The Nutcracker
Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev
Paris Opera Ballet
Opera Bastille, Paris
19 December 2009 & 9 January 2010
The Paris Opera Ballet’s 1985 version of The Nutcracker must be a surprise for anyone used to the English or American versions, with their often cutesy designs and feel-good effect. Rudolf Nureyev was always interested in psychoanalysis, and his reading of the tale is linked to his vision of a child’s psyche – the first act’s children are truly mean little creatures, and Clara certainly doesn’t dream of a sugary Fairy. What she sees when she falls asleep is deformed visions of her reality, of those who surround her – magnified into characters dances or terrifying, as she still resists the world of adults. When she imagines herself as a woman in the final Grand Pas, her prince is none other than her old, limpy godfather Drosselmeyer, who fascinates her throughout. In other words: the world of children is not pretty, and Tchaikovsky and Freud can apparently meet.
(…)
Fielding enough excellent casts for a month-long run is a challenge nowadays. N’est pas Elisabeth Maurin et Laurent Hilaire qui veut – the creators of the main roles were a rarity, two dancers capable of being both a young girl and a ballerina, in the case of Maurin, and an old magician who can moonlight as a Prince for Hilaire. It was a true priviledge this year to see the two Russian guests brought in by the Paris Opera Ballet, Natalia Osipova and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, as the production didn’t defeat them – they showed, on the contrary, how the Russian school and good old Bolshoi stagecraft can overcome hurdles that even the best French “Nureyevists” struggle with. Neither tries to nail each step technically to a T. Instead they are performing, each in their own eccentric style. (…)
» Read the review in full in Ballet.co Magazine
Myriam Ould-Braham & Nikolai Tsiskaride in The Nutcracker © Julien Benhamou
