‘Nutcracker’ DVD a perfect holiday gift
Tchaikovsky’s dream story
In
some parts of Europe, including my native Poland, at the beginning of December children are extremely excited. Frankly speaking not only children, but also adults are joyous. Thanks to the old tradition of Santa Claus who comes on Dec 6 from far North in Finland (Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland, to be precise) with gifts.
I was in Rovanieni recently, and took a photo with Santa Claus. I found him receiving hundreds of thousands of letters from all over the world with requests for various gifts.
Additionally, yesterday Christians started Advent (from Latin ‘adventus’ – coming), which is the time for preparation be fo re Christmas holidays. The number of days remaining for the holidays is counted on the Advent calendar. In this calendar there are as many windows as there are days remaining for Christmas. It is the reason that children are very interested in counting the days and some of them like fleet through windows at one go. Meanwhile, the Christmas tree is being decorated with glass-orbs and garlands and ginger cakes hanging from it – chocolates too.
Some toys are under the Christmas tree and there are people playing some melodies, mostly carols. What music except carols is suitable for this time? Newspaper are full of information on concerts. From Scandinavia to America you would find info on ‘Nutcracker’, famous ballet by Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). You may wonder why. The story goes back to some mysterious events on Christmas Eve.
Promotions
After the success of The Sleeping Beauty in 1890 the Imperial Theatre of Opera in St. Petersburg commissioned Peter Tchaikovsky to compose the next ballet, but a shorter one. The ballet was supposed to last only one half of an evening, the other half had to be an Opera to pander to elites looking to enjoy ‘two spectacles in one’. It is nothing new in today’s commercial promotions, but back then it was an issue.
Tchaikovsky wrote the musical score but the libretto had a problem. There were only three French librettists. The first was Marius Petipa (1818-1910) - dancer, teacher and choreographer, who had written the libretto for The Sleeping Beauty. However Petipa was not a writer himself. He took the story from Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) – ‘The Tale of Nutcracker’. Dumas had himself taken it from E.T.A. Hoffman (1776-1822) in his ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’. Dumas had just adapted Hoffman’s work.
The story is about Christmas Eve. Family and friends have gathered around the beautiful tree for the night’s festivities. The children are hypnotized by the sparkling candles and the decoration of the silver green fir-tree. The festivities begin with presents given to the children, Clara and Fritz. When the owl-topped clock strikes eight, a ‘mysterious magician’ enters the room. He is the grandfather of the children and a talented toymaker. He makes four life-like dolls which begin to dance. When the dolls leave the stage, he shows the next toy. It is a man-shaped nutcracker for hazelnuts. Clara likes him very much but Fritz breaks the toy and with it the heart of his sister.
When everybody goes to bed, Clara comes back to the nutcracker. It is late – midnight, the time of mysteries. Mice begin to fill the parlor. Everything is growing in the eyes of the girl. Tree looks like a mountain but nutcracker grows to life-size. The mice led by the Mouse King attack army of Gingerbread soldiers, trying to eat them. Brave Nutcracker, even wounded, takes command over Ginger Army and calls reserve tin soldiers to join the battle. Clara, even frightened, helps them to win, attacking the Mouse King with her slipper. Nutcracker transforms into a handsome Prince and snowflakes dance around them entering a pine forest.
Editor’s
Dances
Clara and Prince travel into a nutshell boat pulled by dolphins to the beautiful Land of Sweets. Its ruler is Sugar Plum Fairy, replaced by the Prince until his return. They celebrate Clara’s coronation and help her in winning over the Mouse King and re-transforming back to the Prince with sweets and delicious eats: Spanish Chocolate, Arabic coffee, Chinese tea, Russian candies, and dances. Aha, quite important: there are also Danish shepherdesses performing on their flutes.
A final waltz is performed by all the sweets celebrating the coronation of Clara and the Prince as the rulers of The Land of Sweets. However, citizens of the Sweet Land disappear dancing one by one and Clara awakes sleeping under Christmas tree with the Nutcracker doll aside.
It was just a dream? She finds a crown under her hand. Life is only a dream? Or is it the opposite? Nobody knows but it is worthwhile to dream, especially in childhood.
That story is a pretext to dance to great, rich and charming music. Its premiere was held in St. Petersburg on December 18, 1892 just before Christmas. Although the original production was not a great success, the orchestral suite from those dances immediately enjoyed popularity at the concert performances. Tchaikovsky’s score became one of the most famous pieces in his compositions. Success and growing popularity of Tchaikovsky’s score brought back the ballet to the stage, or rather to almost every ballet stage of Opera Theatres around the world.
Tchaikovsky’s childhood must have surely inspired him to weave that dream story. However, the composer’s childhood was tragedy. It most probably influenced his life than his works. Tchaikovsky’s mother, Alexandra (nee d’Assier), was the second of his father’s three wives. She was described as a cold, unhappy and distant parent for her six children (not counting the step children).
Small Peter was much more related to 22-year old French governess with a German family name but English first name – Fanny Durbach. Thanks to her, at six he spoke fluent French and German and she encouraged him to do all his early compositions and preserved his sweet anecdotes. NB: He could read fluent notes at three fluently!
Tragic
Soon he was sent to a boarding school and separated from his brothers and sisters. He loved his governess very much, who also loved him. Maybe ballet The Nutcracker was a reminiscent of his dream of a happy home and family.
It is a fact that Tchaikovsky was a tragic person throughout his life. All his attempts to get his personal life in order failed. Only the long term friendship with Nadezdha von Meck, the widow of a railway magnate, gave him the motivation to focus on his compositions.
Nowadays there are many productions of The Nutcracker during Christmas. Two the most famous were in New York and Copenhagen. The latter is well known because of royal participation in the production. The Queen of Denmark, H.M. Margrethe II is the designer of costumes, scenes and other arrangements. It was magnificent!
By the way, the DVD of The Nutcracker would be a good idea for a gift for both children and adults. There are also video-games of this famous Hazelnuts Squeezer!
PS. Next week I will come with more ideas for musical gifts next week, Inshallah!
Note: Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His e-mail address is: cowerkowicz @yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@hotmail.com