Matinee of George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'

On Saturday, December 7th, we saw 'The Nutcracker' with our nephew and his family.  I was looking forward to seeing a cast with several new faces (for us) in the featured roles and an interesting pairing for the Sugarplum and her Cavalier (Ashley Bouder & Tyler Angle).

Clotilde Otranto conducted the overture (in fact the entire performance) at a brisk pace. I've always missed Robert Irving's conducting of the NYC Ballet orchestra, nevermore than during the company's annual 'Nutcracker' season.  He always seemed to be using the overture to make sure that he had the orchestra's full attention for the entire performance -- adding different phrasings and rubato at each playing and introducing variety of tempi and volume during musical repeats.  As a result, he always had the best rapport between the pit and the stage and was able to truly 'conduct' the performance of both the orchestra and the dancers.  Maestra Otranto seems the best of the current conducting staff, but I would hold up Maestro Irving as the gold standard.

Act I (which for viewers like us who have seen 'The Nutcracker' at least once a year for more than 46 years can seem long and boring) was surprisingly lively and entertaining. David Prottas' Drosselmeier is carefully conceived as an eccentric, but ultimately warm-hearted member of the family.  He's not afraid to play him as a generally younger, less crotchety bachelor, who interacts playfully with the children without the sinister undertones that can make others in the role seem a little too creepy.

In the Party Scene there's always so much activity that it can be hard to know where to look.  Sean Suozzi and Gretchen Smith as Dr. & Frau Stahlbaum were gracious hosts and stern, but loving parents, and Claire Von Enck & Austin Bachman were genial and engaged grandparents with only minimal signs senility or infirmity.  Spartak Hoxha was crisp and buoyant as the Toy Soldier.  The children of the School of American Ballet (SAB) acquitted themselves very well in the dancing and the mime, although Henry Berlin seems unusually tall for the mischievous little brother, Fritz.

The transformation of the Christmas Tree and the Battle with the Mice passed without a hitch.  Max Landegger as the Nephew/Nutcracker/Prince defended Rommie Tomasini's Marie gallantly and she threw her shoe at the Mouse King with good aim and timing.

Finally, the dance of the Snowflakes arrived.  Balanchine's swirling, crystalline patterns for the sixteen snowflakes coupled with the ever more densely falling snow are the very essence of winter and one of the glories of this production.  All sixteen ballerinas held onto their snowball props (we've come to expect at least one to end up on the stage -- creating an additional hazard amidst the accumulating drifts of fake snow).  The only disappointment was that the recorded choir voices were slightly out of sync with orchestra -- calling attention away from the stage to the pit where Maestra Otranto was attempting to dial back the fast pace she had set earlier in the scene.

Act II, set in 'the Kingdom of the Sweets', is weighted heavily toward dance.  The 12 little angels, gliding to Otranto's fast tempo, were adorable and precise as Rockettes.  Ashley Bouder, as the Sugarplum Fairy and ruler of this realm, has technique to spare, but I always wish that she would lose the smugness and that cocky glance at the audience when she finishes an especially difficult sequence with an astonishing balance held just short of forever.  Her interactions with the little angels seems more noblesse oblige than affectionate concern.

Once all of the sweets had assembled to greet Marie, now the Little Princess, and her Prince, Max Landegger gave a very clear reading of the mime scene describing his victory over the Mouse King.  Many years ago, we attended a seminar at SAB where Peter Boal taught the mime to a young student and explained each gesture to the audience.  Peter, who learned the mime for the Nephew/Nutcracker/Prince directly from Balanchine in the 70's, went on, of course, to a distinguished career dancing at NYCB and teaching at SAB before becoming Artistic Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.  It's a pleasure to see that the tradition continues to be passed on to each succeeding generation of Nutcracker Princes.

The suite of dances for the sweets generally went well.  Mary Elizabeth Sell and Andrew Scordato led Hot Chocolate with elan, although Andrew's precariously anchored hat went flying off during the final moments.  Megan LeCrone seemed a little under-powered as Coffee and could have had both more tautness and allure.  Harrison Ball as Tea seemed to tire near the end of his long series of air splits, but was otherwise incisive.  Troy Schumacher led the Candy Canes (aka 'Hoops') with high-flying vigor and precision. Lauren King rendered the difficult pointe work of the Marzipan Shepherdess with a delicacy and aplomb that twinkled with charm.  Cameron Dieck as Mother Ginger was less outrageous and more demure than many we have seen, turning much of the spotlight to the well-drilled Polichinelles from SAB.

Megan Fairchild's Dewdrop was a revelation.  Her dancing has often seemed self-contained and drab, but here, leading the Waltz of the Flowers, she was expansive and vivid, filling the stage space with a luminous and musically persuasive rendering of this iconic Balanchine role.  We've seen a long list of extraordinary ballerinas as the Dewdrop -- Schorer, McBride, Leland, Whelan, Nichols, Bouder, Mearns, to name a few -- and Megan deserves a place of honor on that list.  The entire Flowers ensemble deserves mention for their beautifully nuanced support of Megan's scintillating performance.

Ashley Bouder and Tyler Angle followed with a stunning grand pas de deux for the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier.  Tyler's strong, assured partnering gives Ashley the luxury of taking every risk and displaying every technical feat.  No ballerina we've seen since McBride (with Irving in the pit and Villella in support) gets the timing of the two multiple supported pirouettes into backbend completely in sync with the music, but Ashley and Tyler came close.  With Tyler's stalwart, steady support, Ashley executed a deep arabesque penchee while riding the metal plate en pointe that drew a collective gasp from the audience.  Their pdd ended with Tyler throwing Ashley high and then catching her triumphantly in a deep fish dive.  

The coda gives each performer in the Act II cast a chance for one last display of virtuosity. Megan Fairchild came through with a beautifully timed and sustained series of unsupported pirouettes and Tyler carried Ashley around the stage in a series of elegantly floating lifts.

Here's a picture of Megan Fairchild as the Sugarplum Fairy (couldn't locate a Dewdrop):

Megan Fairchild as the Sugarplum, New York City Ballet facebook page (probably by Kolnik)

SATURDAY MATINEE, DECEMBER 7, 2:00 PM
(Conductor: Otranto)
SUGARPLUM: Bouder; CAVALIER: T. Angle; DEWDROP: M. Fairchild; HERR DROSSELMEIER: Prottas; MARZIPAN: King; HOT CHOCOLATE: Sell, Scordato; COFFEE: LeCrone; TEA: Ball; CANDY CANE: Schumacher; MOTHER GINGER: Dieck; FLOWERS: Isaacs, Adams; DOLLS: Woodward, MacKinnon; SOLDIER: Hoxha; MOUSE KING: Thew; DR & FRAU STAHLBAUM: Smith, Suozzi