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Sarah Frater's rating
It's time for a new Nutcracker
By
Sarah Frater
17 Dec 2009
If there was a Nobel Prize for The Nutcracker, English National Ballet would walk off with it.
ENB was among the first to dance the ballet in full in England in 1950, and it’s been dancing it every Christmas ever since, with more performances and more productions than almost everyone else put together. It’s also helped popularise ballet itself, and weaned generations of children onto more grown-up styles of choreography.
Gallery: English National Ballet Christmas launch party
ENB’s current production continues this honorable if repetitive process, although there’s no avoiding that the design-heavy, dance-lite version hatched by satirist Gerald Scarfe and choreographer Christopher Hampson in 2002 is full of novelties that have rather worn off.
Scarfe is a scathing draftsman, and his visual acidity for this Nutcracker has a cartoon-caper appeal. The wacky hair-dos and exaggerated outfits are especially good. However, they dominate to such a degree that it’s more a pageant to music than a dance-drama. Act I is especially thin, with slight steps and slighter acting that fail to convey the admittedly weak story.
Act II is better, but that’s not saying much. There is also a small problem of wear and tear to the sets, a slapstick tone, and ongoing tinkering with the ballet’s structure that dissipates the already non-existent plot. And there’s the strong suspicion that the dancers are bored competing with the designs, with some of them attempting little more than a cat-walking of the costumes. I must also report a malfunctioning Christmas tree and a bird that didn’t quite fly.
Having said all that, the orchestra was tidy and there was some enthusiastic dancing. Fernanada Oliveira was a pert Sugar Plum Fairy and Dmitri Gruzdyev a vigorous Prince. Crystal Costa and Yat-Sen Chang made a sweet Clara and Nutcracker, and Vadim Muntagirov stood out in his debut in the Russian dance.
There was talk a year or two ago of ENB having a new Nutcracker. Fingers crossed.
Until 3 January. Information 0871 911 0200, www.eno.org.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (2)
I have to disagree with Ms Feichtinger's comments. Having seen the ballet this evening we found it to be a disappointing and weak performance. Sarah Frater's review regarding this performance was spot on. I suspect the audience that I sat with this evening were similarily unimpressed as there was a great deal of fidgeting by children and adults alike, whilst applause was thin and unforthcoming, particularly during the first half.
The ballet was sunk by the weight of its creative direction, unable to choose between the traditional and avant garde. When it toed the traditional line in the second half it was watchable, but under the ersatz and second rate neon bubblegum costumes of the first half I felt like I was watching a parody of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Dancing and acting were both impossible to distinguish amidst the chaotic choreography and silly costumes. Sadly, in trying to innovate a well trodden tale it fell embarassingly short of Matthew Borne's creation, and whether the ENO relies on ticket sales or not, reviewers have a responsibility to call the show as they see it, and on this occasion I would certainly agree with the Evening Standard review.
- David, London, UK, 19/12/2009 23:37
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Last night I attended the 2009 Opening of ENB's Nutcracker.I sat between a middle aged couple who commented that this was the most imaginative and creative dance performance they'd ever attended and they'd certainly be recommending it to their friends, and an elderly lady who'd been coming to Nutcracker for 50 years and said she'd never enjoyed herself so much. She then said "Aren't the critics rubbish?"
In front of me sat some children who were entranced throughout and didn't wriggle,fidget or play with their mobile phones once (as is often the case at the ballet)
As ENB relies on ticket sales for much of its income they obviously would not still be performing this production if it were not selling so well and pleasing such a diverse audience.
Ms.Frater's comments are entirely unrepresentative of the 2,000 delighted and enthusiastic people who were watching the Nutcracker with me last night. No wonder no one takes any notice of the reviews as the continuing success of this particular production proves.
- Ms. Feichtinger, Cheltenham. UK, 17/12/2009 18:20
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