Last night was such a lovely evening! My friend Angela and I had a really fancy dinner at Bambara, one of my favorite restaurants downtown, and then we walked across the street to Capitol Theatre for a production of Ballet West's The Nutcracker. I enjoyed both immensely! Seeing this ballet is one of my very favorite Christmas traditions and I anticipate every scene! The party revealing the Christmas tree to Clara and Fritz is enchanting, the Nutcracker coming to life and leading a group of toy soldiers against the mice is magical, and the dance of the Snow Queen and her snowflakes is dazzling! When Clara and her Nutcracker travel to the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy, I love all of the divertissements devised for her entertainment! My favorites are the Arabian dance because it is so exotic and the Russian dance because it is so athletic (it gives me goosebumps)! I wait through the whole ballet to get to the Grand Pas de Deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier because, in my opinion, both Tchaikovsky's music and William Christensen's choreography are incredibly romantic. Sayaki Ohtaki danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy beautifully and she had great chemistry with Adrian Fry as her Cavalier. I also really enjoyed Beau Pearson as Mother Buffoon because he was quite the ham (he even got the audience clapping which I don't remember happening before). The children in the cast were wonderful and I especially enjoyed Jax Steele as Fritz because he seemed more mischievous than usual and Mother Buffoon's children because they were adorable. Everything about this production is so magical, particularly the special effects as the Christmas tree grows in size, the snow falling in the land of the Snow Queen, and the fireworks in the finale, and it makes me feel like a child again. I really enjoyed being able to see this ballet with Angela because she thought it was just as magical as I did! It is the perfect way to celebrate the season and I highly recommend getting a ticket to one of the remaining performances (go here).
No comments:
Post a Comment