Nutcracker, a Holiday Favorite with a Swinging Twist
/By Truman C. Wang
12/20/2022
Los Angeles children’s chorus / Photo by jamie pham
Over a span of two days (December 17-18), the LA Phil demonstrated its astonishing virtuosity and versatility by playing a dark tragic opera and a lighthearted ballet back to back.
There were magic and glowing warmth in Dudamel’s reading of the Nutcracker ballet. Act I was given complete in all its symphonic glory, showing occasional traces of Wagnerism (the rhythmically heavy Grandfather’s dance, and the grand pomposity of the guests’ departure). The Mouse King and toy soldiers battle was fought with great vigor; the children’s pine forest journey was evocative, so was the ensuing “Waltz of the Snowflakes”, with enchanting contribution from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, dressed in candy cane red and white.
Act II comprised four dances by Tchaikovsky, interspersed between swing band versions by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (with the LA Phil strings enthusiastically playing backup.) To show this was not your grandparents’ Nutcracker, Ellington deftly transformed the “Sugar Plum Fairy” (with the always-superb Joanne Pierce Martin on the celesta) into “Sugar Rum Cherry” – a slow, inebriated vamp for drum, toms, sax and brass. The graceful “Waltz of the Flowers” became the rousing “Dance of the Floreadors”, where the band members took virtuosic turns strutting their stuff with great fun and energy.
A grandiose Pas de deux and finale brought this innovative Nutcracker to its traditional end.
An added bonus was Brian Lauritzen’s highly entertaining pre-concert talk, in which he pointed out that on this very day (December 18) 130 years ago, the Nutcracker ballet was first performed in St. Petersburg, but mistakenly stated that Clara kills the Mouse King by striking him dead with her slipper. (She does throw a slipper at him, but it is the nutcracker prince who kills the Mouse King.)
Happy holidays!
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.