Brian Schmidt

Bolshoi Ballet: The Nutcracker ?HD?

{Watch Bolshoi Ballet: The Online Theatlantic. h5>. Bolshoi and Mariinsky are the best <3. Sublime ???. T he Bolshoi is one of the world’s great powerhouses of classical ballet. Even after the intrigue and scandal that has dogged it in recent years, the company ? now under director Vladimir Urin?and ballet director Makhar Vaziev ? continues to look as sharp as a razor, its dancers demonstrating, as ever, the grand, dramatic, “bolshoi” (“big”) performance style that has long been its calling-card. Even if you weren’t lucky enough to snaffle tickets for this summer’s Covent Garden residency ? or indeed ever to have made it over to Russia to see the company at its central-Moscow home ? there is now a tempting alternative. This winter, several of the Bolshoi’s core productions ? from those 19th-century staples The Nutcracker to?Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, and several contemporary works ? will be broadcast live into British cinemas from the recently restored Bolshoi theatre, just up from Red Square. Not only will this allow you to catch this centuries-old company as close as possible to where you live; you won’t have to fork out?for the punitive cost of a Moscow hotel, or indeed get to grips with the no-less-punitively involved application form for a Russian visa. Which is to say that, for anyone with an even passing interest in dance, this coming season is a thrilling prospect indeed. T his production of The Nutcracker is?the unique version by?Bolshoi’s historical ballet master?Yuri Grigorovich, who will turn 90?years old on January 2, 2017. T here is no more magical music in ballet than Tchaikovsky’s score, which tinkles and scintillates, and soothes every care away. There is no happier sight than the Sugar Plum Fairy in her Kingdom of Sweets, which through the most visually inventive stage wizardry transports every watcher, of any age, to an ideal childhood. For what could be more joyful than a story of a child who dreams of her toys coming to life and taking her to fairyland? Yet it is amazing that The Nutcracker survived at all. Its 1892 premiere in St Petersburg became a nightmare for its creators, rather than a dream. The story was taken from a spooky tale by ETA Hoffmann, and Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa had been planning the ultimate in fabulous and strange experiences ? the young heroine would ride in a boat drawn by dolphins spouting crystals; the snowflakes would be made dazzling by the discovery of electric lighting; there would be pavilions of barley-sugar and gold-spangled palm trees… But as compromises mounted with the libretto, Tchaikovsky became wretched and Petipa fell ill, handing over to his assistant Lev Ivanov. Though most of the choreography is lost, Ivanov’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy so fitted the sparkling delicacy of the music that it is still the most anticipated moment in the ballet. I n fact, the original creation’s imperfection has been the key to The Nutcracker’s immortality. Every production must dream up its own view on the elusive fantasy. So sometimes Clara is a little girl, sometimes a teenager who turns into the Sugar Plum Fairy herself ? a tradition in Russia. I n the Soviet era, The Nutcracker was recast as an opportunity to display the modern vigour of Russian dancing; British and American stagings enhanced the wish-fulfilment, even the darker aspects of Hoffmann’s old story. But The Nutcracker’s abiding enchantment is its music, to which the child in every one of us responds. Bolshoi Ballet's The Nutcracker?will be broadcast to cinemas around the UK. Find your closest cinema and book tickets?at.