English National Ballet’s Nutcracker Dec 2022- Jan 2023

[Emeralds]

Amid all the (real) snowflakes, cold snaps, strikes and various dramas last week, English National Ballet’s annual season of Nutcracker and a winter full length ballet (Swan Lake this year) began at the London Coliseum on 15 December with debuts in the production by new soloist Lorenzo Trossello (Nephew), and debuts in lead roles by Ivana Bueno (Clara), Fernando Carratalá Coloma (Nephew), Erik Woolhouse (Nephew). Looking forward to reading forum members’ reviews, impressions and thoughts on the various performances before and after we catch our show. 

 

For those who enjoy checking out company dancer and photographer Amber Hunt’s Pointe Shoe Christmas Tree in its different colours and themes every year, this year’s theme is a green tree (of green shoes), with purple shoe ribbon swags and “bows” of purple shoes, and a silvery pointe shoe “star” on top. It reminds me of Cinderella’s ball dress in the Cinderella films, and might be a nod to their upcoming June performances of Cinderella at the Royal Albert Hall? 👠👑💃

 

For those who need a dose of comedy and a smile during bleak times, the company have followed their Mouse King, aka company artist William Simmons, on various “escapades” around the theatre, resulting in some funny videos on social media (you can see the Facebook ones without requiring an account). The Mouse King seems to be a dab hand at using computers and the internet! 💻😂

Edited December 21, 2022 by Emeralds

[CCL]

I attended tonight’s performance. I wasn’t at all sure if I was in the mood after having been to an emotional family funeral yesterday. But my goodness the music and dancing worked their magic for me. Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta have lovely chemistry together and are stunning when they dance solo too. The grand pdd drew tremendous applause, well deserved. I was also moved by Junor Souza’s Nutcracker in his pdd with Emma Hawes in Act 1. It was a delight to see some of my favourite ENB dancers in smaller roles: Precious Adamson, Katja Khaniukova, Fernando Carratala Coloma and Francesca Velicu all shone. All in all, this evening was an absolute tonic. Thank you ENB! 

Edited December 23, 2022 by CCL

[alison]

By the way, have ENB cancelled performances due to the rail situation like the RB have, or didn't it affect them?

[Dawnstar]

I saw a tweet from them earlier about a cast change for the Nutcracker this afternoon so their performance presumably did take place.

[Emeralds]

16 hours ago, alison said:

By the way, have ENB cancelled performances due to the rail situation like the RB have, or didn't it affect them?

It doesn’t seem to affected them. They showed a change in casting on the website - Skyler Martin replacing Erik Woolhouse as Nutcracker- and this was tweeted as well, plus another Mouse King video, so presumably all the theatre staff, orchestra and dancers must have had other arrangements for getting home, whether that was company minibuses, bicycle or car pool and lifts from friends/family, etc ! Well done to ENB & Coliseum staff as many West End and other London productions had to be cancelled due to the transport difficulties today.

 

If I recall correctly, I think when shows get cancelled (like last year’s omicron wipeout of the West End shows at various times) ENB tend to take the show off the casting list or write “x/y/zz show cancelled” at the top.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

18 hours ago, CCL said:

I attended tonight’s performance. I wasn’t at all sure if I was in the mood after having been to an emotional family funeral yesterday. But my goodness the music and dancing worked their magic for me. Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta have lovely chemistry together and are stunning when they dance solo too. The grand pdd drew tremendous applause, well deserved. I was also moved by Junor Souza’s Nutcracker in his pdd with Emma Hawes in Act 1. It was a delight to see some of my favourite ENB dancers in smaller roles: Precious Adamson, Katja Khaniukova, Fernando Carratala Coloma and Francesca Velicu all shone. All in all, this evening was an absolute tonic. Thank you ENB! 

That’s fantastic, CCL. Looking forward to seeing them all later in the run. This production has lots of special bits that others don’t have that I love. I believe Junor was the original cast Nutcracker at the premiere with Daria Klimentova as his Clara....that’s a good number of years  in that role! Really hope we can see him as Nephew one day. 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Emeralds

[CCL]

4 hours ago, Emeralds said:

That’s fantastic, CCL. Looking forward to seeing them all later in the run. This production has lots of special bits that others don’t have that I love. I believe Junor was the original cast Nutcracker at the premiere with Daria Klimentova as his Clara....that’s a good number of years  in that role! Really hope we can see him as Nephew one day. 

Hello Emeralds…I too love this production, partly because I’ve brought my two daughters almost every year since 2010, when we saw Erina Takahashi and Dmitri Gruzdyev in the two lead roles. I will have to check who was the Nutcracker at that first performance we saw, I think it may have been Fabian Remair. If I recall correctly, I saw Junor Souza play the Prince in 2014? Anyway - this production has become part of my family’s tradition and it never fails to enchant! 

[Emeralds]

Slightly disappointed to have to change our Nutcracker dates to January due to illness among us, so will miss Emma and Aitor (again!) but pleased to get Francesca Velicu and Daniel McCormick, both of whom I’ve not yet seen as Clara & Nephew. Hopefully I will catch Emma and Aitor, as well as a few other principals and soloists I keep being unable to catch, next season. 

 

On 24/12/2022 at 20:56, CCL said:

Hello Emeralds…I too love this production, partly because I’ve brought my two daughters almost every year since 2010, when we saw Erina Takahashi and Dmitri Gruzdyev in the two lead roles. I will have to check who was the Nutcracker at that first performance we saw, I think it may have been Fabian Remair. If I recall correctly, I saw Junor Souza play the Prince in 2014? Anyway - this production has become part of my family’s tradition and it never fails to enchant! 

That’s great that you saw Junor in the role of Nephew previously, CCL! Wonder if he’ll be doing it next season. He could be one of the very few to dance Nephew, Nutcracker as well as Drosselmeyer! (Can’t remember off the top of my head if he has done Mouse King as well.)  It’s also our family tradition now (as RB doesn’t present Nutcracker every year) - the pointe shoe tree, the front curtain, watching the orchestra tune up, seeing the “skaters” at the beginning, the dance of the snowflakes, etc. We love it.  

[Dawnstar]

A few curtain call photos from last night's Nutcracker with Julia Conway as Clara, Francesco Gabriele Frola as the Nephew, Fernando Carratala Coloma as the Nutcracker, Fabian Reimair as Drosselmeyer & James Streeter as the Mouse King. I am still gathering my thoughts about the production so will be making a written post later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Dawnstar

[LinMM]

Lovely piccies Dawnstar 🙏 

[Jan McNulty]

Great photographs Dawnstar.  I absolutely love the 5th one down - it is so full of joy!

[Dawnstar]

It was Conway & Frola's last performance last night so maybe that was why they looked so happy! (I don't mean happy to not do any others but happy that they finished their run with a good performance.)

[Dawnstar]

Right, trying to compile my thoughts about ENB's Nutcracker. [Warning: if you don't enjoy nit-picking or attempts to apply logic to ballet then I'd suggest not reading on.] I'd say that my reaction was rather split in two between the performances, which I though were all very good, and the production, which I found a lot more mixed. In context, I saw it only 2 days after seeing the RB's Nutcracker for the 3rd time this season so comparisons were inevitable & I'm afraid overall not on the side of ENB.

 

In terms of performances, I'd booked this cast almost entirely to see Francesco Gabriele Frola, my favourite ENB male dancer who I've seen in each ENB production I've seen since seeing him in Manon in January 2019 when I had no clue who anyone other than Rojo & Cojocaru were at ENB. I certainly struck lucky! He's impressed me every time I've seen him since & this was no exception. I didn't recognise him when he was first on stage, as he was under a large hat & the focus was on Drosselmeyer, but as soon as he jumped I knew it was him! I wish he'd had more to do in the first act, as he spent most of the party scene just stood at the side. In the second act his solo was my favourite part. I was also impressed that in one lift in the grand pdd once Clara was in balance aloft he lifted a leg so he was standing on one foot. I recall him doing something similar in the Corsaire pdd at the Dance for Ukraine gala in March but I've not seen it done in a Nutcracker pdd before. Does anyone know if it's a standard part of ENB's Nutcracker choreography or if it's a Frola special?

 

It was the first time I'd seen Julia Conway in a significant role & I thought she gave a good performance but I can't say I really warmed to her Clara. I guess there are just some dancers one instinctively really likes & others perhaps not quite so much. Fernando Carratala Columa, who first came to my attention in the La Syphide pdd at the Dance for Ukraine gala, was very good as the Nutcracker. Fabian Reimair was a nice, benign Drosselmeyer. James Streeter was fabulous as the Mouse King & looked like he was enjoying himself immensely. Unsurprisingly he looked very hot when he removed his mask at the curtain call! I enjoyed Lorenzo Trosello in the Spanish, Katja Khaniukova in the Chinese & Ken Saruhashi in the Russian. The children dancing the young Clara & Freddie were incredibly poised especially given they both looked about eight (though I'm assuming they must be more like eleven).

 

When I entered the Coliseum the foyer was very full so I didn't even notice a screen near the box office, let alone see it was displaying cast change information some of the time. I didn't see any cast change information at the desk where I got a cast sheet. Despite that I did manage to spot the 2 cast changes in Act 1, or at least I thought "The Grandfather looks rather young considering Michael Coleman's about 80" and "That doesn't look like Emily Suzuki". Sure enough, when I happened upon the cast change screen in the interval there were cast changes for the Grandfather & a Lead Snowflake. The latter replacement was Katja Khaniukova, who I completely failed to recognise as not only is she one of those dancers who I tend to find difficult to recognise but she's also gone from brunette to blonde since I last saw her dance! There were also several cast changes in Act II, some of which when I came to transfer them to the cast sheet afterwards didn't entirely make sense so I'm still not sure who exactly I saw in a couple of the diverts.

 

Right, the production itself. This will be rather stream-of-consciousness so I don't know how much sense it will make & I'm afraid there are comparisons to the 2 Wright Nutcracker productions, which are the ones I'm familiar with.

 

I liked the skaters at the start, though it did make me with the RB would do another Les Patineurs revival! Family getting ready for party, fine. I'm afraid I found the party itself rather interminable. I'm not in general a fan of seeing children on stage & while all the children performed well I would have preferred to see a bit less of them. I think I would have preferred seeing Clara danced by an adult throughout. I would also have preferred to see a lot less of the annoying character in a kilt! I couldn't understand what was the point of Drosselmeyer bringing on a puppet theatre only for there to only be a few seconds of puppetry before Louise & her suitors took over. Why did the party seem to end so abruptly & why did Clara appear already in her nightgown to say goodbye to Drosselmeyer & his Nephew? She gave something - a hair ribbon? - to the Nephew which I thought might reappear with some significance in later on but I didn't spot it again. Frankly given she only looked about 8 she seemed a bit young to have an instant crush on the Nephew anyway.

 

Why did Clara run out of her bedroom? The logical thing would have been for her to be scared of the mouse that appeared but she didn't seem to look at it before running. Why did she then run once across stage before reappearing as an adult? I didn't really understand why she transformed from child to adult at that moment. Given she was an adult in her dream then I think I would have preferred it if she had been an adult from when she got out of bed. Then Freddie appeared still as a child & only transformed into an adult part-way through the battle scene. In fact given how little adult Freddie had to do it hardly seemed worth him transforming. The mice were the one thing that was better than in the RB's production in my opinion. Great costumes - as a child I think I would have found the Mouse King pretty scary, though as an adult it was hard to be frightened by him given I've been watching ENB's videos on Twitter of him scampering round the Coli! - and adult mice as well as child ones. The mousetrap catapult was amusing. Why was the Mouse King the one to cause the tree to grow rather than Drosselmeyer? What are we supposed to assume happens to the soldiers seen taken off as prisoners by the mice? It would have been nice to quickly see them be freed when the Nutcracker finally kills the Mouse King in Act II to tie up that loose end.

 

How was it that the Nutcracker had an injured arm, then it was fine for him to dance with Clara for a couple of minutes, then suddenly it was injured again so he had to leave & be replaced by the Nephew? I thought the swap wasted some of the best music. I would have preferred them to either swap earlier or not swap at all, so the same pairing danced the whole of that pdd. The snowflakes scene was attractive. The hot air balloon would have been nice if there hadn't been an all too visible stagehand pulling a rope in the wings!

 

I couldn't understand the logic behind the Nutcracker & Nephew swaps at the start of Act II. I think I would have preferred either for it to be all Nephew from the end of the battle, like in the RB & BRB productions or, given the Mouse King isn't killed until Act II, all Nutcracker until that point. As it is, they just seem to swap randomly. Of the diverts I liked the Spanish & Russian and I liked the Chinese apart from the weapon twirling. A pity there's no Arabian. I wasn't very keen on the Mirliton with Drosselmeyer chasing a butterfly. I also wasn't sure whether the appearances of Precious Adams as Louise, Lead Snowflake & Mirliton meant that Clara dreamed about her older sister in 2 roles or that they just all happened to be danced by the same dancer but weren't supposed to be manifestations of the same character. (Incidentally, I thought Adams dealt well with the tights and shoes question by using pale ones to match the rest of the snowflakes then dark ones when solo in the Mirliton.) I had expected the grand pdd to be the one dance that would use the same choreography as the RB & BRB productions but while some of it was the same it wasn't all the same,

The ending was quite nice but I didn't think had the emotional impact of the RB's. Why were Drosselmeyer & his Nephew still standing outside the children's house hours after the party? Or did the party not end when it appeared to end at 9pm in Act I but the children were sent to bed & the party carried on until after midnight elsewhere in the house?

 

Now probably someone will tell me "it was all a dream" and I shouldn't try to make sense of it! That is if anyone has got this far!

[LinMM]

I will comment more tomorrow Dawnstar but you’ve definitely hit the nail on the head as to why I don’t really like the ENB production that much. 
Meanwhile Happy New Year and always enjoy your posts!! 

[Jan McNulty]

7 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

Right, trying to compile my thoughts about ENB's Nutcracker. [Warning: if you don't enjoy nit-picking or attempts to apply logic to ballet then I'd suggest not reading on.] 

 

 

Beautifully put Dawnstar.  I don’t like this production at all and your thoughts sum up my feelings too.  Thank you.

[Sim]

And mine. Thanks for your thoughts, Dawnstar. 

[Emeralds]

On 31/12/2022 at 21:37, Dawnstar said:

Right, trying to compile my thoughts about ENB's Nutcracker. [Warning: if you don't enjoy nit-picking or attempts to apply logic to ballet then I'd suggest not reading on.] I'd say that my reaction was rather split in two between the performances, which I though were all very good, and the production, which I found a lot more mixed. In context, I saw it only 2 days after seeing the RB's Nutcracker for the 3rd time this season so comparisons were inevitable & I'm afraid overall not on the side of ENB.

 

In terms of performances, I'd booked this cast almost entirely to see Francesco Gabriele Frola, my favourite ENB male dancer who I've seen in each ENB production I've seen since seeing him in Manon in January 2019 when I had no clue who anyone other than Rojo & Cojocaru were at ENB. I certainly struck lucky! He's impressed me every time I've seen him since & this was no exception. I didn't recognise him when he was first on stage, as he was under a large hat & the focus was on Drosselmeyer, but as soon as he jumped I knew it was him! I wish he'd had more to do in the first act, as he spent most of the party scene just stood at the side. In the second act his solo was my favourite part. I was also impressed that in one lift in the grand pdd once Clara was in balance aloft he lifted a leg so he was standing on one foot. I recall him doing something similar in the Corsaire pdd at the Dance for Ukraine gala in March but I've not seen it done in a Nutcracker pdd before. Does anyone know if it's a standard part of ENB's Nutcracker choreography or if it's a Frola special?

 

It was the first time I'd seen Julia Conway in a significant role & I thought she gave a good performance but I can't say I really warmed to her Clara. I guess there are just some dancers one instinctively really likes & others perhaps not quite so much. Fernando Carratala Columa, who first came to my attention in the La Syphide pdd at the Dance for Ukraine gala, was very good as the Nutcracker. Fabian Reimair was a nice, benign Drosselmeyer. James Streeter was fabulous as the Mouse King & looked like he was enjoying himself immensely. Unsurprisingly he looked very hot when he removed his mask at the curtain call! I enjoyed Lorenzo Trosello in the Spanish, Katja Khaniukova in the Chinese & Ken Saruhashi in the Russian. The children dancing the young Clara & Freddie were incredibly poised especially given they both looked about eight (though I'm assuming they must be more like eleven).

 

When I entered the Coliseum the foyer was very full so I didn't even notice a screen near the box office, let alone see it was displaying cast change information some of the time. I didn't see any cast change information at the desk where I got a cast sheet. Despite that I did manage to spot the 2 cast changes in Act 1, or at least I thought "The Grandfather looks rather young considering Michael Coleman's about 80" and "That doesn't look like Emily Suzuki". Sure enough, when I happened upon the cast change screen in the interval there were cast changes for the Grandfather & a Lead Snowflake. The latter replacement was Katja Khaniukova, who I completely failed to recognise as not only is she one of those dancers who I tend to find difficult to recognise but she's also gone from brunette to blonde since I last saw her dance! There were also several cast changes in Act II, some of which when I came to transfer them to the cast sheet afterwards didn't entirely make sense so I'm still not sure who exactly I saw in a couple of the diverts.

 

Right, the production itself. This will be rather stream-of-consciousness so I don't know how much sense it will make & I'm afraid there are comparisons to the 2 Wright Nutcracker productions, which are the ones I'm familiar with.

 

I liked the skaters at the start, though it did make me with the RB would do another Les Patineurs revival! Family getting ready for party, fine. I'm afraid I found the party itself rather interminable. I'm not in general a fan of seeing children on stage & while all the children performed well I would have preferred to see a bit less of them. I think I would have preferred seeing Clara danced by an adult throughout. I would also have preferred to see a lot less of the annoying character in a kilt! I couldn't understand what was the point of Drosselmeyer bringing on a puppet theatre only for there to only be a few seconds of puppetry before Louise & her suitors took over. Why did the party seem to end so abruptly & why did Clara appear already in her nightgown to say goodbye to Drosselmeyer & his Nephew? She gave something - a hair ribbon? - to the Nephew which I thought might reappear with some significance in later on but I didn't spot it again. Frankly given she only looked about 8 she seemed a bit young to have an instant crush on the Nephew anyway.

 

Why did Clara run out of her bedroom? The logical thing would have been for her to be scared of the mouse that appeared but she didn't seem to look at it before running. Why did she then run once across stage before reappearing as an adult? I didn't really understand why she transformed from child to adult at that moment. Given she was an adult in her dream then I think I would have preferred it if she had been an adult from when she got out of bed. Then Freddie appeared still as a child & only transformed into an adult part-way through the battle scene. In fact given how little adult Freddie had to do it hardly seemed worth him transforming. The mice were the one thing that was better than in the RB's production in my opinion. Great costumes - as a child I think I would have found the Mouse King pretty scary, though as an adult it was hard to be frightened by him given I've been watching ENB's videos on Twitter of him scampering round the Coli! - and adult mice as well as child ones. The mousetrap catapult was amusing. Why was the Mouse King the one to cause the tree to grow rather than Drosselmeyer? What are we supposed to assume happens to the soldiers seen taken off as prisoners by the mice? It would have been nice to quickly see them be freed when the Nutcracker finally kills the Mouse King in Act II to tie up that loose end.

 

How was it that the Nutcracker had an injured arm, then it was fine for him to dance with Clara for a couple of minutes, then suddenly it was injured again so he had to leave & be replaced by the Nephew? I thought the swap wasted some of the best music. I would have preferred them to either swap earlier or not swap at all, so the same pairing danced the whole of that pdd. The snowflakes scene was attractive. The hot air balloon would have been nice if there hadn't been an all too visible stagehand pulling a rope in the wings!

 

I couldn't understand the logic behind the Nutcracker & Nephew swaps at the start of Act II. I think I would have preferred either for it to be all Nephew from the end of the battle, like in the RB & BRB productions or, given the Mouse King isn't killed until Act II, all Nutcracker until that point. As it is, they just seem to swap randomly. Of the diverts I liked the Spanish & Russian and I liked the Chinese apart from the weapon twirling. A pity there's no Arabian. I wasn't very keen on the Mirliton with Drosselmeyer chasing a butterfly. I also wasn't sure whether the appearances of Precious Adams as Louise, Lead Snowflake & Mirliton meant that Clara dreamed about her older sister in 2 roles or that they just all happened to be danced by the same dancer but weren't supposed to be manifestations of the same character. (Incidentally, I thought Adams dealt well with the tights and shoes question by using pale ones to match the rest of the snowflakes then dark ones when solo in the Mirliton.) I had expected the grand pdd to be the one dance that would use the same choreography as the RB & BRB productions but while some of it was the same it wasn't all the same,

The ending was quite nice but I didn't think had the emotional impact of the RB's. Why were Drosselmeyer & his Nephew still standing outside the children's house hours after the party? Or did the party not end when it appeared to end at 9pm in Act I but the children were sent to bed & the party carried on until after midnight elsewhere in the house?

 

Now probably someone will tell me "it was all a dream" and I shouldn't try to make sense of it! That is if anyone has got this far!

I think Eagling and van Schayk were referencing the original literary source - ETA Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and The Mouse King - for their production, which is why there are quite a lot of bits that don’t seem very “balletic”, even a little dark and somewhat incongruous, because we’re used to the English (Royal Ballet and London Festival Ballet who eventually become ENB) distilling of the early St Petersburg productions from the notation brought out to the west by Sergeyev. 

 

Unlike Giselle/Sleeping Beauty/Swan Lake, modern productions of Nutcracker actually are the least like the original. There are notation records but not great ones apart from the Sugar Plum Fairy solo, and part of the Snowflakes and grand pas de deux, and the impression is that what notation remained of the original wasn’t that choreographically exciting, perhaps due to Ivanov’s attempts to make the children’s party scenes look authentic (literally lots of kids running about making mayhem, according to critics of the time) and having to take on the whole project at short notice when Petipa fell ill.

 

The grand pas de deux and SPF/Prince solos also evolved differently in Russia after Sergeyev took the notations of the older productions to England (eg the Russian version has hops on pointe for SPF and no gargouillades). Nureyev and Baryshnikov made their own versions with that Russian version as a starting point (you can see Nureyev’s version of the SPF solo on YouTube looking fairly similar in places to the Mariinsky and Bolshoi ones on YouTube) and Eagling seems to have mixed a little of those versions into the SPF solo in his own production. 

 

There  have been  hundreds  of different professional Nutcracker versions ever since Tchaikovsky’s ballet was premiered with its companion piece opera Iolantha (thousands if you include amateur and semi professional ones) perhaps because the notation records weren’t as great as those for Giselle, La Sylphide, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, or simply not available to many companies, and possibly, I suspect, because Nutcracker didn’t sit well politically with the politics of communist  Russia hence it wasn’t performed that much after Ivanov’s passing, so no accepted “standard reading” of the solos and pas de deux exist, although conversely in the west, the beauty of the Tchaikovsky score and our love for all things Christmas has made Nutcracker a sentimental favourite and an annual box office stalwart. (London has had 3 productions this year by RB, ENB, BRB).

 

We think of Peter Wright’s RB & BRB productions as being “gold standard” in this country (although the Balanchine and SFB Christensen productions in the US have an even longer history) but even his  productions didn’t appear overnight; Sir Peter has refined and redone his productions since making the first version in 1984 on RB. He actually had an all-child Stahlbaum offspring cast (Clara and Fritz were both portrayed by children, the child Clara stayed on stage right to curtain down) in his version in 1987 for over a decade until he did a complete U turn by having Clara danced by a principal or promising soloist with choreography that made her one of the lead roles rather than simple child-like steps in his original version, and involved her in the Act 2 divertissements.

 

I remember seeing it on tv with Cojocaru as Clara after having stopped attending Nutcrackers for over 12 years because the younger me found them too childish, twee, negatively stereotyped, and quite boring in Act 1 and finding it a complete revelation and so refreshing, especially with the luminous Cojocaru dancing the Clara role.

 

I think Eagling has tried to merge the Clara and SPF roles so that the ballerina is really dancing a substantial role rather than just mainly the grand pas de deux at the end. (Baryshnikov and Nureyev did the same), but at the same time, he did want a story, as Hoffmann intended, that was about children. I do really like the fact that Clara and her brother make up at the end of the ENB production and tell each other about the dreams they had, and it is - sort of- supposed to remain just that. The timeline, with Drosselmeyer and his nephew only just leaving the house at the end, is supposed to suggest that Clara had a very early bedtime and has fallen asleep and dreamt all the adventures and divertissements with herself as an adult while her parents and Drosselmeyer & his adult nephew were still chatting, having coffee, etc etc in their house, whereas in Wright’s version, all the guests have left and the parents retire to bed around the same time as Clara. 

 

I think where the production is suffers, compared to the 38 year old RB production and some others,  is that the ENB Nutcracker has overly sparse  design in Act 2 compared to the very similar version he did for Dutch National Ballet, which is really opulent in Act 2. I understand that this was to enable the ENB Nutcracker to go on tour, yet in its decade long history it hasn’t gone on tour - it’s remained at the Coliseum every Christmas, so giving it a nicer Act 2 set might be a good start.

 

I do actually find that all productions of Nutcracker everywhere have at least one or two problems with them, although that doesn’t stop the music and the dancing being very enchanting when performed in a theatre. 

[alison]

Surely ENB has toured the current Nutcracker to a few places over the years?  Southampton and Liverpool are coming to mind, although I'm not sure whether I'm right about either.

[Emeralds]

You could be right, Alison, but although I remember Le Corsaire going on tour to Milton Keynes, Paris, Singapore etc (and Le Corsaire has more elaborate and cumbersome sets), I’m struggling to recall this Nutcracker going anywhere outside London before the Coliseum or at any other time. I’ve always remembered it starting in early December or mid December then soldiering on (pun not intended) till early January. I can’t possibly memorise ENB’s every single season, but ever since it premiered, I don’t recall it being anywhere else.....if anyone has more conclusive proof than my guesstimates, I’d be pleased if he/she can fill in the information gaps! 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

PS Dawnstar- I think it’s a Frola and Conway special! (Unless some other pairs decide to give it a go next week as well!)  I can’t be 100% certain, but when Frola made his debut in Nutcracker some seasons ago partnering Alina Cojocaru, I don’t remember him doing that in the pas de deux! 

[Pas de Quatre]

Not sure that it ever came to Southampton, the Christmas season always has a huge panto production.  According to recent articles in the press about theatres dire financial position, most are dependent on their panto season to generate a large proportion of annual ticket revenue.

 

Dawnstar-  Nureyev did that lifting one leg when he danced Nutcracker at RB, but I don't know where it came from, probably brought it with him from Russia.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Pas de Quatre
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[Jan McNulty]

7 hours ago, alison said:

Surely ENB has toured the current Nutcracker to a few places over the years?  Southampton and Liverpool are coming to mind, although I'm not sure whether I'm right about either.

I’ve had the misfortune to see it twice in Liverpool!

[LinMM]

My problem with commenting on the current ENB Nutcracker is that I haven’t seen it since about 2015/2016 so six or seven years now and I’ve been told ….and also read some critics who say that some changes have been made since the first few seasons of this Production which started around 2010 I believe. 
Im also a bit loathe to be too hard on Wayne Eagling as loved him so much as a dancer back in the day!! 
However from what Dawnstar has said above one of the things which annoyed me a lot hasn’t changed much….and that is when that glorious music is playing towards the end of Act one ….just before Snowflakes…the “pas de deux” with Clara becomes a pas de trois and somehow interrupts the real flow here and just hate all that mask thing ….even though this may be trying to be closer to the original Hoffman story. 
A real confession here…I’ve never read it! So maybe it’s time to have a look at the very original tale especially in light of the other thread here (The Nutcracker as a different Story…..by Vladislav) about a much darker version matching the music of Tchaikovsky more in parts 

I do have distant memories now of Nureyev’s production for the RB which tried to bring out a darker side and certainly had a lot more choreography for the lead male role than there had been before…welcome at the time …but then he made it almost too complicated and too many steps for the music is what I remember but of course haven’t seen that version for even longer now!! 
The other thing that I found a bit irritating is the hot air balloon idea and the King Rat being carried off into the second Act which suddenly turned him into a more comedy role rather than a menace ….though of course the whole rats and soldiers ‘battle’ scenes are never that serious …though no doubt some under 7 year olds in the audience might find the Rat King rather frightening!! I just prefer the Rats to be dealt with in Act one and Clara saving the day makes dramatic sense in the music at that point as it lilts into the pas de deux. 
I think the way the first and second Acts are connected in the RB version is more magical and satisfying and definitely a lot brighter than ENB’s! 
I see that again from Dawnstar’s comments above there is now no Arabian Dance at all in the second Act….so that is one change….but not for the better it seems! 
The original Arabian dance in this production was a bit over the top and rather uncomfortable viewing with the more slavish role of the girls under the control of their male owners made very obvious ….I think they were roped together in the early days but maybe I’ve mis remembered this!! 
So although this may be much nearer the reality in real life it just was out of place in the Nutcracker Ballet at Christmas!! 
So this particular dance did need a bit of revising but to get rid of it altogether doesn’t seem right either as  the Tchaikovsky music is so evocative and deserves to be used. 
This whole Act is a fantastical dream anyway so doesn’t have to go for realism in any big way! 
There is rather a nice interview with Wayne Eagling somewhere on YouTube in which he says ( admitting wryly that he probably shouldn’t have said it) that when he became Artistic Director of the Dutch National he was glad to be joining a Company which didn’t do the Nutcracker!!! So perhaps not his favourite ballet! But also ironic in that his Nutcracker has been a bit of a lasting legacy for ENB so far and although may not be my particular favourite is still generally very popular. 

 

Perhaps there is a disconnect between the original Hoffman tale and the Ballet somehow becoming something a bit lighter for Christmas that you enjoy taking children to. So trying to make it more relevant or a more serious piece of work is always going to be a problem now I think. 
Personally I would be up for something entirely different ( as expressed on the other thread) as could then take it in turns to see a different Nutcracker every year! But I now really do need to see ENB’s version again at least …..so will make a point of going next year and reading the original Hoffman tale! 
Sorry this is a little long now! 





 

Edited January 2, 2023 by LinMM

[LinMM]

Reflecting on your comment Dawnstar about Clara’s sister Louise ( in ENB prod.) dancing in different dances I do believe that ….well certainly in the first season it was danced when I first saw it …that a sort of grown up Freddie was cast as the male in the Arabian Dance 😳 

So not sure what must have been going on in Clara’s dreams as a child…especially as no internet available in Nutcrackers time!! 
Must get to that Hoffman tale maybe there’s a clue there……

Edited January 2, 2023 by LinMM

[LinMM]

Actually the above is slightly wrong!
In the original in the Arabian….Freddie is cast in the dance….but not as a young male version of himself ….just as himself a boy prisoner of the Slave owner with the “hareem” women as well …so even more bizarre for Clara’s dreams….although she does rescue him…but certainly the setting for this is bizarre. 
I wonder when the Arabian Dance was first tweaked after 2010/11 version ….I’m sure it wasn’t that much different in 2015-16 …..and when it was first abandoned altogether….was that just this year? 
No wonder there is some confusion about the Nutcracker….apparently the Ballet is not really based on the Hoffman tale so much but on a French version of it by Alexander Dumas ( of Three Musketeers fame) which is much lighter in tone than the original apparently (in which Clara (or Marie) struggles with her parents over strict upbringing!!!! ) So no wonder it’s hard to suddenly start introducing darker elements if deciding to go back to the older Hoffman version because the Ballet was not initially based on this one.
 

[Dawnstar]

I hope they get the Arabian re-choreographed & re-instated at some point. There was a review somewhere in the last month of the Links for a new Nutcracker at I think Stuttgart with the Arabian danced by a couple of Bactrian camels, which sounds great fun & surely couldn't offend anyone, so maybe ENB could come up with something like that!

[alison]

If you look back at the thread for last year, it sounds as though the Arabian had been rechoreographed (for 4 females), but didn't always appear, which I assume was down to Covid-related practicalities:

It does rather sound as though they've dropped it for this year, but perhaps anyone who spots it could post and let us know?  If Precious Adams is having to change from dancing sister Louise to being a Snowflake and then back again, does it suggest that they're short on numbers of female dancers for some roles?

[CCL]

Dawnstar, I really enjoyed reading your take on the production- it was interesting to see it through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time. I definitely agree with you regarding the man in the kilt - that has always jarred with me! And my other beef regarding this production is the somewhat empty stage in Act 2, as Emeralds mentioned above - intriguing to hear this may have been for touring purposes. However, as I said upthread, I’m very fond of this production, warts and all. Perhaps because my children were so young when I first took them, it’s always felt magical to me. Thank you Emeralds for your fascinating contextualisation of the original sources and how that may have influenced Eagling’s intentions. 

[Dawnstar]

58 minutes ago, alison said:

It does rather sound as though they've dropped it for this year, but perhaps anyone who spots it could post and let us know?  If Precious Adams is having to change from dancing sister Louise to being a Snowflake and then back again, does it suggest that they're short on numbers of female dancers for some roles?

 

Some of the first night reviews for this year mentioned the lack of the Arabian so it sounds like they have entirely taken it out for this year's run rather than having to cut it at some performances due to dancer shortages.

[Emeralds]

13 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I’ve had the misfortune to see it twice in Liverpool!

Thanks for filling in the information gaps, Janet.

[Emeralds]

10 hours ago, LinMM said:

My problem with commenting on the current ENB Nutcracker is that I haven’t seen it since about 2015/2016 so six or seven years now and I’ve been told ….and also read some critics who say that some changes have been made since the first few seasons of this Production which started around 2010 I believe. 
Im also a bit loathe to be too hard on Wayne Eagling as loved him so much as a dancer back in the day!! 
However from what Dawnstar has said above one of the things which annoyed me a lot hasn’t changed much….and that is when that glorious music is playing towards the end of Act one ….just before Snowflakes…the “pas de deux” with Clara becomes a pas de trois and somehow interrupts the real flow here and just hate all that mask thing ….even though this may be trying to be closer to the original Hoffman story. 
A real confession here…I’ve never read it! So maybe it’s time to have a look at the very original tale especially in light of the other thread here (The Nutcracker as a different Story…..by Vladislav) about a much darker version matching the music of Tchaikovsky more in parts 

I do have distant memories now of Nureyev’s production for the RB which tried to bring out a darker side and certainly had a lot more choreography for the lead male role than there had been before…welcome at the time …but then he made it almost too complicated and too many steps for the music is what I remember but of course haven’t seen that version for even longer now!! 
The other thing that I found a bit irritating is the hot air balloon idea and the King Rat being carried off into the second Act which suddenly turned him into a more comedy role rather than a menace ….though of course the whole rats and soldiers ‘battle’ scenes are never that serious …though no doubt some under 7 year olds in the audience might find the Rat King rather frightening!! I just prefer the Rats to be dealt with in Act one and Clara saving the day makes dramatic sense in the music at that point as it lilts into the pas de deux. 
I think the way the first and second Acts are connected in the RB version is more magical and satisfying and definitely a lot brighter than ENB’s! 
I see that again from Dawnstar’s comments above there is now no Arabian Dance at all in the second Act….so that is one change….but not for the better it seems! 
The original Arabian dance in this production was a bit over the top and rather uncomfortable viewing with the more slavish role of the girls under the control of their male owners made very obvious ….I think they were roped together in the early days but maybe I’ve mis remembered this!! 
So although this may be much nearer the reality in real life it just was out of place in the Nutcracker Ballet at Christmas!! 
So this particular dance did need a bit of revising but to get rid of it altogether doesn’t seem right either as  the Tchaikovsky music is so evocative and deserves to be used. 
This whole Act is a fantastical dream anyway so doesn’t have to go for realism in any big way! 
There is rather a nice interview with Wayne Eagling somewhere on YouTube in which he says ( admitting wryly that he probably shouldn’t have said it) that when he became Artistic Director of the Dutch National he was glad to be joining a Company which didn’t do the Nutcracker!!! So perhaps not his favourite ballet! But also ironic in that his Nutcracker has been a bit of a lasting legacy for ENB so far and although may not be my particular favourite is still generally very popular. 

 

Perhaps there is a disconnect between the original Hoffman tale and the Ballet somehow becoming something a bit lighter for Christmas that you enjoy taking children to. So trying to make it more relevant or a more serious piece of work is always going to be a problem now I think. 
Personally I would be up for something entirely different ( as expressed on the other thread) as could then take it in turns to see a different Nutcracker every year! But I now really do need to see ENB’s version again at least …..so will make a point of going next year and reading the original Hoffman tale! 
Sorry this is a little long now! 





 

I think a lot of us growing up with a very U-rated or PG rated Nutcracker would be surprised at the original story and some very surrealist, dark or sinister versions that have been staged in Europe that aren’t meant to be for family viewing. The Hoffmann take itself was toned down into a story written by Alexandre Dumas Sr into the more child-friendly tale that then inspired Tchaikovsky and Petipa (and choreographed by Ivanov). The American ones are even more tame as it is very much a children’s show accompanied by adults rather than the other way round here. (Did anyone catch the NYCB production at the crack of dawn on SkyArts today?)

 

I’ve brought 6 to 8 year olds to the production as has a friend of mine- the children didn’t find any of the mice scary although I should point out we were in Circle seats looking down rather than front row of Stalls, so the mice probably do look more unreal and funny higher up, as well as the fact that the dancers portraying Mouse King always remove their masks at curtain calls so the children know it’s just a person play acting. I must admit I didn’t really like the original version of the Arabian dance where an older Freddie is prisoner along with four women, although in ENB’s version Clara rescues Freddie so she triumphs over the situation. The children who went didn’t seem to register this story in the Arabian dance all that much, and from some of the seats further back, it’s often difficult for them to see much detail.

 

Thanks for relaying that interview with Eagling that you watched, LinMM! That’s really interesting that he said that about DNB having no Nutcracker because of course, this Nutcracker was originally made by him for Dutch National Ballet while he was director there, so he evidently capitulated, and they do still perform it- it’s one of their big hits every season.  There are some differences between that version and the ENB one, just like Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella for the Mariinsky and the Australian Ballet have some differences but both are very similar and unmistakably his choreography. But yeah, do watch the ENB version again next year and tell us what you think.

[Dawnstar]

I've just dug out & re-watched the cut-down Nutcracker Delights version that ENB streamed in 2020. I actually prefered it to the full production because so many of the things that I found puzzling or irritating were cut out! (Though of course I wouldn't want to travel down to London for a performance that lasted under an hour.) The summary at the start did answer one of the many things I was puzzled by when watching the full production: Clara got out of bed because she realised she'd left her Nutcracker doll alone downstairs. Incidentally the Nutcracker doll used in the cut-down version looked much nicer than the one used on stage the other day which, presumably due to the mechanism required to make it move, had disproportionally & unattractively large boots.

[LinMM]

Have to admit Dawnstar your comment about some Company having two Bactrian camels dance to the Arabian music did make me laugh! 
It could be Tchaikovsky turning in his grave at that one lol!! 
What is it about this Arabian dance it’s perfectly nice almost hypnotic music shouldn’t be that difficult to choreograph without offence. 
Mind you I love camels and was friendly with a dark brown one in a small field near Glyndebourne for a couple of years …don’t know if it was a Bactrian one but they certainly do have rather hypnotic eyes!! 

Edited January 3, 2023 by LinMM