canbelto

I can't believe I forgot the cheesy wedding with the Vegas veil part in the finale. Yeah, one of the worst moments of the ballet.

I too love Fracci's huge fluffy romantic tutu. I notice that different ballerinas make themselves up differently in Act 2. Ulanova wore practically no "ghost" makeup, to seem exactly like the sweet peasant girl of Act 2. But some dancers like Fracci, Vishneva, etc. really pile on the white powder, the dark eyeshadow, to give a real scary ghost effect. Their dark hair becomes part of the makeup too.

Next up: Giselle (ABT): Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn, Toni Lander. Made in 1969 This performance was clearly meant to be a Major Motion Picture. You can tell from the lavish sets, expenses like a string of noblemen on real horses attending the gathering at Giselle Village, a surfeit of hunting dogs, and the expensive, frilly costumes for all the women. Fracci and Bruhn are movie-star glam, and there are copious close-ups to show us what a gorgeous couple they are. Fracci's hair is in a gorgeous updo, and decorated with lace, and she's wearing a very pretty dress indeed. Also, since this is a Major Motion Picture, the director and cameramen decided that a fixed camera and long takes would not do -- no, not at all. The camera constantly had to be jumping back and forth, until one was dizzy. Quick cutaways from the dancing to closeups and reaction shots lost its charm after about 5 minutes. Particularly irritating is the Act 1 peasant dance in which the director constantly cuts between filming the dancers' upper bodies and then jumping to shots of their legs and feet, as if their whole bodies couldn't be filmed in one shot. In Act 2, the Wilis are dancing near a swampy lake and instead of a straightforward shot of Fracci and Bruhn actually dancing, the camera focuses on their reflections in the water. Very irritating. But the reason this was filmed was to capture Fracci and Bruhn, and in many ways one can see why their partnership was so special. Arlene Croce once wrote of Bruhn: "Bruhn has always been a kind of insular star. Inwardly rigid, absorbed in his own perfection, he has never mated well with any ballerina, and his best roles were those that placed barriers between him and his women -- James in La Sylphide, Jean in Miss Julie, the Poet in La Sonnambula -- or that accounted for the neurotic tension he projected, and still projects, onstage." But it's this exact insular quality that makes his partnership with Fracci so compelling. Fracci as Giselle is not as demure as Ulanova or Alonso -- she is outwardly infatuated with her handsome prince, and Bruhn's coolness and calculating manner give the ballet a tension that would otherwise be absent. Fracci is not afraid to appear slack-jawed as she stares lovingly at her man, or to seem as if she really can't keep her hands off him. During the Spessivtseva solo she stops several times to stare lovingly at Albrecht, and to blow him a kiss. One could imagine that this is the type of Giselle who would draw hearts on all her "i's" in her letters to Albrecht. Fracci's Giselle is also something else -- a bit of a village glamour girl, and she knows it. Act 1 is full of her beaming her big cheerleader smile to everyone, this Giselle is clearly a bit willful and used to getting her way. Her mother by the way is played in a totally creepy way. She doesn't do the Wilis mime but the music plays in the background as she stares, stone-faced, at her daughter. Fracci's mad scene is famous. She doesn't let down her hair, but instead just lets one strand loose. As the Mad Scene progresses her bun gets messier and messier. Tears stream down her face -- this is not a Giselle who holds back her emotions, ever. The way Bruhn slowly and deliberately kisses Bathilde's hand, without a shred of remorse, contrasts so well with Fracci's fervent infatuation. I like the way Bruhn stares coldly at the whole scene, perhaps embarrassed even by Giselle's display. Usually Giselles will collapse in Albrecht's arms, but this Giselle doesn't quite make it there before expiring. Again, it's a touching contrast between the calculated motives of Albrecht and the open-hearted infatuation of Giselle. In Act 2, the lens is deliberately blurry as Myrtha (Toni Lander) bourrees onstage. As she comes into focus, we see she's dancing on a wide circular moonlight area. Shots of her reflection in the water as she does her various plunging arabesques. There's some internal cuts in Myrtha's music, more shots of the water, and the rest of the Wilis pop out. Toni Lander is blond, and has a heavuly powedered face frozen like a mask, and she seems literally incapable of even moving the muscles on her face. The dance of the Wilis is marred by sudden shots to feet, but otherwise does preserve the beauty of this ballet blanc in several overhead takes. However, when the Wili arabesques hop across the stage, the camera decides to blur their movements and then shoot them again from a water reflection angle. Fracci's Act 2 provides a real contrast to Act 1. In Act 2 her face is heavily powdered, and she wears a stern expression the entire time. Her initiation scene is one of the best -- for a dancer often criticized for her technique, she turns with a real fury and speed. But overall I like the contrast between Fracci in the two acts. She was betrayed, and this Giselle doesn't so much forgive. She remains distant physically from Albrecht the whole act -- they even eschew the traditional lifts in the grand pas de deux. This is one of my favorite parts of Giselle -- how many different ways the second act can be played. There are some Giselles who seem very actively loving and forgiving, and then there are the Giselles that seem possessed by a spirit no longer their own. As for Bruhn, he too seems not so much filled with remorse as literally haunted. His face is one of frozen terror. The relationship between Giselle and Albrecht is one of the most radical I've seen -- in Act 1 they seemed literally in heat, but in Act 2 there is a gulf between them that can no longer be bridged, even as Albrecht's life is saved. Both Bruhn and Fracci are masters of the petit allegro steps. Bruhn substitutes a series of magnificent entrechat sixes for the traditional brises in his variation, and Fracci also skims the floor with beautiful fast entrechats and small jumps rather than the big flying grande jetes. Fracci's very soft, romantic arabesques are one of the most beautiful things about her Giselle. Overall, while the camera work drove me crazy, I feel this Giselle was well worth capturing on film. This is the first Giselle on film where the relationship between Giselle and Albrecht is palpably sexual in Act 1, and in Act 2, as I said, I love the idea that Giselle is now really a ghost, and whether she's forgiven Albrecht or not is a mystery. Her spirit is no longer her own, and the haunted look on Bruhn's face shows that at the end of the ballet, Albrecht's life is saved, but his soul is not.

I think Part might have done better had there not been so many swoony, extended lifts in the choreography. There's lots of big lifts where Part is lifted, almost horizontally, above Gomes' shoulder and spun around many times before being put down, and then before we know it another extended lift. By the end of the evening both of them were noticeably tired. I would like to see how a more petite dancer would look in this choreography. ETA: I also think the sinister Wili-like snowflakes were maybe the biggest misstep. The music resembles a blizzard, but it also conjures images of a real winter wonderland, and it's always one of my favorite moments of music, ever. The ABT also did away with the chorus. I wonder whether that was by choice or by necessity. But definitely, if I were to revise one thing about the choreography, it'd be the Sinister Snowflakes.

I just returned from Ratmansky's new staging of The Nutcracker for the ABT. It was an event filled with both parents bringing their little kids and hardcore balletomanes, obviously excited at a major new premiere. And what did I think of it? Well, I liked some parts of it enormously and was disappointed with other parts. Ratmansky has some wonderful ideas, but IMO didn't put them together in a cohesive whole experience. Act 1 The beginning was charming -- it starts out in the kitchen, where the cooks and servants are preparing the Christmas feast. Hiding under the table is a mouse (all the mice in Ratmansky's production are albino mice who are wearing dapper gray jackets). The humans are horrified by the mouse, and a a game of "catch the mouse" begins although the humans end up fleeing the kitchen. Then the mice really take over, and start grabbing at the food around the kitchen. It's a quirky, but very charming introduction. The party scene was different. It started with a group of noticeably older children rushing onstage and performing a collective "temper tantrum" dance as they demand to get their presents. They stomp and shake their fists and shove each other till they get what they want. Gone is the charming dance of Balanchine's children (where Fritz is stiffed a partner and ends up dancing with the mom). Ratmansky's kids are brats, and they behave badly throughout the party scene -- shoving each other, grabbing each other's presents, throwing temper tantrums when they don't get immediate gratification. It's realistic, but I think it was meant to be funny but ended up being a bit uncomfortable. Clara (Athena Petrizzo) was really very charming though, if unusually serious. Drosselmeyer arrives with a huge live Nutcracker doll (throughout the ballet the Nutcracker doll switches back and forth between being a small wooden toy and a life-size dancing doll), and Harlequin and Columbine and another dancing pair called Recruit and Canteen Keeper. Harlequin (Craig Salstein) and Harlequin (Gemma Bond) gave two of the best performances of the night, while Luis Ribagorda and Meaghan Hinkis were not as sharp as the Recruit and Canteen Keeper. Another fight breaks out over the Nutcracker Doll as Fritz seems to break the Dancing Nutcracker, and a heartbroken Clara (a wonderful Athena Petrizzo) drags the Dancing Nutcracker back to the couch. There's a quick change and Clara is now holding the small wooden Nutcracker. During this time the adults are in the background drinking and the party ends with the adults quite drunk. Magic Time. There's no real growing tree (no trap door I guess), so the smaller tree is simply slid offstage while a big large tree is slid onstage. The large tree however looks like a green curtainish thing, and so the effect wasn't very magical. OTOH Ratmansky's choreography for the mice and soldiers was among the best I've seen. The mice are more comical than scary, and they march along pretentiously, drawing laughs from the audience. Clara the whole time is seated in a huge chair and she looks at the scene below and finally throws the shoe. The largeness of her chair is surreal and I think it is a nice transition on Ratmansky's part to indicate this is clearly a dream now. Transformation Pas de Deux -- the Nutcracker Prince (Philip Perez) and Clara hold hands and out pop dream Clara and dream Prince, Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes. Part and Gomes are in glittery silvery tutus, and for awhile little Clara and the little Prince mimic Part and Gomes in some waltzing moments. Then little Clara and little Prince sit downstage, holding hands, as Part and Gomes dance a showing pas de deux that features some tricky lifts which looked underrehearsed and I think require a lightness that is not part of Part's arsenal. Part also had trouble with some supported pirouettes. Then dream Clara and dream Prince leave. Now the snow scene. This is an idea that I think was good on paper but worked less well onstage. At first the snowflakes seem like visions, in soft blue romantic tutus and crowns (think Balanchine without the wands), and we think we're in winter wonderland. However as the music speeds up the snowflakes become sinister. They pull apart Clara and the Prince repeatedly and act almost like Wilis as they surround Clara and the Prince in two separate circles and seem to want to strangle them. There's not really enough snow to create what I think was the intended effect -- a vicious blizzard. There's hardly any snow falling at all, in fact. Finally Drosselmeyer comes onstage with a sled, and rescues poor Clara and the Prince. The Snowflakes lose their power (again, Wili-like) and end the act all prostrate onstage, very defeated. Act 2 - Land of the Sweets Well it's not so much Land of the Sweets as Land of the ... Indian Sweets? The Sugar Plum Fairy (who doubles as the Nanny in Act 1) is a pure mime role, and she's not dressed in the usual pink. Rather she's wearing a fancy turban and a fluffy looking Bayadere-like dress. Zhong-Jing Fang is the SPF. She's accompanied by a Major Domo who's dressed like a Rajah. The decor for Act 2 is rather bare, suggests a gilded palace with lots of tiny gold columns in the background and green benches. Little Clara and Little Prince are introduced to the SPF and her Majordomo, and thankfully Ratmansky includes the mime sequence for the little Prince. The SPF introduces her kingdom. The national dances were I thought the most interesting part of the show. The Spanish dance was pretty typical, looks a lot like Balanchine's Chocolate Dance, with the three couples. But the Arabian was very different. I usually find this variation boring, but Ratmansky introduced a mini-story. Sascha Radetsky is a bald shiek type, very misogynistic, and at first it seems as if he's trying to dominate his four women, as one would do in a harem. He drags them around onstage and makes them lie down as if he's going to literally pluck one for his choosing. But the four women of the harem turn things around and revolt, and by the end of the dance he's the one left all alone as the women smugly link hands and walk offstage. The Chinese dance also introduced a story. At first the relationship between the two dancers seemed full of conflict, but as the short dance progresses they reconcile and end the dance in a sweet lovey dovey embrace. Russian dance has three guys dressed like candy canes and the theme of this dance is the guys don't quite know how to dance -- they bump into each other, stumble, and end the dance on the floor, a total mess. I don't know if Ratmansky is subtly mocking the famously accident-prone Balanchine candy canes, who I've seen stumble over their hoops and fall more than a few times. Finally Mother Ginger has a little mouse along with the 7 little children, and in the end Mother Ginger is only able to get the cute little mouse back into her skirts. The Waltz of the Flowers introduces another concept. The women are dressed in long multilayered tutus with each layer being a different shade of pink (much like Balanchine's) but Ratmansky also introduces four bees that swarm aroudn the flowers during the whole dance. It was again an interesting concept, but I have a serious allergy to bees so I think maybe I didn't appreciate the concept as much as I should have. But also, I think the choreography for the Waltz of the Flowers was a bit muddled -- the bees popped in and out, but there was no relationship established between the flowers and the bees. Finally, the Grand Pas de Deux. During the whole second act little Clara and little Prince have been sitting and watching the dances, but the scene changes, and out come Dream Clara and Dream Prince. Little Clara and Little Prince finally go offstage as Part and Gomes dance their big pas de deux. They look like a dream couple, in glittery tutus, a tiara for Part, and a shiny silver suit for Gomes. But their dancing contained some awkwardness. The pas de deux contains lots of very swoony Romeo and Juliet-like lifts that again, are awkward for a dancer as tall as Part. It might work better on smaller, lighter dancers. There's no shoulder-jump lifts, but the climactic lift is one that echoes the Grigorivich production. The Prince lifts Clara as Clara is completely upright, over his head. Big applause, and for once the grandeur of Part's dancing seemed appropriate for this big lift. There's a weird section where Part all of a sudden collapses in heaving tears, and Gomes comforts her. I say weird because in the coda, their pas de deux becomes almost comical and playful, so I don't know what the sudden bursting of tears accomplished. Pas de deux ends in a fishdive, Balanchine style. The variation for Gomes contains a lot of Bournonville-like petit allegro steps that are not Gomes' forte, and he seemed to tire visibly. He started flailing his arms, his form suffered, and for once this danseur noble seemed sloppy and out of sorts. The variation for Clara, on the other hand, contained none of the usual twinkly releves and little hops that usually characterize this variation. Or maybe Part just didn't perform them. I have to say, I was disappointed by Part in this variation. She seemed not to hear the music at all, and was uncomfortable with the small, fast, twinkly music. She preferred to do a series of big jumps that showed her elevation and ballon but I just got the weird feeling that she was either making things up as she was going along, or that she wasn't really articulating the choreography well. The finale has the usual reprise by all the Act 2 members, but the choreography is rather static and ruined by a Vegas-style wedding between Dream Clara and Dream Prince, replete with the short bridal veil. As the finale ends, little Clara is pushed onstage on a bed as the dream characters disappear. She wakes up with Gomes on one side and Little Prince on the other, and as she reaches out for them, they too disappear. She collapses on her bed in another fit of tears, until magically the little wooden Nutcracker appears on her bed (Drosselmeyer is watching from the window). Curtain. Maybe the most touching part of the whole evening came during the curtain calls, when the little Prince Philip Perez dropped to his knees and kissed little Clara's hand. It was a moment of childlike beauty in a Nutcracker where children were portrayed as bratty and overemotional. And it was nice having little Clara and little Prince taking curtain calls and bouquets along with Part and Gomes. I have mixed feelings about this Nutcracker. A week ago I attended the NYCB Nutcracker where the children were kid-like but not actual brats, the Snowflakes were a real Winter Wonderland, everything was Sweet in the Kingdom of the Sweets, and Balanchine stayed true to both the 1892 libretto and his own vision of the Nutcracker as a wondrous children's fantasy. The whole ballet had a cohesiveness, a unity of purpose and style that this Nutcracker lacked. This Nutcracker had moments of charm and whimsy, but it felt like a seven course meal where a few of the courses were missing.

In the sequence when Giselle does some jetes before Albrecht follows her offstage with a grande jete, I notice Alonso substituted a pirouette. Also, during the flower throwing/catching moment, traditionally Giselles do a grande jete and throw back the flower, but Alonso does a back-bended arabesque and throws her lily back. Is that still in the CNB's Giselle?

That's really interesting, do Cuban Giselles still substitute fast pique turns and such for the traditional huge grande jetes? And is the missing music (like Albrecht changing in the hut) still in the production? But isn't it amazing how Denby wrote that review in 1945 but he really perfectly described Alonso's Giselle?

Here by the way is how Alonso ends her Giselle. Watch the mime of "I'm already dead" and the final gesture. Sigh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IF0k265lUM

Next up: Giselle (Cuban National Ballet): Alicia Alonso, Azari Plisetski, Mirta Ple (sp?) (1964) It's 8 years later, and another legendary Giselle was caught on film. Unlike the Czinner film, which is cut to shreds and has a hurried, thoughtless quality to it, this film attempts to be a real ballet film of sorts. It starts out with a shot of items in a village house, and there's a sleeping woman inside, who's tending both a fire and an infant. She opens the door and we get the "village" set. Another oddity is that there's a musical rearrangement of Albrecht's entrance, as he's shown entering the hut first to change from his nobleman outfit to his peasant outfit. THEN as he emerges from the hut in peasant clothes, his traditional entrance music plays. In Act 2 there is some strange business with some guys frolicking in the woods next to Hilarion and Giselle's grave, and it uses music that I've never heard anywhere else. They try unsuccesfully to get Hilarion to stop moping. But pleasures of this film are that it's presented complete, and the mime is preserved. The peasant pas de deux is danced as a group dance for the corps de ballet. There's a real attempt to recreate both a rustic village in Act 1 and the woodsy graveyard in Act 2. There's even some fake trees and a painted drop in the background of a mountain. Bathilde comes onstage with a real hunting dog. The raison d'etre of this video is of course Alonso's Giselle, and even though this film was made when she was 44, and her vision problems were severe at this point, I feel as if the film is a fairly accurate recreation of Alonso's Giselle. I pulled up Edwin Denby's review of Alonso's Giselle and I'm going to quote it at length: That was written in 1945. But in 1964, Alonso's Giselle has the same features that Denby wrote about. She is passionate and serious, rather than girlishly sensuous. Her allegro work is still brilliant. She does the difficult Spessivtseva diagonal as well as I've ever seen it done, and in Act 2, all those quick little entrechats are done with a jaw-dropping speed. She is also more notably flexible than other ballerinas of her era. Her is her Spessivtseva variation. Amazing how she starts the variation so slowly, but attacks those pirouettes so quickly and fiercely. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-vQRz6hV5A On the other hand, the weaknesses that Denby mentions are there as well. I feel as if her Mad Scene isn't as convincing as some other Giselles -- there's something a bit too grounded and mature about Alonso's Giselle to believe that she'd suddenly snap. (Don't kill me Cristian!) She seems more coldly furious than absolutely insane, and somewhat reserved. She doesn't really try to stab herself, doesn't laugh, throw her necklace on the ground, or any of the other business. She just kind of ... dies. A different interpretation, but i could imagine the effect being a bit muted in the theater. Mad Scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-of7oXa6_E4 In Act 2, Alonso is uncomfortable with the exposed developpes of Act 2 (the camera tactfully does a cutaway). Her leg shakes. As Denby implies, she's more of a terre a terre dancer. She doesn't have the effortless elevation of many Giselles and thus the big jumps seem more effortful. At certain points she deletes the jumps in favor of pirouettes. But she does the allegro work of Act 2 with a speed and firmness of attack that is truly rare. Her initiation scene is quick, furious, and ends with some lightning speed pique turns. And those entrechats -- her speed during them suggests in itself a spirit that's possessed by an unearthly force. Here's her Act 2 pdd. Watch those entrechats! Amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gxOrXgZ4Bw Although Giselle is a great role that lends itself to many different interpretations, I think there are two BASIC types of Giselles in Act 2 : the gentle spirits (in this list, I'd put Ulanova, Makarova, Cojocaru, as the masters of this interpretations), and the stern ghosts. Alonso is definitely more of a stern ghost figure, but she ends Giselle with one of the most beautiful gestures of forgiveness I've ever seen. As she descends to her grave, she lunges herself into a deep arabesque penchee, and lets Albrecht kiss her hand for the last time. I've gone on so much about Alonso's Giselle, but Azari Plisetsky is also worth mentioning. He's Maya Plisetskaya's brother, and he's not really a virtuoso dancer, and doesn't have his famous sister's intensity and charisma. He's a sensitive partner, but I feel he's one of the weaknesses of the film. There's not much chemistry between him and Alonso, and he remains somewhat of a blank slate dramatically. The corps de ballet are obviously inhibited by dancing in a small soundstage, but they are one of the marvels of the film. Cuban ballet was in its infancy, but in Act 1 they dance with a real energetic heartiness, and in Act 2, the Wilis of Act 2 are one of the best things about the film. Not only do they dance with unison, they also dance with a kind of feverish intensity. One wonderful moment is when they all circle around Hilarion, arms, linked, like a king cobra. The relish with which they throw him off a cliff to his death is frightening. The Myrtha acts like an absolute queen of her intendants, regal and almost frighteningly composed as she bourress onstage. I love the little smirk on her face as Giselle rises from her grave, like 'we've got another one.' Overall, this film, despite the grainy black and white quality, and the somewhat old-fashioned naturalistic touches, has a surprisingly modern feel. Alonso's technique is what we might think of as "modern ballerina" -- a more contemporary, stretched body line, and her interpretation doesn't feel old-fashioned for a moment. This film of Giselle is on my short list for "must-have" Giselles.

I had so much fun with the Nutcracktathon, and I realized I think I have just about every commercially available Giselle ever released. So ... I'm going to be reviewing them. Unlike Nutcracker, Giselle productions don't differ that much from company to company. The main reason to watch Giselle is because all things considered it is still probably the greatest role for both the ballerina and the danseur in the classical ballet repertory. So many great Giselles ... This should be fun! First up: Giselle (Bolshoi Ballet): Galina Ulanova, Nikolai Fadeyechev, Rimma Karelskaya This film is by Paul Czinner and it was made in 1956, when the Bolshoi Ballet made an absolute sensation touring the west. Galina Ulanova's Giselle was hailed by both critics and the public as one of the greatest interpretations of the role. I suppose we should be thankful that Czinner gave us this video document of Ulanova's Giselle. But on the other hand ... This Giselle is SEVERELY abridged. Here are just the major cuts I counted: 1. the peasant pas de deux 2. the Spessivtseva solo 3. Giselle's inititation as a Wili 4. Giselle's first encounter with Albrecht in Act 2 5. Czinner also decides to cut away at the beginning of the Act 2 pas de deux when Giselle does her exposed developpes. 6. Myrtha's solo In addition, Act 2 is way too brightly lit, and thus ruins the nocturnal, ghostly atmosphere. Basically, what we're left with is a skeleton of what was so often described as an absolutely shattering portrayal. I *think* Czinner's basic idea was to cut as much away from the "boring" dance parts as possible, and thus focus his story on what he saw as Ulanova's main appeal -- her genuine down-to-earth peasant charm. He doesn't get that for Giselle, dance is the story. Giselle's reckless love of dancing contributes to her weak heart, and in Act 2, the Wilis force men to dance to death. Giselle's dancing saves Albrecht. But the cuts also damage the ballet in other ways -- all the cuts make mincemeat of Adams' lovely score, giving the music a choppy feel. It also reduces the main theme of Act 2, which is the battle between Giselle and Myrtha -- love vs. anger, forgiveness vs. vengeance. Nevertheless, one can see that Ulanova's acclaim as Giselle wasn't just mindless gushing. Despite how much of her part is cut, the things that critics spoke about are all there. Her warmth, her simplicity, her ability to seem girlish despite the fact that at the time of filming she was 46, they are all captured on film. In Act 2, Ulanova is not really ghostly (and Czinner's overly bright lighting doesn't help), she remains the innocent peasant girl of Act 1. Yet there's a lightness to her movements that is enchanting to watch. She doesn't have the huge leaps of Plisetskaya, but she is able to give the illusion of flying across the stage in small jumps. And the Bolshoi corps are absolutely beautiful. Fadeyechev is wearing the stupidest-looking toupee, and would be considered beefy and unglamorous by today's standards, but he's a sensitive partner for Ulanova. And he executes a series of turning brises that are pretty impressive. And the role is really too cut for Fadeyechev to make much of an impact anyway. Here is her mad scene: And here is the last pas de deux between Giselle and Albrecht that thankfully Czinner left intact. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aOE6eXlfT8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH6_tFRdpy4&feature=related Overall, while I'm grateful to have this video document of a legendary portrayal, I wish it wasn't so severely truncated.

I just came back from The Nutcracker. It was the Grigorivich production, and I've already said many times how I feel about this production, which I generally find charmless, overly busy, and rather ugly in production values. I still hate the business with the candelabras and Masha and the Prince being carried by the corps in the grand pas de deux. And there have been slight changes in the choreography -- Grigorivich now makes the Nutcracker "doll" in Act One an actual petite female dancer who gets carried around the stage. Thus, Masha is unable to play with her Nutcracker, as the Nutcracker gets dragged around by Drosselmeyer. However, the difference between this live HD transmission and the previous videotapes were: 1. Much better lighting and photography. Previous videos made the already somewhat drab stage look way too dark, but with the improved lighting, the performance had a brighter, more festive look. 2. The costumes and sets have been spruced up quite a bit, and no longer look so dowdy and ill-fitting. Tutus are brighter colors (I like the new pink romantic tutus for the Waltz of the Flowers -- previous videos had them in a frosty blue. 3. The performances - Nina Kaptsova and Artem Ovcharkenko as Masha and the Prince were young, charming, very graceful, and gave the ballet a more youthful feel than previous videos. On the other hand, a total disaster happened with the Indian Dolls (Victoria Osipova, Ruslan Pronin). They were shaky from the start and during a lift she fell to the ground, hard, and were visibly shaken. Live transmission! However, overall, a fun afternoon and it's always fun to see an actual live performance. The Bolshoi also looks incredibly strong as a company overall. Corps -- beautiful. Kaptsova is a real charmer too.

Well I think it's not so much about "Balanchine centrism" so much as the fact is, very few ballets have real staying power. It's been almost 30 years since Balanchine's death, and his ballets have proven to have staying power. Symphony in C, Apollo, Theme and Variations, Agon, Four Temperaments, Nutcracker, Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Midsummer's Night Dream, Prodigal Son, Jewels, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, these ballets are now staged all over the world and have become very popular in different companies. Then there are the ballets that have tended to remain within the NYCB but always amaze me, like Who Cares?, Vienna Waltzes, his version of Coppelia, Western Symphony, etc. etc. Is he the greatest choreographer ever? I don't know, but I think he certainly is a top candidate and thus he's always going to be discussed.

I just saw it tonight, with a guy whose taste in movies range from Saw I to Saw VI. I just gotta say, yes at parts it's cheesy, and at parts it's creepy, but it makes for a great date movie. And to Natalie Portman for creating a convincing CHARACTER onstage. I think it you go to the movie expecting a great ballet movie along the lines of Red Shoes you'll be disappointed. But if you go just for entertainment than the movie is a lot of fun.

cristian, I don't know, because I haven't seen it, but my guess is that even though the MCB follows Balanchine's choreography, it's a much smaller company with much smaller resources, so there are some major differences with the production now playing at the NYCB. (Although I've seen disastrous, lifeless performances of the Nut at the NYCB too.) Re: the children, the SAB is right in NY, across the plaza in fact, and every year children are handpicked to be in the Nutcracker. They rehearse a lot and thus often give the best performances bar none. At MCB I would guess the situation is much more difficult. About the costumes and snow wands, that is strange because I agree, they are one of the best parts of the Balanchine production. At the NYCB they've always been fluttery and soft, to give the illusion of a real whirling snowstorm, and the orchestra always accelerates the music faster and faster, as the snowflakes dance up a blizzard (forgive the pun). I think part of the issue is the recorded music. A live conductor can create effects seemingly spontaneously, like the one I spoke of above. But when it's recorded music, seems as if the dancers would have to rehearse carefully to that recording and that recording only, to make sure nothing is "off." I imagine the effect on dancers must be a loss of spontaneity and musicality.

If I were to rank the Nutcrackers here is how it'd go: Top Tier: 1. Nutcracker (NYCB) - Kistler, Woetzel, Nichols. A faithful recreation of Balanchine's final version of the Nutcracker, and a strong performance. Highly recommended. 2. Nutcracker (NYCB) - Playhouse 90 television special. Despite being filmed on a tiny soundstage, and some unfortunate cuts in the ballet, captures the NYCB in maybe the company's peak, and has the added bonus of Balanchine's wonderfully humane Drosselmeyer. 3. Nutcracker (Kirov) - Lezhnina, Baranov. Vainonen's version is my favorite of the "adult" Nutcrackers because of its sweet, uncomplicated romanticism. Lezhnina's Clara is a true charmer. ----- Middle Tier: 4. Nutcracker (Royal Ballet, both of Peter Wright's versions) - The earlier Wright version has more original Ivanov choreography, the latter has stronger performances, but both versions suffer from a certain crippling stuffiness and seriousness. Still, very interesting for the historical perpsective. 5. Nutcracker (San Francisco Ballet) - an EXTREMELY strong first act, wonderful performances by the dancers, and some charmingly choreographed divertissements compensate somewhat for the dreary Act 2 production values, and the muddled concept of having the Sugar Plum Fairy with almost no dancing and an adult "dream Clara" that pops out of a box. ----- Low Tier: 6. Nutcracker (ABT) - The concept definitely has an ick factor, and the intensity of Kirkland somehow seems wrong for this innocent role. The production is very pretty, and the choreography borrows a lot from Vainonen, but in the end, I just can't get over the fact that Drosselmeyer seems to have a thing for Clara. 7. Nutcracker (Paris Opera Ballet) - the charms of Elisabeth Maurin, Laurent Hilaire, and the elegant POB corps are offset by truly atrocious choreography and a muddled, creepy "concept" Nutcracker. 8. Nutcracker (Bolshoi Ballet) - ugh, what a busy, fussy, charmless production. All 200 Bolshoi dancers seem to be onstage at all times, and any sense of intimacy is lost. Unfortunate. ---- Bottom of the Barrel: 9. Nutcracker - Christmas special with Villela, McBride, Hayden. No explanation necessary.

I just returned from a wonderful performance of the Nutcracker. This is such a rich ballet that every time I see it, new details emerge. I never noticed how in the first act, Fritz is the outcast while the children dance. The other girls shun him, and he ends up dancing with his mother. It makes his acting out later in the act more understandable, and is such a nice human touch. The children as usual danced with incredible precision, warmth, and charm. I thought the Snowflakes and Waltz of the Flowers looked a little less "on" than I've seen them. Arms not in unison, stuff like that. But the dancing of the soloists was superb. Sara Mearns - wonder what Macauley would say about her? She definitely has an unorthodox build. Very womanly and curvy, and without the long stretched look of most ballerinas. Yet she also moves in such a distinct way that it's impossible not to be transported by her dancing. She sometimes almost reminds me of Galina Ulanova -- the short neck and arms, the sweetly lyrical style of dancing. Unlike many NYCB ballerinas she doesn't really punch out the steps according to the music, but instead seems to "dance through" the music, Kirov-style. She was one of the most memorable SPF's I've seen. And she handled the shoulder-lifts and balances of the grand pas de deux superbly. Tiler Peck might now be a close second to Ashley Bouder in terms of whizbang Dewdrops -- she sailed through the role as if it were child's play. And she's grown so much as an artist too -- she even looks different. More mature, less of a soubrette. Tess Reichlen was a sinewy, sensuous Coffee. I left the NY State Theater (no I refuse to call it the Koch Theater) in a happy mood. Balanchine's Nutcracker remains the gold standard for me.

Last but not least: NYCB - Nutcracker (Kistler, Nichols, Woetzel) Choreography: George Balanchine George Balanchine's Nutcracker was presented as a feature film, and the "big draw" was Macauley Culkin as the Prince. I understand it did very poorly commercially, which is a crying shame because of all the Nutcracker videos, this one is my favorite. It has flaws. Culkin does no harm as the Prince but the bright red lipstick and a certain stiffness make him look awkward and out of place. Also, as this was a studio film, and not a staged performance, I think some of the stage flats could have been made more three-dimensional, to give the film a more "movie" look. And the film suffers from some of the usual business in camera-work -- all jump and cutting off dancers at the knees and whatnot. Not a lot of it, but enough to occasionally be annoying. But as a preservation of Balanchine's Nutcracker, this film must be counted as a major success. I've already spoken a lot about why I love Balanchine's Nutcracker, but this film at times even enhanced the work, if possible. For instance, during the Snowflakes scene the Snowflakes are filmed through a lens that make them literally sparkle. Their soft blue romantic tutus, their shiny crowns, their silvery snowball wands, all are filmed in such a way that they seem to be from another world. Emile Ardolino, the director, knew how to make dancers look good. In the Kingdom of the Sweets Darcey Kistler also seems to really glow. It's enchanting. The performance is also extremely strong. I saw Kistler as the SPF much later in her career, and most of the time she grabbed the Cavalier's hand as if her life depended on it, and grimly tried to complete her supported pirouettes without much success. What a change it was to see her sail through the role in the film, and also emanate true graciousness and charm. Damian Woetzel -- how handsome he is! What a good partner too. The Cavalier role is so short but Woetzel made the most of it. And Kyra Nichols is taller and statelier than most Dewdrops (I'm used to this being a role for the short whiz-bang allegro dancers), but she also is so confident and joyful in her dancing. Wendy Whelan does a wonderful job as Coffee too. Overall this film captures the charm, joy, and magic of Balanchine's Nutcracker and it remains my favorite video of this holiday classic. It's also available on dvd for pennies.

NYCB's Nutcracker - Adams, Kent, Mitchell, Villela, Balanchine (1958) Choreography: George Balanchine This was a Playhouse 90 special, but unlike the other Christmas special I just reviewed (horror!), this is an invaluable video. Yes for the sake of TV Balanchine had to make some cuts (the Prince's mime in Act 2), and there's an annoying narration by June Lockhart. And the dancers are obviously cramped by dancing on a tiny soundstage. The growing tree in particular looks cheesy under such cramped conditions. The second act suffers the most, with its array of cardboard gingerbread houses that look really cheap. But this video is an absolutely wonderful Nutcracker video. It's an interesting point of comparison how Balanchine changed his Nut over the years. In 1958 it was still relatively new, and there are some differences. Coffee (Arabian) is danced by a male smoking a hookah. The Grand Pas de Deux is not danced with one cavalier, but with four supporting cavaliers. I much prefer Balanchine's final version of the Grand Pas de Deux. Yet this video is unmistakably Balanchine's Nutcracker, with all of Balanchine's charming touches. The charming beginning has Clara and her brother pushing each other to peak through the door of the party. Real children populate the party, and they act like kids too. I always love the children and adults dancing together, with the children imitating the adults. Balanchine himself plays the Drosselmeyer and he's an absolute delight -- not at all sinister, but dotty, eccentric, and most of all, extremely kind. I love the moment when he tenderly fixes the Nutcracker, but not before blowing his nose on a hanky. Little touches like that are heartwarming without being corny. The mouse fight scene includes the seven-headed mouse king and the cheerleading mice, who sit bleacher-like and cheer on their mouse king as if it were a football game (always one of my favorite moments of the ballet). The angels, Candy Cane, the Marzipan sheperdesses, and Mother Ginger never lose their charm. And most of all, the wondrous choreography for the Snowflakes and the Waltz of the Flowers is all there. Balanchine's Nutcracker for me never loses its charm, its wonder, its humor, its magic. Balanchine was often criticized for making great ballets with ugly decor and costumes. Nutcracker is one ballet where this is untrue. Like Cristian, I adore the soft, flowing romantic tutus for the snowflakes -- gives a real impression of snow flying around. I love the look of the Stahlbaum home -- not too fancy, not too shabby, just the right amount of coziness. I love the Flowers costumes, with their multilayered pink and lavender romantic tutus. And most of all Balanchine managed to create mice that are cute. Furry, rotund, they're more funny than scary. In 1958 the snowflakes aren't yet carrying their snowflake wands, but the magical effect is there. The best part of this video is that it's an indicator of how strong of a company the NYCB was in 1958. Not a bad performance in the whole video, from the corps to the soloists. Allegra Kent, tiny and enchanting, zips through the choreography of Dewdrop as if it were child's play. Diana Adams is regal, gracious, everything a SPF should be. But most of all, the variations were breathtaking. After you've seen Edward Villela's Candy Cane all others pale in comparison. Arthur Mitchell makes the most of a variation that could have veered easily into camp. And the corps de ballet is the biggest surprise. They are dancing on a tiny soundstage, and I could imagine them feeling cramped, but the corps dance with trademark Balanchine attack and brio. The conductor sets almost impossibly fast paces for them (one has a feeling they needed to make the 90 minute timeslot without running over) but the corps de ballet rise to the challenge. Despite a certain artificiality and less than ideal filming conditions, as well as cuts in the ballet, this video remains one of my favorite Nutcracker videos.

Nutcracker (TV special) - Edward Villela, Patricia McBride, Melissa Hayden Omigod. One of the most bizarre Nutcrackers I have experienced, bar none. I am just going to try to explain, blow by blow, this "Christmas special." This severely abridged Nutcracker is less of a ballet performance than a cheesy made-for-tv special. It's incredibly cheesy -- the sitcomish soundstage sets, the narration, the costumes. Everything is Americanized -- Drosselmeyer is now "Uncle Alex," the brother is now "Tommy," and pretty much all of the first act is gone. There's no party scene to speak of, just Marie's Nutcracker being broken by her brother and his friends. No mouse scene either -- Marie goes to sleep, and out step Edward Villela in a bright red suit and Patty McBride in a weirder black, Bournonville-style village dress and red pointe shoes. They dance the Awakening pas de deux. The fluffy cotton candy outfits by the snowflakes have to be scene to be believed -- they look like stuffed polar bears. Oh, I forgot, the Nutcracker Prince is not really a Nutcracker, but an "enchanted prince," and the Sugar Plum Fairy is his mother. An evil Mouse King changed him into a Nutcracker and only in his mother's palace would he again become a prince. They travel to the Land of the Sweets by an airborne sled. Coffee, Russian, and Mother Ginger get their due, but the other divertissements are rearranged to occur later. Mother Ginger by the way in this video is a rather severe-looking elderly lady with a black dress and out of her widow's weeds pop three clowns. I'm not making this up you know. Then Nutcracker and Marie take off and arrive in the "Land of the Bluebirds." This is an occasion for a random insertion of the Bluebird duet. The Florine by the way is in these rather dirty-looking flesh colored pointe shoes. Considering how massacred the score has been, the Bluebird/Florine duet is strangely presented complete, along with variations and coda. Helga Heinrich and Nils Keleth are the dancers. "They had to fly over the seven seas, over many continents and oceans" to reach the Sugar Plum palace. Now the Arabian variation is inserted. Then Marzipan. Traditionally Marzipan is a female dance, but the Marzipan performers are all male, and the main Marzipan dancer seems to be doing an exact replica of the Bluebird variation. Waltz of the Flowers - fairly standard, women are wearing blue and white romantic tutus with huge organge, white, and blue wigs. Women do a series of simultaneous fouettes. Then there is a male and female soloist who barge in and make the Waltz of the Flowers a sort of pas de deux with women dancing in the background. More fouettes. Finally the SPF appears (Melissa Hayden). Yay, mother and son are reunited. Edward Villela is now dressed like a prince in a dark costume. And then he ... dances a pas de deux with the Sugar Plum Fairy. His mom. A bit creepy, if you think of it. Choreography for the grand pas de deux is basically Balanchine's. In the middle of the duet, there is some strange overdramatic reorchestration, and a cut in the middle of the music. Villela and Hayden both get to dance severely abbreviated variations. Both of them dance a very cut coda. Child Marie wakes up in his room. Mom blows out Christmas tree candles. The end (as music from the OVERTURE plays). I didn't comment much on the dancing because there's practically nothing to comment about. McBride dances for MAYBE two minutes, tops, Villela not much more than that, Hayden a little more. But it's not a fair judge of their dancing, so I'm not going to comment. But my, what a bizarre "Christmas special."

Moving on: Royal Ballet: Nutcracker (Collier, Dowell) Royal Ballet: Nutcracker (Yoshida, Cope, Cojocaru, Putrov) Choreography by Peter Wright I saw these two Nuts together. Sir Peter Wright's version of the Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet relied heavily on original Ivanov notation. And it's interesting to see how much Balanchine's version of the Grand Pas de Deux resembled Wright's: The climactic jump to shoulder lifts, the pulling of the Sugar Plum Fairy in arabesque, are in both versions. Balanchine installed a little slider on the stage, Wright has the SPF stand over a gauzy looking cloth and pulled. Other similarities: both Balanchine and Wright start Act 2 with sliding angels. The clock looks like an owl. And there are real children, boys and girls, dancing in Act 1. But this Nutcracker was something I admired more than liked. I remember Ninette di Valois once saying that notation is valuable, but it doesn't make a ballet. Production is important. The Royal Ballet's production is for the most part joyless, serious, a bit pretentious, and thus not really my idea of holiday fun. It lacks both the light touch of Balanchine and the sweet romanticism of Vainonen. Wright chooses to frame the story with a mini-story of Drosselmeyer's nephew Hans-Peter, and this framing device takes the focal point away from Clara and onto Drosselmeyer (always one of my pet peeves). It also gives the ballet a very serious tone, and Wright lacks a sense of humor. Clara is danced by an adult, something that makes less sense considering there is a Sugar Plum Fairy, and the original Clara was clearly danced by a child. In Act 2 with all the emphasis on Ivanov notation, why change the candy canes? Why delete Mother Ginger altogether? But more importantly, Nutcracker is NOT Sleeping Beauty! The heavy rococco costumes of Act 2 just about kill the ballet for me. Heavy, heavy powdered wigs, very royal, heavy costumes, WHY? Dowell and Collier seem to have forgotten that they were dancing in a holiday staple -- they dance as they would presumably dance the Sleeping Beauty pas de deux. Serious, regal, hidden behind those heavy wigs and costumes, they barely smile. In 1999 Wright revised the production considerably. Clara and her Prince now have a lot more dancing to do (they hop in and out of the Act 2 divertissements), and some steps have been deleted from the Grand pas de deux. This is Ansanelli and Hristov, but you can see what Wright took out of the grand pas de deux. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBc_uVevnkY Strangely the production of the 2001 video is more muddled, but the performance is stronger. Yoshida as the SPF was a last minute substitute for Bussell, and she's paired with Cope, who towers over her. But somehow their performance is less aloof than that of Dowell and Collier. Clara and Nutcracker are played by Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov, and they prove that you can have a bad ballet but a strong performance will erase those doubts. Cojocaru is one of the few adult Claras to look like a girl, act like a girl, and it's really like watching a Star being born. Ivan Putrov has now departed from the Royal Ballet but he's an incredibly strong partner.

I'm rethumbing this book and I really think the strongest part of the book is the opening chapter on French court dance, and how it evolved into what we now know as "ballet." It really is a wonderfully written chapter. The pictures of the book are also as I said wonderful. It was one thing to read about the original five positions, another to see a period drawing of the courtiers and the original five positions. The book really has some wonderful qualities, obviously the result of some painstaking research.

Yes and the candelabras ... wouldn't go away. It was indeed massively irritating.

I find this a bit ... shocking. Only twice in your entire life? Which versions did you see? And no I don't consider Nutcracker to be the greatest ballet ever made. The score is wondrous but dramatically it doesn't have much depth and attempts to make it "deeper" usually end up alienating me (see my video Nutcrackathon thread). But ... I will say that the Nutcracker has a sentimental place in my heart. I remember the old Gelsey Kirkland/Baryshnikov film in its PBS telecasts and watching it and from that I think I developed my lifelong love for ballet. The Balanchine Nutcracker ballet however for me goes beyon great entertainment and is actually a great full-length ballet. I could go on about all the reasons I love the ballet but I'll save that for the Nutcrackathon video thread.

My favorite part of Ringer's interview was her point that people who have eating disorders don't have enough strength for ballet. I noticed the last few times I saw the Mariinsky that certain dancers were SO thin that at times they seemed to actually have difficulty rising up on pointe. It was painful to see them grimly trying to go on pointe, with absolutely no calf muscles to speak of. But Ringer's such a well-spoken lady, with such a lovely voice. Great appearance by her on the Today Show.

Moving on ... Bolshoi Ballet: Nutcracker (Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev) Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich Oh dear. This performance was filmed in 1987, but is by far the most primitive in terms of picture quality. Large portions of the enormous Bolshoi stage are completely dark at times. Perhaps it was just as well, because this is a horrendously choreographed Nutcracker. Horrendous production values. The costumes and wigs, first of all, are simply ugly. There is no excuse for Ekaterina Maximova to be given such an ill-fitting dress, a sort of white thing with a tiny blue apron. There is no excuse for the Snowflakes to be wearing these old, gray, Norman-Bates-mom wigs. Why is the Christmas tree a cheerless looking gray cardboard flat? There is no excuse for such an ugly production, period. If there was one theme of Grigorivich's Nutcracker, it seems to be: all 200 members onstage at all times! The stage is constantly overcrowded at every moment, and at the end of the party scene the curtain falls and one dancer is left on the wrong side of the curtain. Funny, but somehow indicative of this sloppy, dreary performance. The mouse/toy soldier "choreography" is not even choreographed as a battle of any sorts. Just a lot of marching, leaping, and turning on both parts. Then when Masha and the Prince finally get to dance together, Grigorivich crowds the stage with ... more people! Here are the horrendous snowflakes, with their Norman Bates wigs: The only interesting part of Grigorivich's choreography is the Grand Pas de Deux, which he seems to imagine as a real Russian Orthodox marriage ceremony. People surround Masha and the Prince with candles, and lift both Masha and the Prince upwards as a sort of ceremonial march. Masha and the Prince then kneel. This is the only Nutcracker where Masha and the Prince actually get married in Act 2. But again, the stage is way too crowded for the pas de deux. No intimacy. I can understand all the men carrying candles, but what about the women who also mill about the stage for no discernable reason? I understand this role was created for Maximova and Vasiliev, and I also imagine that when they were young they must have been just darling, and their appeal would have offset all the quirks of Grigorivich's choreography. But it's 1987, and while both of them do have a kind of ageless beauty, Maximova is simply too old. Masha (at least Grigorivich's Masha) isn't Juliet or Giselle, where the character is young but experiences very deep, adult feelings that make it possible for older ballerinas to succeed. The role doesn't even have much dancing to speak of for either Masha or the Prince. Overall, a most disappointing Nutcracker.