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| Thursday, 19 August 2004 |
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Why Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker failed The World of Arts by Gwen Herat
This Christmas favourite was first performed at St. Petersburg in 1892 in the month of December in keeping with the spirit of Christmas. The characters of Clara and her Nutcracker Prince have appeared on stage more than any other ballet characters perhaps because they appeal so much to all children and adults as well. In its first appearance it failed to impress the audience just like Swan Lake. It is difficult, to understand why the audience who were used to simple ballet music, found the haunting, beautiful music of Tchaikvosky not to their liking. They were not impressed, to make it still worse, Nutcracker suffered a set-back when Marius Petipa planned its production in great detail with Tchaikvosky. Together they finalised the score but before the steps were created, Petipa fell ill. As a result his assistant, Lev Ivanov was given the task of creating the steps for the ballet and he did it with brilliance not so much to the liking of Petipa who was always kept in the background. There were many instances where Petipa had even taken credit for his work but the gentle Ivanov ignored it. On this occasion, however, Ivanov's great lyrical talent and musicality were fully recognised. It was Ivanov who choreographed the first Nutcracker at st. Petersburg in 1892. Since that time there have been countless productions of this delightful ballet in full length as well as in Acts. From the first to the most modern ballet school to the grand production by Rudolf Nureyev, Nutcracker has survived the experiments done on it. Perhaps the most entertaining one especially with appeal to children was done by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet. The Balanchine Influence Balanchine is more famous and popular for the ballets he created in the neo-classical style of which he was the supreme choreographer. But when he set out to create this fairy tale, he went down memory lane and remembered his school days in the Imperial School at St. Petersburg and the magical wonder it had. His production was full of those spectacular moments that included the biggest Christmas tree on any stage and a special effect that enabled the sugar plum fairy to glide across the stage in Arabesque as though on ice. No wonder, it caught the imagination of the young generation as no other fairy tale did. Balanchine came to be identified with the Nutcracker as no other choreographer did. It was a chance he took and was proved amazingly right. After the Nutcracker, Balanchine left Russia and joined the Diaghilev Company as dancer and choreographer. He worked in England and France after the death of Diaghilev before being invited to America. With his dedicated work in the USA, the School of America and the New York City Ballet were the results of his efforts. Balanchine made close collaboration with yet another Russian composer,
Igor Stravinsky whose music caused an outcry in Paris in the early years
of his scoring for ballet. Complete Re-Phil! From a whimsical suggestion at a party in August 1954, to increasingly frantic rehearsals for the next seven months; the Colombo Philharmonic Choir gave its first performance on March 17th, 1955. The "Phil" rode high for many years, adding famous names such as Benjamin Britten and Vaughn Williams as its patrons and Peter Peers and other Brits as soloists and conductors. For almost fifty years this choir has attempted to maintain the standards; when I first joined in 1972, Gerald Cooray and Lylie Godridge were the conductors. It has been much harder since. Declining interest in classical music led to difficulty in recruiting members who could read music and appreciate the choral experience, not to mention having the requisite talent and application to perform at this level. Not least, with the pressures of modern life, many find it difficult to afford the time for practising, especially when performance dates draw near and three-hour practices every other day are absolutely essential to achieve the expected quality. It should be no surprise that the Phil went through a bad patch, only coming back together a couple of years ago with help from die-hard supporters like Maryanne David, who agreed to conduct. The Phil has now, slowly but steadily, got back on its feet. At the Phil's performance on June 12, 2004, the applause was not deafening, but not for want of trying - there were only about thirty people to witness it. After the show, many in the audience expressed their indignation that the show had not been more widely publicized, and that the efforts of the choir had been practically wasted. Well, many of those folk have got together with the Phil's performers to make sure that the repeat performance, scheduled for August 21 at the same venue, the Ladies College Chapel, will hopefully be a sell-out. We hope you will be there, because we think that we have achieved the level of performance that would have made Gerry Cooray and Lylie Godridge proud of us. With Manilal Weerakoon conducting, and the rest of us singing our hearts out, it would be a great boost to our morale to see visible support from those who appreciate great music and good choral performances. Although the music is to be recorded, too, there's nothing like a live performance for those who appreciate musical dynamics; those are the things that don't record well and must be heard in the flesh. - Renuk (Ray) de Silva |
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