Dutch National Ballet (live stream), 24/12/2021

Tchaikokovsky : The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Artists of the Dutch National Ballet
Dutch Ballet Orchestra
Fayçal Karoui
In a review of the Dutch National Ballet's Christmas Gala last year, I wrote that I'd like to see their version of The Nutcracker, because from the extract they presented then, it looked very interesting.  Wish granted!  This year, Het live-streamed two performances of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, created in 1996 by  Toer van Schayk and the then-Artistic Director Wayne Eagling.

This is a much more European version than we in the UK are used to seeing.  To begin with, it is not does not take place on Christmas Eve, but on St. Nicholas's Day, the 5th December, which, on the Continent, was when the children received their presents.  There's no Christmas tree; the setting is Amsterdam in 1810 (Hoffman's period, not Tchaikovsky's), and the Christmas tree was just barely a tradition.  Drosselmeyer is a magician, yes, but the party trick he brings to the Staalboom's party is a magic lantern - generally recognised to be a Dutch invention - through which he shows picture postcards of foreign lands, Effectively, the whole fantasy is Clara's dream, the toys the children receive, the postcards shown in the magic lantern, and some of the characters, all are revisited in the  dream.  Also, this version is a little closer to the Hoffman original, with the Mouse King a much more formidable foe than usually appears in British versions.  

The second act is set inside the magic lantern, which gives it a sort of steampunk look, the Spanish dance isn't flamenco, but from another tradition - I'm not exactly sure, but I'm guessing at Basque or Galician - while the Russian dance could be from Stravinsky's Petrushka.  The Arabian dance is a slave-trader with his wares, the Chinese one is a kind of martial arts session,  while the "Danse des mirlitons" is an Antique Greece inspired pas de quatre, with a nymph (who is Clara's elder sister Louise) and three suitors that I think are Marsyas, Apollo and Pan.  

As for the Nutcracker himself, well, in the party scene, there's an incident in the first dance where Clara's (overly) mischievous little brother Fritz trips her up, and is promptly dragged off by his father for a good scolding.  Clara is left partnerless, until Drosselmeyer's nephew (who has accompanied his uncle to the party) gallantly steps up, enchanting the young girl.  So when, in her dream, the Nutcracker turns into a Prince, naturally he has the handsome face of Drosselmeyer's nephew.  There are separate dancers for the Nutcracker Prince and the Nutcracker Doll, and I was never sure if the Prince wasn't occasionally wearing the mask of the Doll, but it was all seamless enough.  

After his stint at Het, Eagling took Artistic Directorship of English National Ballet, and adapted this Nutcracker for them.  A few days ago, I read a review saying that the production was starting to look a little tired.  However, judging from the ENB's photo gallery and synopsis, Eagling 'anglicised' the production considerably, and there's nothing tired-looking about van Schayk's designs.  All in all, I really enjoyed this view of Nutcracker; maybe it's because I've never seen it before, where a London audience has known at least a version of it any time this last decade, but I think that it's more that it was conceived for the Dutch company and its audience, which gives it a freshness that's very welcome, and particularly in a fine performance like this.

There were, perhaps, moments when the corps was not as completely synchronised as one might have wished, but it mattered little when the overall feel of the performance was so festive and so vital.  Riho Sakamoto was an excellent 'big' Clara, light and elegant, with a smile of such unforced radiance it could light a thousand rooms.  Constantin Allen was her Prince, good but not perhaps all that striking as a solo dancer, but an excellent partner, with Martin ten Kortenaar also effective as the Nutcracker Doll, and special mention to Katja Hirst and Luke Smith as a characterful 'little' Clara and Fritz.  All the proceedings, however, were greatly enhanced by magnificent playing of a very well-arranged reduced orchestration of the score from the Ballet Orchestra under Fayçal Karoui, truly magical in effect.

Due to recently imposed restrictions, there was no audience in the theatre; at least, no paying audience, we were all on-line and I hope there were many hundreds of us.  There was an audience - small, but enthusiastic - however, composed, I presume, of house and company staff who would have been required to be present in any event, and it was good to hear their applause, which was very thoroughly merited.  A true Christmas cracker of a show.

[Next : 31st December]

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