The Nutcracker: a brief review based on my limited knowledge of ballet
Every year I vehemently deny that I have any obligations to give presents (because I am a Grinch and I hate Christmas shopping) and every year, at the last minute, I cave to social pressure and scramble to put some gifts together. Last year I got my brother's gift on Christmas DAY (the Shopper's near my church was open, ha!) but this year I've finished my shopping and it's only the 22nd! This is what progress looks like.
For the Secret Santa at my cousin's house: Hennessy cognac, perfect for re-gifting if you're like me and don't drink cognac. For my ex-roommates: baby clothes for A's 2-month-old baby; a treasury (book and CD) of bedtime stories for J's 2-year-old. For my best friend's children: $50 for the 9-month-old girl's university fund (gotta start early!); a Charlie Brown Christmas recordable storybook for the 2-year-old son; three books for the 5 1/2-year-old (A Bear Called Paddington; Ramona Quimby, Age 8; and Olympia the Games Fairy, which afaik is about a Rainbow Magic fairy who does sports). I'm not buying presents for my family this year, I don't care what my sister does.
I had brunch with my ex-roommates and their spouses this morning and in return for my gifts to their children, I received a bag of homemade cookies and a gift card for Starbucks. :) We had a good brunch, Rösti and salmon with dill sauce for most of us, and dessert before noon. Mmm, raspberry sorbet and Toblerone mousse cake.
After brunch, I went downtown to see The Nutcracker performed by the National Ballet of Canada. A group from work wanted to see it and I went along to socialize, not out of a burning desire to see the Nutcracker for like the third time. (I know, I know, first world problems. Poor me, I've seen ballet.) But it was a lovely matinee performance with lots of wide-eyed kiddies in the audience, little girls in sparkly outfits dreaming of future careers as ballerinas. *g*
Act I: The choreography for Marie and Misha (aka Clara and Fritz) in Act I is awesome. Their sibling relationship is all show and no tell, lots of pushing, slapping, and hair-pulling--think Xander v. Harmony. Good times, hee! The battle of the mice was too chaotic, IMHO. Lots of running around in costumes with fake swords, but pretty boring if you're there for the dancing. Thankfully, the next scene moves into the "real" ballet. The Snow Queen was gorgeous (and a POC!) and all the snowflakes spinning across the stage were very ordered and graceful, a sharp contrast to the chaos of the prior battle. But the timing of this scene is a little awkward: you're finally in a glittering fairyland, and then suddenly it's time to go to the bathroom? I've scratched my head as to why the Nutcracker is so lopsided, action-wise, and pondered whether Tchaikovsky structured it that way so kids could go to bed after Act I, after the party scenes and the battle, with the snowflakes as a mini-finale. The adults could then stay for Act II, which had more sophisticated dancing but zero plot.
Act II: Sugar Plum Fairy! Everyone was happy to see her introduced. My favourite of the "fun" dances (aka the Divertissement) is the Arabian Coffee dance. My bias aside, it really was fantastic--the audience really cheered them. I know some versions try to incorporate Arabian dance elements (like belly-dancing) which can either be awesome or even more appropriative, but this performance stayed away from that. Well, except for the hairy chest/midriff-baring costumes. It was a pas de quartet, two male and two female dancers. The foursome would split off in pairs (two male-female couples or female-female and male-male) and then come together again, and much of the dance was spent with the four dancers only an arm's length apart and often not even that. The four would curl up around each other, arabesque practically with their arms linked. It was very sinuous, with long arcs of the body, but coiled really tight and narrow (like a typical ballerina's body) instead of the looser movements or curves you'd find in belly-dancing.
Hmm, what else. The sheep are always adorable. Same as the last time I saw the Nutcracker, one of the kiddies was dressed up as the black sheep of the flock! The duet between a sheep and the wolf (fox? It was a fox, according to my program.) was very fun and flirtatious. (This used to be the Mother Goose dance, I think?) Waltz of the flowers was nice, but I preferred the snowflakes--mostly because it's the only scene in the ballet that includes choral in the music.
Finally, the pas de deux! The dancer playing Peter/the Nutcracker Prince seemed a bit off to me in Act I, but he was quite good in Act II and particularly in the pas de deux. The Sugar Plum Fairy was excellent, by the way. She was a little remote and distant in the intro at the top of the act, but she had a lot of passion in the pas de deux. I mean, it's a duet and played as a romance between the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy, but one of my co-workers actually cried during this scene!
After the Sugar Plum Fairy, though, we get the final waltz which is essentially a curtain call within the ballet itself. Maybe it's just me, but God is it boring. And redundant, since the dancers get an actual curtain call anyway! I don't think we can blame Tchaikovsky because I'm sure I've seen it done more interestingly in other performances. The magic fades, Marie and Misha go back to bed, curtain closed. Applause, applause.
Conclusion: Still worth it, though next time I really should see something new. The best part was actually the reactions of my co-workers, especially the few that had never been to the ballet before. One of the guys (the one who is gay, in fact, and while I don't like to stereotype, sometimes there's a reason stereotypes exist) said that he really enjoyed it and now wants to see more ballet. Another awesome thing! There were POC in the corps! And the Snow Queen was Chinese--the website says she's a Chinese national. Which is pretty cool, right? (Now I wanna go watch Zoe Saldana in Center Stage again. *g*)
On the less awesome side: here's my criticism of the larger role that Misha (Fritz) plays in modern Nutcracker performances. So, okay, Marie (or Clara, usually) is traditionally the only child who goes on an adventure with the Nutcracker and she's the one who throws her slipper at the Mouse King to save the Nutcracker. But now? We have Clara and Fritz save the Nutcracker and go to the Land of Sweets. Basically, modern dance companies decided that we needed Fritz as a little boy avatar so that boys wouldn't think ballet was Just For Girls.
After the Nutcracker, we went to eat on Queen Street. I had pad thai and split a pitcher of sangria, which might be why I have a slight headache now. Oops? After dinner I bought books for my niece, met up with my parents, came home, and wrote this post. All in all, a good day.
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For the Secret Santa at my cousin's house: Hennessy cognac, perfect for re-gifting if you're like me and don't drink cognac. For my ex-roommates: baby clothes for A's 2-month-old baby; a treasury (book and CD) of bedtime stories for J's 2-year-old. For my best friend's children: $50 for the 9-month-old girl's university fund (gotta start early!); a Charlie Brown Christmas recordable storybook for the 2-year-old son; three books for the 5 1/2-year-old (A Bear Called Paddington; Ramona Quimby, Age 8; and Olympia the Games Fairy, which afaik is about a Rainbow Magic fairy who does sports). I'm not buying presents for my family this year, I don't care what my sister does.
I had brunch with my ex-roommates and their spouses this morning and in return for my gifts to their children, I received a bag of homemade cookies and a gift card for Starbucks. :) We had a good brunch, Rösti and salmon with dill sauce for most of us, and dessert before noon. Mmm, raspberry sorbet and Toblerone mousse cake.
After brunch, I went downtown to see The Nutcracker performed by the National Ballet of Canada. A group from work wanted to see it and I went along to socialize, not out of a burning desire to see the Nutcracker for like the third time. (I know, I know, first world problems. Poor me, I've seen ballet.) But it was a lovely matinee performance with lots of wide-eyed kiddies in the audience, little girls in sparkly outfits dreaming of future careers as ballerinas. *g*
Act I: The choreography for Marie and Misha (aka Clara and Fritz) in Act I is awesome. Their sibling relationship is all show and no tell, lots of pushing, slapping, and hair-pulling--think Xander v. Harmony. Good times, hee! The battle of the mice was too chaotic, IMHO. Lots of running around in costumes with fake swords, but pretty boring if you're there for the dancing. Thankfully, the next scene moves into the "real" ballet. The Snow Queen was gorgeous (and a POC!) and all the snowflakes spinning across the stage were very ordered and graceful, a sharp contrast to the chaos of the prior battle. But the timing of this scene is a little awkward: you're finally in a glittering fairyland, and then suddenly it's time to go to the bathroom? I've scratched my head as to why the Nutcracker is so lopsided, action-wise, and pondered whether Tchaikovsky structured it that way so kids could go to bed after Act I, after the party scenes and the battle, with the snowflakes as a mini-finale. The adults could then stay for Act II, which had more sophisticated dancing but zero plot.
Act II: Sugar Plum Fairy! Everyone was happy to see her introduced. My favourite of the "fun" dances (aka the Divertissement) is the Arabian Coffee dance. My bias aside, it really was fantastic--the audience really cheered them. I know some versions try to incorporate Arabian dance elements (like belly-dancing) which can either be awesome or even more appropriative, but this performance stayed away from that. Well, except for the hairy chest/midriff-baring costumes. It was a pas de quartet, two male and two female dancers. The foursome would split off in pairs (two male-female couples or female-female and male-male) and then come together again, and much of the dance was spent with the four dancers only an arm's length apart and often not even that. The four would curl up around each other, arabesque practically with their arms linked. It was very sinuous, with long arcs of the body, but coiled really tight and narrow (like a typical ballerina's body) instead of the looser movements or curves you'd find in belly-dancing.
Hmm, what else. The sheep are always adorable. Same as the last time I saw the Nutcracker, one of the kiddies was dressed up as the black sheep of the flock! The duet between a sheep and the wolf (fox? It was a fox, according to my program.) was very fun and flirtatious. (This used to be the Mother Goose dance, I think?) Waltz of the flowers was nice, but I preferred the snowflakes--mostly because it's the only scene in the ballet that includes choral in the music.
Finally, the pas de deux! The dancer playing Peter/the Nutcracker Prince seemed a bit off to me in Act I, but he was quite good in Act II and particularly in the pas de deux. The Sugar Plum Fairy was excellent, by the way. She was a little remote and distant in the intro at the top of the act, but she had a lot of passion in the pas de deux. I mean, it's a duet and played as a romance between the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy, but one of my co-workers actually cried during this scene!
After the Sugar Plum Fairy, though, we get the final waltz which is essentially a curtain call within the ballet itself. Maybe it's just me, but God is it boring. And redundant, since the dancers get an actual curtain call anyway! I don't think we can blame Tchaikovsky because I'm sure I've seen it done more interestingly in other performances. The magic fades, Marie and Misha go back to bed, curtain closed. Applause, applause.
Conclusion: Still worth it, though next time I really should see something new. The best part was actually the reactions of my co-workers, especially the few that had never been to the ballet before. One of the guys (the one who is gay, in fact, and while I don't like to stereotype, sometimes there's a reason stereotypes exist) said that he really enjoyed it and now wants to see more ballet. Another awesome thing! There were POC in the corps! And the Snow Queen was Chinese--the website says she's a Chinese national. Which is pretty cool, right? (Now I wanna go watch Zoe Saldana in Center Stage again. *g*)
On the less awesome side: here's my criticism of the larger role that Misha (Fritz) plays in modern Nutcracker performances. So, okay, Marie (or Clara, usually) is traditionally the only child who goes on an adventure with the Nutcracker and she's the one who throws her slipper at the Mouse King to save the Nutcracker. But now? We have Clara and Fritz save the Nutcracker and go to the Land of Sweets. Basically, modern dance companies decided that we needed Fritz as a little boy avatar so that boys wouldn't think ballet was Just For Girls.
After the Nutcracker, we went to eat on Queen Street. I had pad thai and split a pitcher of sangria, which might be why I have a slight headache now. Oops? After dinner I bought books for my niece, met up with my parents, came home, and wrote this post. All in all, a good day.
(Relevant icon is relevant!)
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)