In the Christmas Spirit: Peter Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Obviously, this is an older post on about a past Christmas moment.

    Just this past weekend, December 12, 2015, I experienced a fine local production of Peter Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, by the Greenville, North Carolina based NC Academy of Dance Arts / Dance Arts Theatre, featuring guest performers from the New York Ballet and the Washington Ballet intermingled with local dancers, including those from East Carolina University. The Nutcracker was held at Wright Auditorium at the center of ECU's original campus.
The party in the great hall of the home of Mayor Silberhaus: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, created in 1892, is the ballet, as story, by Alexandre Dumas, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", originating with the families and friends of Mayor Silberhaus congregating at his home on Christmas Eve to trim the seasonal tree. The enigmatic Godfather Drosselmeyer arrives at the Christmas party bearing the gift of a nutcracker that is magically animated by the Magician, Drosselmeyer, after everyone, except daughter Clara, eventually lays themselves down 'for a long winter's nap'. Once the Grandfather Clock strikes twelve, the surreal mischief begins.


After The Battle, the death of the Mouse King: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    At that point, while everyone is in a familial repose, the story takes a magical, and very seasonal turn, and continues through the classics of Tchaikovsky, where we meet the Mouse King, the Snow King and Queen, the Dew Drop Fairy, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Clara and her many courtiers, and so many more, too numerous mention. But watch to video of the New York Ballet just below; you'll meet them all.

One of the many version of this fine ballet, The Nutcracker: Below.


    Publisher's note: If you are really in the Christmas spirit, or just in the need for more, please click here to access all of the holiday spirit in melody and narrative that BCN can harness and offer for this Yuletide Season.