Ortrud is the main villainess from Richard Wagner's 1850 opera Lohengrin, and she is assigned to either a dramatic soprano or a dramatic mezzo-soprano. She is a Pagan sorceress as well as a worshipper of the old Norse gods such as Odin and Freya who might be perceived as evil and unsympathetic at first glance, but she is a misguided yet clever and intelligent woman who is one of Duke Radbod of Frisia's successors. Because of her position as a woman in the Middle Ages, Ortrud has to use her husband, Friedrich von Telramund, as leverage to attain her goals of making the old gods return to Brabant. This also entails manipulating Elsa von Brabant into thinking that her younger brother, Gottfried, vanished because of her and that her champion, the knight Lohengrin, is not what he seems. By the opera's end when Lohengrin reveals his name and is about to say farewell to Elsa, Ortrud wildly exclaims in triumph that she was the one who transformed Gottfried into the swan that transports Lohengrin. Lohengrin hears all of this, falls on his knees in prayer, and Gottfried is transformed back into a youth. Ortrud, on the other hand, loses her powers and collapses in defeat.

Out of all the characters in Lohengrin, I definitely love Ortrud the most. Her cunning and her justifiable desire for vengeance against the people who have underestimated her and undermined her are all too real and relatable. Since she steals the show from nearly everybody's feet, it is also justifiable that she has to have singers who can do her justice whether it is her solo "Entweihte Götter" (Ye, gods profaned!) or her solo before she collapses in the third act "Fahr Heim, du stolzer Helde!" (Go home, you proud hero!). Fortunately, I have fourteen favorite interpreters of the role namely Kerstin Thorborg, Gertrude Rünger, Marta Fuchs, Margarete Klose, Helena Braun, Margaret Harshaw, Roszi Delly, Astrid Varnay, Ludmila Dvorakova, Irene Dalis, Rita Gorr, Christa Ludwig, Sigrid Kehl, and Nadine Denize. Speaking of Astrid Varnay, Princess Alexandra's pose is also inspired by Varnay's pose during her tenure in Bayreuth. The costume in question is inspired by Johanna Jachmann Wagner's costume as Ortrud.

I chose Princess Alexandra to don Ortrud's costume because, aside from her being a princess who serves her country of Ukraine exceedingly well, she is also an opera singer, more specifically a dramatic soprano who can also do mezzo-soprano roles. Ortrud is a wonderful fit for Princess Alexandra because she is just as strong as this sorceress. Granted, Princess Alexandra is far more sympathetic than Ortrud will ever be, but that is just how dedicated she is to her craft as an opera singer.

I hope you enjoyed this, I will see you in the next submission, and please show your support to PhantomBlacke by watching her, favoriting her works, and just be as supportive as you can to her. Take care and stay safe, everybody.

Princess Alexandra Sofiya Mikhailova belongs to me .