5 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Is the Sugar Plum Fairy's companion's royal title even mentioned at all in any production nowadays...? How is that he became just "her cavalier" and disappeared from the beginning of Act II welcoming party...?

This is one of the things I like from Sir Peter Wright's production, that the Prince Coqueluche is there with the Sugar Plum Fairy-(even wearing a crown, thus showing his royal status)- when Clara and the Nutcracker Prince arrive in Confiturembourg, pretty much as described in the Ballet Alert page of the ballet...


"At the bell-like sound of the celesta, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier, Prince Coqueluche enter and perform a short bit of double work, supported by a few coryphees, and true to the narrative style of Act I, she begins mimed instructions to her court to prepare for the arrival of the ruling Prince".

http://www.balletale...y/Nuts/prod.htm

[Mme. Hermine]

i think so - some people would call him prince charming and some prince whooping cough!
!

[Joseph]

This is funny - I forgot all about that!

[Alexandra]

Good question, Cristian. I'm afraid he's joined Loys and, for different reasons, Benno, in the Old Ballet Characters home.

[Mme. Hermine]

Alexandra, on 24 December 2010 - 11:52 AM, said:

Good question, Cristian. I'm afraid he's joined Loys and, for different reasons, Benno, in the Old Ballet Characters home.

[cubanmiamiboy]

But the thing is that Benno has physically disappeared from many stagings-(just as Raymonda's Clemence and Henriette or Marianna from The Nutcracker)-but Prince Coqueluche is still there in the majority of the productions that choose to retain the Sugar Plum Fairy concept-(even if in a diminishing way, as in Balanchine's).  It is the stripping of his original name and title that puzzles me; even the character being there, suddenly he's not a prince any longer, but merely a supporting cavalier...not fair.