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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The American Ballet Theater version of the Tchaikovsky classic, a 1977 studio rendition directed by Tony Charmoli, has become a holiday perennial on PBS stations and home video. It's a favorite of parents who want to give their kids the gift of culture--and with good reason. There's a loose fairy tale plot to keep dance neophytes interested, and Boris Aronson's eye-candy production design is a series of lavish dioramas. From an imperial-era Russian Christmas party out of Tolstoy, a young girl named Clara (Gelsey Kirkland) is whisked in dreams to an imaginary world populated by the animated creations of the wizard toy maker Drosselmeier (Alexander Minz), who prances on his stick-thin limbs like a Dickens illustration come to life. The main attraction is, of course, Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest classical dancers of the century, at his absolute peak of athleticism and precision. An opening slow-motion montage diagrams his fabled smoothness of execution, elegant airborne trajectories that have a feather-light perfection. Music lovers who know only "The Nutcracker Suite" will relish the chance to hear this great score all the way through, conducted with lilt and vigor by Kenneth Schermerhorn. --David Chute
Product Description
Under Baryshnikov's inventive direction, the traditionally lighthearted story of a small girl's dream on Christmas Eve is transformed into a more complex theatrical experience.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
91 of 92 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
I'm not a dancer, former dancer, or big ballet fan -- just a musician who's seen several different "Nutcrackers" and, frankly, not been thrilled by any of them. But this one is thrilling to me, and to my three-year-old daughter!
I've always found "The Nutcracker" boring and syrupy in plot, though I enjoyed much of the music and some of the dancing. Yes, this ABT version has an "adult" theme (or several) -- but I find this enriches the ballet for me and it's interesting to try to figure out who's who and what's what among the characters. (I've really enjoyed reading other reviewers' interpretations!)
Meantime, my three-year-old daughter is enjoying the story from her new-to-ballet point of view. The "adult stuff" goes right over her head. She's interested in the silly people dressed up like mice, the "big machine that makes fog" (the cannon), the Christmas tree that grows, etc. She gets out one pretty dress after another from her closet and tries them all out as "dance suits" as she twirls around the diningroom imitating the dancers' dramatic arm movements.
I find Baryshnikov's choreography fresh, free, and full of life. And full of surprises -- for example, I love the dance where Clara is gracefully tossed from one male dancer, or pair of male dancers, to another. I've read that Baryshnikov felt stifled by the strict classical choreography of the Soviet ballet, and in this "Nutcracker" I see him breaking free of that stifling tradition and creating a beautiful, thought-provoking, and -- yes -- provocative (for adults) new dance.
Baryshnikov's dancing is spectacular -- his strength, form, precision -- and rich in feeling. Kirkland's dancing is near perfection and her portrayal of her awakening feelings for her prince is excellent. The choreography is, again, rich in feeling and meaning and just plain rich, rich, rich.
I'm sure my daughter and I will watch this "Nutcracker" hundreds of times over the years and it will continue to be a rich and fulfilling and inspiring experience.
I say, if you've ever been bored by a "Nutcracker", try this one!
I've always found "The Nutcracker" boring and syrupy in plot, though I enjoyed much of the music and some of the dancing. Yes, this ABT version has an "adult" theme (or several) -- but I find this enriches the ballet for me and it's interesting to try to figure out who's who and what's what among the characters. (I've really enjoyed reading other reviewers' interpretations!)
Meantime, my three-year-old daughter is enjoying the story from her new-to-ballet point of view. The "adult stuff" goes right over her head. She's interested in the silly people dressed up like mice, the "big machine that makes fog" (the cannon), the Christmas tree that grows, etc. She gets out one pretty dress after another from her closet and tries them all out as "dance suits" as she twirls around the diningroom imitating the dancers' dramatic arm movements.
I find Baryshnikov's choreography fresh, free, and full of life. And full of surprises -- for example, I love the dance where Clara is gracefully tossed from one male dancer, or pair of male dancers, to another. I've read that Baryshnikov felt stifled by the strict classical choreography of the Soviet ballet, and in this "Nutcracker" I see him breaking free of that stifling tradition and creating a beautiful, thought-provoking, and -- yes -- provocative (for adults) new dance.
Baryshnikov's dancing is spectacular -- his strength, form, precision -- and rich in feeling. Kirkland's dancing is near perfection and her portrayal of her awakening feelings for her prince is excellent. The choreography is, again, rich in feeling and meaning and just plain rich, rich, rich.
I'm sure my daughter and I will watch this "Nutcracker" hundreds of times over the years and it will continue to be a rich and fulfilling and inspiring experience.
I say, if you've ever been bored by a "Nutcracker", try this one!
121 of 128 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Probably the most popular of all ballets, Tchaikovky's "The Nutcracker" is pretty much required holiday viewing for children and the experience is one to be shared with parents, too. The sparkling score, by turns intensely dramatic and supremely exhilarating, is as familiar as any Christmas carol or hymn.
The essential problem with the ballet's original staging is that the story line falls apart in the second act. The first act has a reasonable plot line given that this is a child's dream story. But after Clara helps the Nutcracker defeat the Mouse King and he turns into a handsome prince, they depart for the Kingdom of Sweets and, after the Waltz of the Snowflakes, the story line evaporates. Once the pair arrive in the Kingdom, poor Clara sits out the entire second act watching a succession of sweet treats dance the audience into diabetes, while Prince Charming deserts her for the Sugar Plum Fairy. In other words, the original staging gives the entire second act no plot line whatever, only a succession of divertissements with solo turns and a final pas de deux for the prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Mikhail Baryshnikov's inspiration was to give this fragmented succession of dream images into a coherent story. Unfortunately as witness Celia Franca's infamous "it makes me want to vomit" rant, Baryshnikov's version is often misunderstood. Clara is not having an affair with Drosselmeyer, nor does he desire her.
The key to understanding Baryshnikov's interpretation is the Mouse King. It is immediately obvious from the King's costume--a long purple frock coat & short violet cape--that he is Clara's dream transformation of the drunken adult male party guest who wrenches off the Nutcracker's head (replacing Clara's brother as the culprit). In fact the mouse army are ALL Clara's dream transformations of the male party guests, including the paunchy, bemedalled general who throws out his back dancing the Champagne Promenade with Clara's nurse. (In the party scene, the guest who injures the Nutcracker is the ONLY one wearing a frock coat; all the other adult males [except the general] wear cutaways.)
In other words, the adult males are threatening to Clara (& this pretty much rules out any notion that she's involved with Drosselmeyer). Her dream, Drosselmeyer's gift as Baryshnikov's prologue explains, gently allows her to discover the womanly feelings with which her dawning womanhood endows her. At the party, then, Clara is a child among children, playing with toys (including the Nutcracker) as any child would. Her unexpected tenderness for the Nutcracker foreshadows her adult emotions for the prince after she helps him defeat the same individual who broke the toy during the party. Baryshnikov's staging of the first act stresses this theme by juxtaposing and contrasting the adults' and children's experiences of the party, in contrast to versions that foreground the children, such as the familiar Royal Ballet staging.
In the second act, Clara discovers new depths to her feelings. By banishing the Sugar Plum Fairy, Baryshnikov as the prince keeps Clara in the foreground and their near-ecstatic dances reveal her growing ease with adult feelings. But in the end, Drosselmeyer reappears to usher Clara out of her dream: her transformation into womanhood must take place in the real world, not in a dream fantasy.
As has been noted often enough, Baryshnikov was constrained to omit the Arabian variation in order to keep the film within the time frame for a television broadcast. This is unfortunate, as one can only imagine what he and Kirkland might have done with it. Mother Ginger is absent. Otherwise the score is intact; the familiar Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy survives with its angelic celeste accompaniment, here danced by Clara. The choreography for this number is the high point of Baryshnikov's tale: Clara's wonderfully hesitant yet ecstatic foot-dragging is forecast in her first-act pas de deux with the prince and reappears in a pendulum-like step in the second-act pas de deux (which she and the prince here share with Drosselmeyer).
The production values in the film are high with the exception of the scenery, which could have been more literally rendered; the backgrounds are often murky to the point of mystery. But the uniformly outstanding dancing and excellent costumes go a long way to offset this one minor liability.
DVD is impeccable & preferable in sound & picture quality to VHS.
The essential problem with the ballet's original staging is that the story line falls apart in the second act. The first act has a reasonable plot line given that this is a child's dream story. But after Clara helps the Nutcracker defeat the Mouse King and he turns into a handsome prince, they depart for the Kingdom of Sweets and, after the Waltz of the Snowflakes, the story line evaporates. Once the pair arrive in the Kingdom, poor Clara sits out the entire second act watching a succession of sweet treats dance the audience into diabetes, while Prince Charming deserts her for the Sugar Plum Fairy. In other words, the original staging gives the entire second act no plot line whatever, only a succession of divertissements with solo turns and a final pas de deux for the prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Mikhail Baryshnikov's inspiration was to give this fragmented succession of dream images into a coherent story. Unfortunately as witness Celia Franca's infamous "it makes me want to vomit" rant, Baryshnikov's version is often misunderstood. Clara is not having an affair with Drosselmeyer, nor does he desire her.
The key to understanding Baryshnikov's interpretation is the Mouse King. It is immediately obvious from the King's costume--a long purple frock coat & short violet cape--that he is Clara's dream transformation of the drunken adult male party guest who wrenches off the Nutcracker's head (replacing Clara's brother as the culprit). In fact the mouse army are ALL Clara's dream transformations of the male party guests, including the paunchy, bemedalled general who throws out his back dancing the Champagne Promenade with Clara's nurse. (In the party scene, the guest who injures the Nutcracker is the ONLY one wearing a frock coat; all the other adult males [except the general] wear cutaways.)
In other words, the adult males are threatening to Clara (& this pretty much rules out any notion that she's involved with Drosselmeyer). Her dream, Drosselmeyer's gift as Baryshnikov's prologue explains, gently allows her to discover the womanly feelings with which her dawning womanhood endows her. At the party, then, Clara is a child among children, playing with toys (including the Nutcracker) as any child would. Her unexpected tenderness for the Nutcracker foreshadows her adult emotions for the prince after she helps him defeat the same individual who broke the toy during the party. Baryshnikov's staging of the first act stresses this theme by juxtaposing and contrasting the adults' and children's experiences of the party, in contrast to versions that foreground the children, such as the familiar Royal Ballet staging.
In the second act, Clara discovers new depths to her feelings. By banishing the Sugar Plum Fairy, Baryshnikov as the prince keeps Clara in the foreground and their near-ecstatic dances reveal her growing ease with adult feelings. But in the end, Drosselmeyer reappears to usher Clara out of her dream: her transformation into womanhood must take place in the real world, not in a dream fantasy.
As has been noted often enough, Baryshnikov was constrained to omit the Arabian variation in order to keep the film within the time frame for a television broadcast. This is unfortunate, as one can only imagine what he and Kirkland might have done with it. Mother Ginger is absent. Otherwise the score is intact; the familiar Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy survives with its angelic celeste accompaniment, here danced by Clara. The choreography for this number is the high point of Baryshnikov's tale: Clara's wonderfully hesitant yet ecstatic foot-dragging is forecast in her first-act pas de deux with the prince and reappears in a pendulum-like step in the second-act pas de deux (which she and the prince here share with Drosselmeyer).
The production values in the film are high with the exception of the scenery, which could have been more literally rendered; the backgrounds are often murky to the point of mystery. But the uniformly outstanding dancing and excellent costumes go a long way to offset this one minor liability.
DVD is impeccable & preferable in sound & picture quality to VHS.
62 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I must apologize for my bad english, but I just had to write this rewiev. I had vhs tape of this ballett and I waited DVD version for years, so there's no need to say that I'm extreamly happy. Most of rewievers here said that the production is not excellent, you may like other versions more. So... I have seen all the versions and I must say they can't compete with this one. They all lack true feeling. If you read memories of soviet balletdancers, you realize, how monotonous was the repertory politics in Kirov or Bolshoi Ballett. ABT gave Baryshnikov a chance to do things differently and who can claim that it's bad?
Example:rewier "rss28" claimes that the great pas de deux is actually pas de trois...only because Drosselmeyer appers to be in the scene! I see it otherwise. Mr. Drosselmeyer is NOT a person here, but he appers to be the TIME. Time flys by, if we like something, we always have to little time to enjoy it, Clara doesn't want to go home, but she has to and time has come. In all other versions the Prince and Clara are watching the pas de deux, but here they are actually involved, it's their story and this dance gives a ballett hole new meaning and depth. I'm sorry, but normally this pas de deux is boring, it's only fireworks and tehnique, no EMOTION! But it was Anna Pavlova who said that ballett is not a tehniqe, but soul. To me the pas de deux is extreamly beautiful, I can see love, sweet passion, all these tender feelings. Thank you, mr. Baryshnikov for that great experience.
Example:rewier "rss28" claimes that the great pas de deux is actually pas de trois...only because Drosselmeyer appers to be in the scene! I see it otherwise. Mr. Drosselmeyer is NOT a person here, but he appers to be the TIME. Time flys by, if we like something, we always have to little time to enjoy it, Clara doesn't want to go home, but she has to and time has come. In all other versions the Prince and Clara are watching the pas de deux, but here they are actually involved, it's their story and this dance gives a ballett hole new meaning and depth. I'm sorry, but normally this pas de deux is boring, it's only fireworks and tehnique, no EMOTION! But it was Anna Pavlova who said that ballett is not a tehniqe, but soul. To me the pas de deux is extreamly beautiful, I can see love, sweet passion, all these tender feelings. Thank you, mr. Baryshnikov for that great experience.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Still the Best version of the Nutcracker I have ever seen
I was 8 years old the year this came out, I remember watching it on Christmas Eve on Channel 11 (Chicago PBS station). Read more
Published 1 day ago by L. Brooks
Took My Breath Away! Bravo!
Glorious! The American Ballet Theatre, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov in the title role, a charming young woman named Gelsey Kirkland as Clara, and an imperious Uncle Drosselmeyer... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Barbara Frederick
A classic ballet.
This is a birthday gift for my child. I am looking forward to watching it together. It is my favorite recording of the nutcracker ballet.
Published 2 months ago by LUV DANCE
DVD often crops off the feet
Very disappointed. This DVD is not full screen. It often crops off the feet, thereby limiting the full impact and beauty. VHS is far superior. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Carmen Arechederra
The Nutcracker
When my girls were small we would watch this particular Nutcracker, featuring Baryshnikov every Christmas. It was a tradition. We had it on a VHS tape which finally wore out. Read more
Published 3 months ago by RITAY
Best Version of Nutcracker!
In my humble opinion this is the BEST version of the Nutcracker Ballet you could hope to see. Not only is the dancing superb; the acting is very good, quite believable. Read more
Published 4 months ago by EagleEye
Nutcracker
This CD was a Christmas gift for my sister. It arrived quickly and in great shape. I turned around and sent it on to another state where it will be appreciated for years to come.
Published 4 months ago by Rosemary Chidester
If you cannot see it live...
This is the next best thing to a live performance. The editing allows for only the best parts of the dances... and of course Mikhail. But nothing compares to a live performance.
Published 4 months ago by Healthy for Life
Beautiful as Always
This item arrived on time, and in great condition. The quality was completely satisfactory! So happy I ordered from Amazon!
Published 4 months ago by Carly
My favorite Nutcracker dvd.
This is my favorite if only because of the magnificent dancing of Baryshnikov and Kirkland (who appears on video rarely,unfortunately since she is one of the greatest ballerinas of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sheila Bloom
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