The City Ballet presents an elaborate remake of a holiday classic
by Paige M. Travis
The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition ingrained in our culture like Santa and decorated evergreens. Each year across the United States, the baltlet is performed by professional and amateur groups with an eclectic array of productions (traditional, jazzy or on ice skates) and casts (both Barbie and Scooby-Doo star in their own versions). The connection between the ballet and the holiday season is inherent in the original 1816 story by E.T.A. Hoffman. Young Clara is presented with a Nutcracker doll at a Christmas party, after which she falls asleep and dreams of an army of rats combating the tin soldiers. The Nutcracker (who, with his toothy sneer and square jaw, isn't quite a dreamboat) turns into a Prince and escorts the starry-eyed young woman to the kingdom of the Sugar Plum Fairy where she is given gifts from many lands.
The story, given music by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa in 1892, is a fantasy set in a child's world, a kind of candy land that captures the imagination of children and adults alike. Just as viewings of It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street are programmed into a family's experience of the holidays, The Nutcracker finds space in the hectic season of shopping and events—and is frequently a person's first experience with a full-length ballet. Dancers start out as tots in the party scene and work their way up into coveted roles. For those who love it, the ballet creeps into the subconscious and lingers there, demanding repeat performances or viewings.
While many people look forward to The Nutracker's comforting familiarity like hot cocoa on a chilly night, the ballet isn't so sacred that it can't be tweaked or, in the case of the City Ballet's new version, given a makeover worthy of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
This Thanksgiving weekend, the City Ballet will present the world premiere of a Nutcracker that features new choreography, multi-million dollar costumes and sets, plus a new milieu of the stylish 1920s.
This revised Nutcracker was envisioned by Marcello Angelini, artistic director of the Tulsa Ballet (which, through a 1996 arrangement, serves as Knoxville's professional ballet company).
"Every single thing has changed from the old Nutcracker," Angelini says of the production (which has been in the works since June 2001.)
The ballet's young star's name has been changed to Marie, and she is taking ballet classes at the Paris Opera School in the 1920s. She fancies one of her classmates, Charles, and, while rehearsing a short version of The Nutcracker, dances with him. Later, she dreams that she saves the Nutcracker from the Rat King, thereby releasing the Prince from his curse as a Nutcracker and earning his love.
Angelini says his version is closer to the original intent of Hoffman's story, focusing on the love conquers all theme.
"The story is about the love of a young maiden that is so strong that it breaks the spell of the Mouse King, who has transformed a young and handsome gentleman, Charles Elias Drosselmeier's nephew, into an ugly wooden puppet." Because Clara sees beyond his exterior, his royal good looks are restored, and they live happily ever after.
The Nutcracker, after all, is a fairy tale.
Angelini has also endeavored to lighten the story with subplots (several characters have unrequited love for others) and humorous exchanges (the army of mice have a Red Cross-style medics on the battlefield). Plus, he's designed the ballet, which is already pretty extravagant, into a production that's bigger than ever.
"The Nutcracker audience is not the typical ballet audience," Angelini says. "They are more the Broadway shows' crowd. They are used to seeing mega-shows, so in order to please them, the ballet had to have the looks of a big show."
The sets, designed and constructed in Angelini's home country of Italy, place the action in the opulent settings of the Paris Opera and the gardens of Versailles. The new posh sets and pure silk costumes were designed by Luisa Spinatelli, who has done work for Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala in Milan and the Royal Ballet.
Angelini has rechoreographed the entire show, changing the 38-year-old moves established by Tulsa Ballet founders Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin. He describes the show's new dances as "classical, but with the freedom of the 21st century."
What hasn't changed, however, is Tchaikovsky's music. In fact, there is even more music by Tchaikovsky interspersed into the scenes.
"I did toy a bit with the score to keep the show's pace up," Angelini concedes. The party scene opens with a polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Angelini created a solo for the lead dancer who becomes the prince. He calls this piece of music, from Sleeping Beauty, a "forgotten jewel."
Locally, preparation for the new Nutcracker began in early September with auditions for the 86 local young people who will participate in the show. Ginger Cook, executive director for the City Ballet, has sustained a level of excitement and anticipation for the show that verges on superhuman. She acknowledges that it's her job to spread the joy of ballet to the people of East Tennessee, but she also believes in the art and the company whole-heartedly. She uses the word "wonderful" and "beautiful" to describe the show that, even before its premiere, has impressed her beyond words.
"When I got the CD of the pictures of the artist renderings of the set, in all of my life and career I've never seen anything so beautiful. I was awe-struck. My jaw dropped."
Although the Nutcracker is the only City Ballet production that includes local dancers (and those are unpaid positions for young dancers), Cook emphasizes the company's importance beyond providing jobs to local performers. The company hires the local stagehands, wardrobe and lighting techs, and uses the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. She says the City Ballet, like all of Knoxville's arts organizations, has a positive economic influence on our community; when people come out to the ballet or theater or gallery, they eat dinner and shop and go out afterwards—supporting the local economy.
As far as the economy of the arts organizations themselves, whether Knoxville could support a full-time professional ballet company is questionable. Cook sees the benefits of sharing the Tulsa Ballet with Tulsa from a patron's point of view.
"It's a very cost-effective way to bring world-class ballet to our community—the best that our community can have," she says. "It is a wonderful gift we have."
Instead of performing the ballet in Tulsa and then bringing it here for a reprise, Knoxville will host the world premiere of the new version. Cook describes it as Angelini's gift to the City Ballet after a hard year in 2002. Budgetary cuts forced the City Ballet to cancel two shows in its season; the 2003-04 season has also been pared down.
"It's been really hard because the economy has been bad," she says. "We had to make some difficult decisions last year, but we are fortunate enough that I think things are going to be fine and turn around."
With the world premiere production drawing visitors from across the country for only three local performances, Cook anticipates that the show will knock the socks off audience members.
"I've been calling it the Star Wars of Nutrackers, because it's just huge," she says.
November 27, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 48
© 2003 Metro Pulse
| 
