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| The Mariinsky Theater. Picture found here. |
So I have recently been reading Christmas fairy tales and stories as is my custom around this time of year. And I found my
Little Golden Books edition of The Nutcracker. While I enjoyed the illustrations, I thought the story was a bit short and I was a bit perplexed by the fact that they failed to use the original author's name on the cover.
So I tracked it down and found this:
"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E. T. A. Hoffmann. And for free. And much shorter than its fourteen chapters would have you think. And it's spaced so nicely on the webpage that I don't have to crane my neck back and forth across the whole screen to read it and I wish all public domain material was like this... But I digress. The most concise way to summarize the story is to state that it is about a girl who is sometimes called Clara and sometimes called by her original name of Marie, who falls in love with a Nutcracker, who is actually a boy, who is a king of Candyland-Dolls, who has some problems with R. O. U. S.s (Rats Of Unusual Size) or is it actually R. O. U. N. O. H.s (Rats Of Unusual Number of Heads)?
This is also the man who wrote "The Sandman", which I haven't read yet. He does look like a man who would make up a magical being that puts people to sleep all of the time. I used this picture so I could use that joke and because all of the other pictures looked hideous. (Just read an abridged version of the story: it's about a narcissistic man who falls in love, goes insane, and kills himself. The legendary Sandman is in it; he steals children's eyes.)
Here is a short summary of his life found on the webpage
Wikipedia:
"Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822), better known by his pen name E. T. A. Hoffmann (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann), was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories form the basis of Jacques Offenbach's famous opera 'The Tales of Hoffmann', in which Hoffman appears (heavily fictionalized) as the hero. He is also the author of the novella 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King', on which the famous ballet 'The Nutcracker' is based. The ballet 'Coppélia' is based on two other stories that Hoffmann wrote, while Schumann's 'Kreisleriana' is based on Hoffmann's character Johannes Kreisler.
"Hoffmann's stories were very influential during the 19th century, and he is one of the major authors of the Romantic movement."
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The Snow Queen.
Picture found here. |
As "The Nutcracker" is a very famous ballet I thought I could do with some ballet and proceeded to look for it on Youtube. I've only ever heard of the American version which is all kinds of sweet and sappy fairy tale.
The one I clicked on was a lot different from what I was expecting. Starring the Mariinsky Ballet and based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Using the famous music of composer,
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Since it did premiere there in December 1892, maybe they decided to take a different spin on it. The video was uploaded in June 2013, but it was performed on January 2nd, 2007.
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Trust me, it's endearing.
Picture found here. |
It's quite creepy, in a beautiful way. The only thing I could equal it to is Tim Burton, but I know there are many people who would throw up at the very suggestion and chase me around with pitchforks and torches. While all of the costumes were amazing, some were gorgeous and some were freaky and I appreciated the effect Costume Designer, Mikhail Shemiakin and Director, Valery Gergiev were trying to make.
The Nutcracker's mask is terrifying at first and then, for me anyway, endearing after the first two scenes. Someone described Drosselmeier (played by Anton Adasinsky) as looking like Nosferatu which is a pretty apt description of him. Although he is missing his trademark eyepatch but sporting a hump on his back. Not sure what to make of that design or his seeming relationship to the rats. Or at least that Cardinal Rat or whatever that guy is.
The dancers were brilliant! I particularly enjoyed the woman who played Clara, in this version called Masha (played by Irina Golub), she was magnificent. And the young man who played the Nutcracker (played by either Alexander Kulikov or Leonid Sarafanov) was so cute and sooo young! I was under the impression that they usually had young adults play the part. I felt bad glancing at his junk. (Is this art form too 'high-brow' for me to be making this comment? But it was right there, you can't blame me for looking!)
Overall, it was a great and an unusual performance. It was haunting and spectacular. An interesting take on a traditional holiday classic.
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| 4 out of 5 en pointes. |
You can also find it on Youtube, if you prefer to watch it there:
