End of an era?

Disclaimer:This is not a review of the music album The Nutcracker, but of the ballet set to the music of The Nutcracker.
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Boston Ballet is finally dropping the curtains on its production of the world famous The Nutcracker after a marathon run of 40 years. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker has been an annual winter feature in Boston’s Wang Theater for many years. But all good things have to come to an end. And so has to this highly acclaimed classical ballet production by Boston Ballet.

Boston Ballet Company was founded in 1964 by E. Virginia Williams and it first performed The Nutcracker in 1965 in its second season. Over the last 39 years, the show evolved from a small insignificant production to a legendary show in the world of classical dance.

The story of The Nutcracker was inspired by an original fairy tale by E.T.A.Hoffman. However, the modern production of the ballet is much closer to the Alexandre Dumas’ version of the story. Of course, the two main names associated with this ballet are Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky for music and Len Ivanov for original choreography.

Divided into two acts, The Nutcracker is the story of a young girl, Clara, and her magical journey into a fairy land, full of snow and flowers and dancing fairies. The story begins with a Christmas Eve party at the Silberhaus home, where Clara’s uncle Dr. Drosselmeyer brings her a toy Nutcracker soldier. Clara is ecstatic with her gift and doesn’t want to part company with it. Dr. Drosselmeyer is a magician who regales the party guests with a number of tricks and a toy theater with dancing dolls. After the party is over and the household goes to bed, Clara steals downstairs to her new toy and soon falls asleep with it under the Christmas tree. Dr. Drosselmeyer’s magic kicks in again and in Clara’s dream, the toys take on a life of their own in the middle of the night. A battle between an army of mice and the nutcracker’s toy soldiers ensues. Clara’s bravery eventually enables the toy soldiers to beat the mice. Predictably, the nutcracker turns into a handsome prince and he and Clara commence a magical journey to the Palace of Sweets. The second act has no real story as such. Its just a vehicle for a variety of dances from faraway lands, thus justifying the title of The Nutcracker Suite. In the name of a story, the dances are a part of a ceremony to honor Clara for her bravery in the defeat of the mice army. The story ends with Clara and the prince returning home, and Clara’s dream coming to an end.

Even though Clara is the central character of the story, she doesn’t have much of dancing role in the ballet. Usually, a student of the ballet company and not some established ballerina plays that role. In fact, Clara is barely on the stage in the second act as she just sits in a corner watching the dances. The main role is of the Sugarplum Fairy, which was played nearly flawlessly by Larissa Ponomarenko in the final show of Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker, except for a tiny stumble in a solo dance towards the end that drew an audible gasp from some of the members of the audience. Rest of the dancers did a great job too. However, my knowledge about ballet is limited enough that I cannot comment on whether the dancing was fluid enough or if it was stiff or what. The audience however, was ecstatic over the dancing, particularly applauding the Russian trio. To my untrained eye though, the dance of the flowers looked the most beautiful, with the formations and unison of the dancers adding to its beauty. The much acclaimed pas de deux of the Sugarplum fairy and her Cavalier, although may seem exquisite to real dance connoisseurs, looked quite bland to a layperson like me.

According to an article by Rachel King in the playbill of the show, Boston Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker wasn’t always what it is today. It went through a number of transitions, not only in terms of the choreography but also in costumes and sets. Apart from the founder of The Boston Ballet Company, Ms Williams, Bruce Marks, Bruce Wells, Daniel Pelzig, Anna-Marie Holmes, Sydney Leonard, Gianni Di Marco, and Mikko Nissinen have left their mark on the choreography. The sets by Helen Pond and Herbert Senn and costumes by David Walker are quite exquisite in today’s production. The sets especially take your breath away, transporting you into a dreamland made of stars and snow and gigantic Christmas trees. The snow flakes made from flame retardant confetti paper look quite genuine.

Lets now talk about the other most important aspect of a ballet - its music. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite is one of the most famous ballet scores of all time. However, comparison to his other equally famous ballet The Swan Lake is inevitable, even though such comparisons are considered sacrilege by most music puritans. Here, of course, personal preferences come into play. I have always found the music from The Swan Lake to be much more beautiful and memorable. With Swan Lake, you don’t need the ballet to carry the beauty of its music. The musical score could stand all on its own, ingraining itself into your memory so that you found yourself humming it softly every now and then. The Nutcracker Suite never held the same appeal to me. Without the accompanying dancing, the music kind of falls flat in my ears. Of course, it gels perfectly with the dance, so if you are watching the show, the music is completely satisfactory. However, I wouldn’t care to just listen to a CD with the Nutcracker’s music. Except, of course, the waltz of the flowers. Perhaps the most famous piece of the suite, it leaves an indelible mark on your musical psyche.

Another problem I have had with the music of The Nutcracker is that the music for the various national dances just doesn’t sound authentic enough. The Arabian dance music didn’t sound particularly arabian to me. Or the Chinese dance music did not have the characteristic chinese quality to it. Which is very different from the music of The Swan Lake where the Polish dance or the Neapolitan dance, for example, sound completely authentic.

Finally, a few words about the theater for Boston Ballet’s production of this timeless classic. The Wang Theater in the The Wang Center for the Performing Arts in the historical Chinatown district of Boston is located just blocks from the Boston Common. It is an historical landmark itself, having been a part of the Boston cultural scene for over 75 years. It has a capacity of over 3600 seats, a fact that is quite evident the moment you set foot into the auditorium. ’’Cramped’’ doesn’t quite describe it adequately. If you happen to get the cheapest seats in the back of the balcony, you better be carrying binoculars with you. And don’t ever take a small child with you unless you are sitting somewhere up front - I can quite guarantee the child won’t be able to see anything from back there.

All in all, The Nutcracker is a pleasure to watch. Even though Boston Ballet Company will not be performing this classic ballet anymore, if you ever get a chance to see the ballet elsewhere, do not miss it.

(Originally posted on MS on June 9, 2004)

Update June 10, 2004: The show did close in the Wang theater as announced. But next year Boston Ballet reopened it at a different venue - across the street in the Colonial theater.