At the beginning of act two of Tristan und Isolde, Isolde’s handmaiden Brangaene indeed now wrings her hands with regret that she’d substituted love potion for death potion. Isolde silences her in some of Wagner’s most sublime music, insisting that it wasn’t her doing; rather it was the omnipotent design of the Love Goddess who rules all. It was she calling the shots.
Isn’t Balanchine saying the same thing at the end of Rubies? When the lead couple kneel before the soloist woman whose role is commonly called “pin-up.” Inspired by Josephine Baker’s revue act, as Don Daniels noted in Ballet Review some time ago, she’s distinctly allied with earthiness and fertility.
In the final tableau, she towers above and behind the principal couple in a majestic stance (more inspired, at the 1967 premiere, by classical sculpture than it usually looks today). And they seem to pay homage to her with a port de bras.