The Nutcracker as a different story

[Vladislav]

Dear Peanut68, thank you for your comment, and I apologize for writing my response almost two weeks after your post! It is interesting that you “love new ideas & interpretations ...”, many ballet (and opera) lovers would apparently have different opinion. Probably the main thing I’ve learned after trying to put together stories for a ballet is that the greatness, deepness, originality etc. of initial ideas mean nothing in the end if they cannot be translated into a concrete stage performance. That is, into solid sequence of events which will be shown on stage, will fit into the music and will (ideally) tell a story without words. After I managed to come up with such a complete new story with the music of Nutcracker I became so arrogant that I started to believe that I have a hidden talent for “writing ballets”. I immediately tried to re-interpret the other ones. In particular “Cinderella” and “Coppelia”. I completely failed! Although I seemed to have super-innovative ideas in the beginning this all was useless. I could never turn them into something which could be performed on stage and would be interesting (at least in theory) to watch. After learning more about ballet in general and “The Nutcracker” in particular I had to realize that the reason I managed to “re-write” its libretto was not because I was so special, but because the music of “The Nutcracker” is so special. This approach simply will not work – at least not so easily – with other ballets. Thank you a lot for wishing me good luck, nevertheless it seems I gave up! Fine arts is not my world, and I’m not ready to take extraordinary efforts and finally fade away like Martin Eden.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Vladislav

[Peanut68]

Take heart & don’t ‘write off’ creating fresh works from established creations! Just see how there are many interpretations & stagings involving so many changes in historical/geographical/racial or gender representation used in so many of Shakespeares great works that all bring a new life to the original play. Sone mag work better, sone may flop, some triumph, but ALL are valid!