In 2004, San Francisco Ballet’s then-Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson took a creative leap with a new production of the perennially popular Nutcracker. Stakes were high; the San Francisco Ballet was, after all, the first U.S. company to stage and produce a full-length version (based on the Ivanov/Petipa 1892 original), which premiered on Christmas Eve, 1944, there at San Francisco Ballet’s War Memorial Opera House. Tomasson knew that if he was going to make a decisive change, it would have to be a stellar one. To insure this, he enlisted a world-class collaboration team, presented his ideas, and together they created a distinctly San Francisco classic that, twenty years later, continues to dazzle and entertain with a freshness that seems never-ending. Opening night, Friday December 6th marked my tenth year of reviewing the production. Every year it dazzles me as much as it had the previous year. Chalk it up to pure, unadulterated holiday magic. To the collaborative team of designers, Wendall K. Harrington for projection; Michael Yeargan for scenic design; James F. Ingalls for lighting, and the late Martin Pakledinaz for costume, I say well done, and thank you.
This ballet is set in 1915 San Francisco, during the Panama-American Exposition, which hailed the city’s rise from the ashes following the devastating 1906 earthquake. The Stahlbaum family has gathered with friends in the living room of their elegant San Francisco Edwardian. Pascal Molat is “Uncle Drosselmeyer,” a clockmaker and magician who reliably delivers weird and wonderful gifts, particularly to an impressionable adolescent Clara (Mitsuki Kobayashi Denman). Always a hit—for party guests and audience members alike—are the three dancing dolls, and Friday night (featuring jack-in-the-box Joshua Jack Price; ballerina doll Julia Rowe; Nutcracker doll João Percilio da Silva) was no exception. I so enjoy the audience’s enjoyment when each life-sized doll emerges from Drosselmeyer’s giant beribboned box (oh, the little girls’ gasp of surprise and delight when the ballerina doll emerges gives me prickles). Everyone laughs when the latter is picked up after her dance and slung over a father’s shoulder, legs and arms still stiffly akimbo. A little factoid about the ballerina doll: her bejeweled, sparkling tutu weighs a whopping eighteen pounds.
You know the full story, right? Clara is given the nutcracker, antics ensue, eventually everyone departs and Clara returns downstairs in the midnight darkness to fall asleep on the couch, her nutcracker in her arms. Drosselmeyer returns to work more of his magic, growing the Christmas tree an extra twenty feet (read: HUGE). The music builds, Clara wakes, looks around bewildered, and in a matter of deliriously wonderful Tchaikovsky-imbued seconds, the whole set shifts, a blink-and-you-missed it moment, and suddenly it’s like Clara and Drosselmeyer have been shrunk down to mouse size, with enormous presents towering over them and the china cabinet and fireplace now big as mountains. This will always be my favorite moment in the production. I will argue that THIS RIGHT HERE is a good reason to come to this production if you can’t think of any other reason (really? Really? It’s that hard to come to this elegant, clever, quintessential holiday classic that is pure fun to watch?). Kudos, as always, to the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, under the baton of music director Martin West, for their sumptuous rendition of Tchaikovsky’s iconic score.
Clara’s dreamscape soon includes a battle with life-sized mice and their king and the nutcracker, whom Drosselmeyer has turned into a dreamy prince. The best thing the mice have going for them is their leader, and on Friday night, Nathaniel Remez was on fire as the King of the Mice. I’ve seen him performing the role before, but this one topped the charts in terms of energy, nuance and wit. The audience was hugely entertained, laughing as the mortally wounded (thanks to Clara’s planting of a mousetrap, which saves the Nutcracker Prince as well) King of the Mice hammed his way back to his mouse hole, front-center stage. The quivering legs and tail, the last we see of him as he descends, are hilarious. Death has never been such fun to watch.
What comes next is another one of my favorite parts (admission: I probably have a dozen favorite parts), where Clara stands there weeping over the seeming death of the Nutcracker Prince as Drosselmeyer arrives to reassure her that no, he’s not dead. Helping him to his feet, Drosselmeyer then pries off the enormous nutcracker head to reveal a handsome prince (Wei Wang) who’s dazzled by his metamorphosis and overcome with gratitude to Clara, dancing out his sheer joy.
Let’s chat about Wei Wang for a moment. This is the first time I’ve seen him perform as Nutcracker Prince on the all-important opening night, and I was instantly reminded what a superb dancer he is. There’s something magical going on when he dances. He’s grace, technical perfection and appealing masculinity, so airborne and precise in his leaps and jumps. I hereby give him the award of the night for the softest landings, which is something that thrills ballet geeks like myself, assuring me I’m watching of the best of the best. For those of you not inclined to notice such things, I’ll just say you can’t fake a soft landing. It takes so much more muscle to control a silent landing. (He shares the award, actually, with Sasha de Sola as the night’s Sugar Plum Fairy, who is another best-of-the-best, and can always be counted on for a near-perfect performance with boundless grace, energy and elegance.)
This production’s Land of Snow is amazing, with its dramatic use of snow that increases by the minute, reaching near white-out conditions as sixteen very talented ensemble dancers leap and run and interweave without a single misstep. New (to me at least) for opening night is Snow Queen Jasmine Jimison, who’s being groomed for Big Things and it’s exciting to see the investment paying off. Last year the company’s iconic Yuan Yuan Tan retired and while there’s simply no replacing her stunning grace and long-long legs and arms, Jimison’s got something close in her clean, long lines and fluid grace. Partnered by newcomer Fernando Carratalá Coloma, a soloist so recently arrived from the English National Ballet, that I know nothing else about him, except that he admirably passed the night’s test of a new stage, new partner and new company.
I love all the Act II dances, but since I can’t describe them all, I’ll just give a shout-out to Spanish dancers Joshua Jack Price, Victor Prigent, Simone Pompignoli, Isabella DeVivo, Norika Matsuyama for their verve and panache; Russian dancers Alexis Francisco Valdes with Lleyton Ho and João Percilio da Silva, flamboyantly bursting out of oversized Faberge eggs; Arabian dancers Rubén Cítores Nieto, Nathaniel Remez and a deliciously sinuous Sasha Mukhamedov emerging from a giant genie lamp; and French dancers Nicole Moyer, Pemberley Ann Olson and Maggie Weirich, with their Toulouse Lautrec vibe and tricky ribbon sticks.
The ballet culminates in the Grand Pas de Deux, which, in this production, is danced by an adult Clara—Drosselmeyer’s magic at work again—and her Nutcracker Prince. Here, Wona Park and Wang were a powerhouse couple. Through their pas de deux, solos and coda, both were strong, consistent, always on the mark. Sky-high leaps and tours for Wang, rock-solid pirouettes and fouettés for Park, with an abundance of perfectly executed partnered lifts and fish dives.
The closing is darling, as a sleeping Clara is returned home and wakes in the Stahlbaum’s quiet living room, where her mother’s open arms are there to envelope her, and it’s a pure there’s no place like home moment that never fails to make my eyes sting.
My only complaint is that two hours goes way too fast when you’re watching San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker. No one wants magic like this to ever have to end.
Oh, Terez – your descriptions had me right there next to you, soaking up the exquisite staging, choreography/dancing, music and everything else that made/makes this a world class production. So much and such clever eye/ear candy, ie dancers bursting out of oversized Faberge eggs and the ever evocative Arabian dancer emerging from the lamp to name just two.
I was lucky enough to see The Nutcracker performed by the St Petersburg Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2005. Amazing beyond words, such that I think I might be able to image the transcendent experience you had. Though I very much envy that this is the tenth year in a row for you and San Fran.
Kansas City’s performance has improved over the years, I’m glad to say, keeping up the tradition as an annual magical mother or aunt/daughter or niece event. To this day, though, my all time favorite Mother Ginger graced the stage of your college ballet company. No Mother Ginger performance since has captured the pure delight in the costume choreography and gestures/facial expressions, all while herding the little ones out and about and back in again.
As for you, each college year brought the joy of observing your rise through the ranks and proudly saying “that’s my sister!” I wish I could attach the photo post Sugar Plum Fairy performance, with little girls gazing at you adoringly.
Annette what a wonderful response to read! I went right down that memory lane with you; you, too, have an evocative skill with your writing.
This is one I’ll reread and re-reread. Thank you.