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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Another great historical performance from the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London that's been captured on tape, this 1968 production of Tchaikovsky's perennial holiday classic The Nutcracker stars two of the premier dancers of their (or any) time: ballerina Merle Park and the redoubtable Rudolf Nureyev. Both are seen in their considerable prime. Nureyev's choreography and production are also tastefully done, with the opening March of the Toy Soldiers and the climactic Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies particularly beautifully handled.
Conductor Charles Taylor leads the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in a merry and vigorous reading of Tchaikovsky's wonderfully appealing score. As always with such legendary stagings taped for posterity, the video and audio quality aren't perfect, but they are more than adequate enough to appreciate and be endlessly entertained by Nureyev's, Park's, and Tchaikovsky's balletic mastery. --Kevin Filipski
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't be fooled by the Horrible cover picture!!,
By
This review is from: Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet (DVD)
I almost didn't buy this version because of it.Fortunately,I read two reviews on a British site that said the only thing they didn't like about it was the weird cover,so I gave it a try.Boy am I glad I did!Aside from a few dated feeling costumes,and Clara looking a bit old etc.,I was very impressed.Nuryev is in his prime~in his 30's I think~and the Sugarplum Fairy does NOT look like a 50 year old woman who has had too much plastic surgery :) Even my 5 year old daughter,who doesn't usually pay much attention to the male dancers was impressed by Nuryev's dancing!I don't claim to be an expert,aside from being in ballet for several years and having seen several different versions,I really just wanted a pleasing,well done version to give to my daughter for Christmas.She is young,but appreciates a good full-length ballet performance.I had a heck of a time finding a version that was complete(or close to it),had nice,fun costumes and sets(not all one color as in the newer Royal Ballet version),that had good dancing(principal dancers and corps dancers),and that had decent picture and sound quality.You'd think it would be possible for a professional dance company to pull at least most of this together,but...Anyway,this is pretty close to that.The picture and sound quality is very good for having been recorded in the early sixties.As I mentioned before,the costumes are very nice in general~very Russian feeling~with just an occasional hint at the sixties time period.The sets are beautiful!I'm not familiar enough with the ballet to know which pas de deux the last person said was missing,but there are a few very beautiful and exciting ones in the second act that were very satisfying.I highly recommend this version of the Nutcracker.Very entertaining.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dreary, creepy take on this holiday classic,
By
This review is from: Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet (DVD)
Rudolf Nureyev's Nutcracker owes a lot to the Soviet Vassily Vainonen's in terms of choreography and concept. After all, Nureyev grew up with the Vainonen Nutcracker as a student and dancer at the Kirov. The concept of deleting the Sugar Plum Fairy and having Clara and the Prince fall in love in Act 2 is straight from Vainonen. The snowflakes dance is an exact replica in terms of choreography. Also, in Act 2 there is supposed to be an introduction by the Sugar Plum Fairy to the Kingdom of the Sweets. But when the SPF is deleted, what to do? Vainonen has the Prince battling it out with bats in the beginning of Act 2. Nureyev has it too, but the bats are much bigger and the version the scene is much more graphic. The beginning of the Grand pas de deux has Clara and the Prince mirroring each other in a series of arabesques, exactly like the Vainonen version. The pas de trois marzipan dance is also lifted straight from Vainonen.But after that the similarities end. Nureyev's version of the Nutcracker is one of the grimmest I've ever seen. It plays like a bad dream, which I suspect was the concept. The chief "concept" of this ballet is that the Drosselmeyer and the Prince are a duel role. So when Clara dreams of marrying the Prince in Act 2 is she fulfilling some Freudian dream that she has about her uncle? Or was it yet another case of Nureyev wanting more dancing opportunities for the male? Ugh if I have to ask these questions then this Nutcracker already falls to the bottom of my favorites. Other ways this Nutcracker is not very kid-friendly: during the Battle of the Mice, the mice actually surround her in a way that's very menacing and the mice tear at Clara's dress and parts of her dress slips off. The whole thing looks like ... sexual assault. The awakening pas de deux between Clara and the Prince eschews the soft "swelling arabesque" romance of the Vainonen version and instead Nureyev fills this quiet enchanting moment with a whole bunch of busy steps. Act 2, until the Waltz of the Flowers, has no change in decor to indicate any Kingdom of the Sweets, it just looks like Clara's living room with the back walls opened up. The divertissements are danced by various people in Clara's life, so it's as if she's literally dreaming about them. The Waltz of the Flowers also has dancing couples but the choreography has a stiffness to it that looks less like ballroom waltzing than a formal Louis XIII court dance. It lacks sweep and charm. I could go on and on with the odd touches in this Nutcracker but you get the point. The best moment of Nureyev's choreography comes in the Grand pas de deux. There is a lot of mirror dancing (as was his wont) but it also features a thrilling moment when Clara is thrown sideways into the air, she does a little twist, and is re-caught by her Prince. It finally provides a moment of magic after such a dreary evening. But the Grand pas de deux also features exactly what's wrong with Nureyev as a choreographer -- his overreliance on "mirror dancing" (the male and female barely touch, they're so busy mirroring each other's movements, so all intimacy is lost), and his determination to add little steps to every note. Sometimes it literally looks like their legs are spazzing out. How is the dancing? Well, in such an adult-oriented Nutcracker, I suppose it doesn't matter that Merle Park is less than convincing as a young girl than as a ballerina. She does Nureyev's fiendishly busy and difficult choreography extremely well. Nureyev was at the height of his dancing powers in 1968, and really does make for a dashing Prince. This is not my first or second or even third recommendation for the Nutcracker on video. I think the Balanchine film, the later versions by the Royal Ballet, and the Kirov version with Lezhnina and Baranov all make better introductions to Tchaikovsky's evergreen classic.
15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the Pas de deux?,
By A Customer
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I bought this DVD of Tchaikovsky's Nucracker because of its beautiful score and Nureyev's reputation. I was really looking forward to the great climax of the pas de deux, I cannot believe that anybody would think of removing this important number.Save your money for a better production. Very, very disappointed.
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