Customer Reviews

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

All things considered, I have to say that this is quite an enjoyable theatrical presentation of Balanchine's "The Nutcracker." Looking at "the show" itself, its most rave-worthy characteristic is how well the team of Peter Martins (ballet master), Emile Ardolino (director) and Ralf Bode (cinematographer) collaborated to actually "choreograph the camera" to the movements of the performers. Thanks to a talented movie crew and an incredible amount of consideration given to viewing angles (read the description in the disc's "special features"), the TV always seemed to be showing exactly what I wanted to look at on the stage. Add in some nice work by Industrial Light & Magic, decent narration, and a top-notch production team, and the result is a superb presentation.

From a performance standpoint, I'd give this an A-minus mainly because the versions of "The Nutcracker" I've seen most often cast the Nutcracker Prince in a much more active role dancewise. Still, everyone else did a fantastic job. Noteworthy were the Pas de Deux by the Cavalier (Damian Woetzel) and Sugarplum Fairy (Darci Kistler), and the powerful dance presence of Coffee (Wendy Whelan). The other "Sweets" performed very well also. So long as you try not to picture Macaulay Culkin as a ballet dancer, you'll be okay. Let's face it: you can't expect the little guy to measure up next to the NYC Ballet, but he is there to add a little star appeal and possibly sell ballet to your kids (which may not be a bad idea). Nuff said. By the way, the younger performers from the School of American Ballet were wonderful.

Regarding disc features, the DVD has some cool stuff to offer: two viewing formats, 30-scene index, and some good production notes regarding the history of the show, camera choreography and description of ILM's special effects.

The one time that I've seen the George Balanchine production of 'The Nutcracker' in New York, I was standing at the back of the top balcony. I obviously couldn't see much even with the pair of 7x50 binoculars I brought, so I'm glad that this DVD has become available. The recording wasn't made before an audience but was nonetheless filmed on stage. It thus preserves the appearance and staginess of the original production, while the camerawork has more freedom and energy than it would have otherwise.

The dancers of the NYC Ballet and the students from its associated school, the School of American Ballet, have performed the Balanchine Nutcracker every Christmas season since 1969 (the film was made in 1993). I prefer this production in great part because children and not adults perform the children's roles unlike most of the other tapes and DVDs available. Here the kids are delighfully energetic and enthusiastic; the only sour note is Macauley Culkin as the nutcracker-prince. He attended the SAB for awhile, and he looks thoroughy bored at returning to his old haunts. I don't know if it's his fault or the director's, but his disdainful expressions are rather off-putting. He was obviously cast to draw a larger audience, and he certainly looks the part, but his dancing skills aren't good enough for what amounts to the lead role.

A recent article in the NYT said that the SAB has for some years been making a concerted effort to attract more boys (free tuition, no tights, frequent auditions, single-sex classes, etc.). The result is that all the boys' roles in this performance are filled by boys and not disgruntled little girls.

I quite enjoy this DVD, and I highly recommend it. It has few extra materials; only some short biographies and some footage about making the film. I would like to have had some rehearsal and backstage footage since I'm not familiar with how a ballet is put together.

This is a filmed version of George Balanchine's legendary Nutcracker. In Europe, many Nutcrackers had been influenced by Vassily Vainonen's Soviet staging which views the story as a young girl's romantic awakening. Balanchine closely followed the 1892 Petipa original and refocused the ballet on the kids. Each year the NYCB chooses children from the School of American Ballet to dance much of the Nutcracker. It's always been a success.

The film is a fairly successful recreation of the staged ballet which I've seen. Macauley Culkin is the Nutcracker Prince, and he wears way too much lipstick and his hair is slicked back unattractively, but the Prince is pretty much a non-dancing part and I practically forgot he was there. Kevin Kline narrates the ballet, to make the storyline more understandable i guess. Otherwise the film sticks pretty closely to the stage. Jessica Lynn Cohen is a surprisingly serious Marie. The children in the party scene are all very fun to watch, and Balanchine charmingly choreographs the first act so the kids actually behave like kids, rather than dancing automatons. The fight scene is also wonderfully choreographed, and Balanchine in my opinion was wise in not making the mice overly scary. In some productions the mice are truly terrors, with red eyes and pointy faces and terrifying poses. Balanchine's Mouse Scene is funny, cute and clever. Basically, he has two groups of mice sitting in bleachers, watching the fight between the Mouse King and Prince, and cheering as if they were at a football game. By far the best Mouse choreography I've seen in all the Nutcrackers.

I didn't like the scene immediately after the fight. Having Marie lie on a bed during some of Tchaikovsky's most beautiful music seems anti-climactic. I much prefer productions where the Prince and Marie/Clara/Masha run around onstage, enthralled by the magical Christmas night. But Balanchine quickly redeems himself when in the second act he revives the mime that he learned as a student in the Mariinsky ballet. The mime is probably taken directly from the Ivanov choreography. Other areas where Balanchine lovingly recreated the Nutcracker of his childhood: the candy cane hoops dance (he once danced the part in a Mariinsky performance), and Mother Ginger. Throughout the ballet Balanchine shows just the right touch of humor, charm, and enchantment to make his Nutcracker the real gold standard.

The other thing that I didn't care for was Balanchine's rearrangement of the pas de deux/dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy variation. In Balanchine's Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy variation occurs at the SPF's entrance, while the pas de deux with the Cavalier occurs at the end of Act 2. There is no variation for the Cavalier. Call me old-fashioned, but I like the traditional ballet arrangement of pas de deux/male variation/female variation/coda preserved.

The cast represents some of the best dancers of the post-Balanchine era at the New York City Ballet. Darci Kistler is the Sugar Plum Fairy, and I've never been particularly enchanted by this ballerina, but she dances very well here, and has the kind of gracious bearing that's needed for this role. Damian Woetzel is her Cavalier, and what a strong dancer for such a brief role! He and Darci pull off the tricky shoulder-jump lifts perfectly. I like Kyra Nichols as the Dewdrop, this is a whizbang allegro role and Nichols never stops moving. Wendy Whelan is shown in her sinewy, almost androgynous advantage in the Coffee (Arabian) solo. Watching the Mother Ginger number is always a treat, although I think in the theater it has more charm.

Balanchine's choreography is still the most crowdpleasing and charming of all the Nutcrackers. Everyone has his favorite moments (mine is the beginning sequence, when Marie and her brother Fritz are peeking through a doorway at the party) and the film is an accurate recreation of this holiday staple. Highly recommended for kids, IMO.

Of all the versions of Nutcracker out there, this probably sells the best, due to the popularity of its' child star. Too bad. My students find him looking and dancing ridiculous, and I agree. For an imaginative and more engaging (albeit strange) interpretation, watch the Sendak/Pacific Northwest Ballet version. It is far more entertaining.

I use to show this to my Kindergarten class in December each year. Each year; all of the children enjoyed it and were able to follow it easily. Then, I went out on a limb and ordered it this year for my two year old daughter not sure if it would be over her head or not. She usually doesnt care for television but she was glued to the set for this. I had read her the story a few days before so she would have an idea of it, but I think seeing it play out in front of her brought it all together for her. She followed it easily, with a few explanations from me, and was in awe of the dancing and actors. She talked about it all night before bed and even waking up in her sleep and talking about it. I think it is an excellent way to introduce fine music and ballet to children at a young age so that they can understand it and appreciate it, rather than limiting your child to just the traditional children's music that is out there; which is fine, but this exposure to dance and music and creativity and imagination will allow them to use other methods of thinking. Great performance by actors and staging as well. I have seen several versions of this but this seems to be the best one for younger viewers; not too scary or high strung at all. So glad I got it for her.

If you have a young child who wants to see the Nutcracker at home, this is the version to buy (I bought it for my 3 year old boy who loved the ballet): Here are its selling points and comments on some previous remarks

1. There really aren't that many versions out there. Baryshnikov's is not a very child friendly version. Yes it's true, this does not have the precision of some of the other corps but this version is really geared to young children. And it's a great version for them to see.

2. It is a plus that it features many child dancers. It allows children to see others like them dancing. Additionally, a big bonus is that there are acutally boys dancing male parts - parents of boys who love ballet like myself will appreciate this.

3. Yes, Culkinis a bad dancer but as someone else noted - if it helps sell the movie, then it gets ballet out to more people which is a plus (I personally think it's better than a Barbie doll version of Swan Lake). Again, for parents of boy dancers, it's nice to see a boy with a real dancing part.

4. The main character is called Marie because that's her name in the original book by ETA Hoffman (which by the way, is a VERY different story from the one we traditionally see in the ballet. It's a great book and for a special treat of the video performance of the real story see the Milwaukee Orchestra's Notes Alive: The Nutcracker: The Untold Story, based on Maurice Sendak's illustrations). In the original story, Clara is one of Marie's dolls.

5. I did not find Culkin's expressions to be disinterested or bored. To the contrary, I was impressed with his focus and respect throughout the show. There is a nice photo text book that accompanies this video. The book explains that the expression on his face early in the show may be his attempt to show that he is different, more refined, than the other more boisterous boys at the party including Fritz, Marie's brother.

There is little to criticise the dancers in this beautiful production. The use of children, often absent in other productions, brings the brilliant show closer to an important audience: the children themselves. The music is good enough that it isn't distracting, although a little more rubato would have been appropriate, particularly in the waltz.

George Luca's special effects are extremely well done, leaving the first-time viewers convinced that these effects can actually be done on stage (they weren't)

I said there is little to criticise the dancers. Macaulay Culkin cannot be described as one of the dancers and he can't dance, walk, or even move in the manner dancers do. The producer deserves the bulk of the criticism for selecting him. He just can't dance. George Ballanchine must be rolling in his grave. If someone who can actually dance played the nutcracker's part, my rating would have been 5 stars.

I am an elementary general music teacher and use this version to show to my 2nd graders each year. I have also seen the Baryshnikov version of the Nutcracker several times (live, and the video version), and I think the Balanchine verson is more appealing to kids because there are more closeups of the dancers, the photography is wonderful (the Baryshnikov version is very grainy and has choppy editing, which is distracting to young children who are not used to seeing ballet... I'm trying to get the ones who think ballet is stupid to find it interesting, and grainy film does not help!!!!) and also because the parts of the children in the story are actually danced by children. It makes it more authentic and childlike, which a child's fairy tale story should be! Plus, I know my students would be distracted by Baryshnikov's (and the other male dancers' in his version) very prominent shiny "package"; I am not in any way a prude, but when a ballet is meant to be shown to children, who are easily distracted by details, it would be more appropriate to choose costumes that aren't quite so "crotch-tacular."

Perhaps there might have been more actual dancing by the Nutcracker and Marie, but I teach my kids that the point of the ballet is that the story is told through movement. There is no law saying ballet must always be en pointe in tutus and tights!

I can easily give this DVD four stars- maybe even five in time. This tale is interesting to dissect, because there are apparently two camps for this very famous, 110 year-old ballet: those who like it as a children's story and those who like it as an adult's. It's been staged both ways in the past, as others have already mentioned (and I won't repeat here, I promise). This version, which allows the kids to be front and center, has some stellar 'adult' moments in it: the Act 1 finale dance of the snowflakes, while not adult in content, is the personification of sophistication and beauty with its ice-blue lighting and costuming and multiracial corps de ballet. A beautiful sequence of dance which stands on its own, and which you'd enjoy replaying. The other moment comes in the second act, when the relatively innocent dances of various sweets give way to the Arabian solo of Wendy Whelan. The pink-and-purple lighting, the floating camera work, and the dancer's sexy, serpent-like movements (jeeez!!) do not resemble any other moment in this already polished film, and one can't help but think that either the director or the choreographer wanted it that way. (It's like watching Ann Reinking, Vicki Frederick, or Carol Haney on the Broadway stage.) As far as Macaulay Culkin- it didn't bother me since he was the right age (12) at the time of filming, and, frankly, he looks bored in *most* films he's in. What're you gonna do?

This is the best Nutcracker out there! I just finished dancing in the Nutcracker last weekend, and I absolutely love this movie! If you have a young dancer like me, and you're thinking about what to get her or him, get this! She'll love it! I promise you she'll watch it over and over until it's ruined, and then she'll want a new one! Buy it! And love it!