Choreography - Mikko Nissinen; Set and Costume Design - Robert Perdziola; Assistant Scenic Design - Micholas Kostner; Lighting Design - Mikki Kunttu.
Dancers. The Nutcracker Prince - Jeffrey Cirio; Sugar Plum Fairy - Ji Young Chae; Drosselmeier - Lasha Khozashvili; Clara - Sophie Hatton.
We saw the same program back in 2005, my recollection was the experience was generally forgettable. What stood out in my memory was the orchestra's sound was such that it sounded as if it came from two speakers on recording; that was my first use of "tinny" to describe the sound of an orchestra. I certainly didn't remember if it was a live orchestra or not. Going over the blog, I concluded the orchestra was live, and my complaint was limited to the orchestra - I had a lot of admiration for the ballet company.
This is 18 years later, I am still not sure about the orchestra. May be preconception dictates one's perception, the orchestra sound, while richer, was still on the tinny (second use) side. There was an artificiality to the sound that came and went. Not what a good performance of say the Nutcracker Suite would sound like. On the positive side, there were quite a few well-played movements.
The set was very different from the 2005 one (or what I remember of it, anyway). Certainly the Christmas tree was more impressive, and the mouse scene was choreographed very differently. Tonight the fights didn't happen in the dark. What was missing was this loud cannon shot that ended the fight; it was more of a "puff" today. Also there were more comic elements incorporated: a dancing bear, and a sheep that kept falling behind are two examples.
There is a lot of leg shaking - for lack of a better word - in the choreography. Yes, it looked as awkward as it sounded.
People who went in Joe's car got there early. DD wasn't in the picture as he and I were taking the T.
At first I thought it was a new Artistic Director, turns out Mikko Nissinen has been in the post since 2001. Today's performance is Mikko Nissinen's The Nutcracker, so perhaps this is new choreography he composed (designed?) after 2005.
Many who attend a Nutcracker performance are young children, so some noise during the performance is probably inevitable. While none rose to the level of "disruptive" (and parents are asked to take the children to the lobby), some were out of control, with behavior encouraged by their parents. The program booklet also says "no photography," but the insert limits the prohibition to "during the performance."
DD and I walked to the Assembly Square station to catch the T to Downtown Crossing, and the opera house is a three-minute walk away. Joe parked his car nearby, so it took no time to get back afterwards. We did stop by Assembly to pick up some take-out for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment