(seen at the evening performance on 18th December 2023)
“Everything was beautiful at the ballet.
Graceful men lift lovely girls in white.”
So runs the refrain of “At The Ballet” from “A Chorus Line.” Countless youngsters relate to the image conjured up in one dancer’s childhood recollections. Even the monkey has a favourite memory of its first encounter with the art form, aged maybe 9 or so. A school trip to see the Northern Ballet Company at Sadler’s Wells.
It knew then that it enjoyed watching, yet over many years it has seen few. As an adult there was always “next year” until, well, there isn’t. So, remedy: ask a ballet-nut friend (thank you Dawnstar) for advice on which dancers to see at the always-hot ticket “The Nutcracker” by the Royal Ballet.
Highly amusingly, while the monkey was organised and booked in at 9am when tickets went on sale, its advisor failed at the first attempt on the reservation system and was reminded, only when monkey emailed to trumpet success, that she needed to buy too. Within 2 hours the only ticket left happened to be the side bench seat next to... well, you can guess the rest. So, expert literally on hand as required, what of the show?
Like the opening line of this blog, it truly is beautiful from the moment the vast pit orchestra under Andrew Litton strike up Tchaikovsky’s breathtaking familiar music.
A failure on first appearance, the two halves never quite meeting or matching, caused choreographer Peter Wright to take a new approach in 2001. Using Lev Ivanov’s original ideas, he turned Herr Drosselmeyer into a gifted magician, tying both acts together by beginning and ending in his workshop.
We thus have a simple, circular story of Drosselmeyer’s attempts to liberate his nephew Hans-Peter from Nutcracker form, into which he was cast by the Queen of the Mice’s curse.
From a Christmas party where young Clara is recruited into the battle (lucky she was, her kindness and a good clonk to the head of the Mouse King win the day) to a triumphant voyage around the Land of Snow and Kingdom of Sweets. An entertainment in their honour, then back to reality where a girl spots a boy she thinks she may know... two hours of gloriously lavish precision.
Forget the image of ballet as tall slim girls waving their arms and legs at unusual angles while on tiptoe. This is story-telling using music and movement, with some jaw-droppingly stunning set-pieces just to add to the thrill.
More than that, it is not “serious and high brow” either. The steps may have names only aficionados will remember and recognise, but the meaning is always clear and instantly relatable.
Early on, during the Christmas party, little boys noisily disrupt the little girls’ fun. The youngest pupils of the Royal Ballet School gaining early experience and entertaining us in the process.
Their elders, to whom the youngsters aspire, delight in turn, creating first a believable family gathering with elderly relatives (Julia Roscoe and Kevin Emerton as grandparents, Caroline Jennings and Clare Lumley as Maiden aunts) and hokey entertainment (Thomas Whitehead’s Drosselmeyer producing a magic lamp with audible thud in his act) and on to a magical realm.
There we have an epic Mouse / Soldier battle with the injured stretchered off until victory is declared to the humans.
Once liberated, Giacomo Rovero as Hans-Peter and Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Clara come into their own, joining a procession of folk they encounter until the ultimate meeting with the Sugar Plum Fairy (Sarah Lamb at this performance, intricate from years of experience).
Without need to remark on the grace or execution of steps, beyond noting Mr Rovero took a heavy landing at one point (the monkey thought his right leg was an issue for the rest of the evening and hopes it is not serious), the rest is pure enjoyment in the fluid integration of sound and motion.
Pairing Mariko Sasaki and Francisco Serrano for the Arabian dance in act 2 brought thunderous applause. Harrison Lee and Marco Masciari proved Russian dance is a skill, with Rovero joining them in the sequence.
Harry Churches and Madison Bailey as Harlequin and Columbine are another wonderful combination, rightly receiving audience approval.
In a larger set piece, as Rose Fairy, Leticia Dias dazzled in the Waltz of the Flowers, the stage filled with dancers in a scene which had the little girl seated in front of the monkey wide-eyed with delighted wonder.
Julia Trevelyan Oman’s design gives us literally a cake in both halves, and detailed exquisite costumes to match. Sadly, from where the monkey sat it could not see the famous Christmas Tree growing moment, but no matter, there is more than enough to enthral.
As an introduction, or indeed re-introduction to ballet, this has to be the best. The monkey wonders no longer why this is regarded as a seasonal “must” by many. A sugar plum in the London season indeed.
5 stars.
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton. Used by kind permission of the Royal Opera House.