Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve
Ever since its première, in 1892, composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s music for The Nutcracker has lured audiences with its siren song; and the Chamber Orchestra of Geneva, Switzerland, well conducted by Philippe Béran, created enchantment, sweetly beguiling viewers of all ages when the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève presented a radical and electrifying version of The Nutcracker, choreographed by New York City Ballet principal Benjamin Millepied, in December 2005.
The reference point is Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Millepied wants to cast an adult eye on the world of children—but he tells the story from Clara and Fritz’s point of view.
The choreographer wanders around their world in fear and amazement, bringing back its freshness with the help of a brilliant visual artist, Paul Cox, the well-known French illustrator of children’s books who has created an absolutely original setting.
In a corner of the stage, near a desk, sits Drosselmeyer (Andrè Hamelin), wearing a hat similar to the Mad Hatter’s and drawing in childish strokes. In fact, it is Cox himself working live, digitally painting the ballet’s characters on a screen that serves as a curtain.
The fun begins in a vortex with no lapse in the action and no pause in the parade of characters, objects, forms and colors through which the audience plunges. The décors suggest the 1950s, with a touch of Surrealism and Pop Art, everything square and rectilinear, as with the cone-shaped Christmas tree. The geometric coherence of the house and the decorations immediately strikes the eye. So does the consistency of the single-colored costumes, which present splashes of yellow, red, green and blue.
Millepied retains the ballet’s traditional characters (except for the Nutcracker, who becomes a frog) and they swirl together in a mélange that Millepied unravels step by step. His eclectic choreography eludes characterization, borrowing the speed and stark, nervous movements of choreographers like Jirí Kylián and William Forsythe. But these alluring passages are often interrupted by slides and drops to the floor. The Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier (Grant Aris), spins the ballerina (Cécile Robin Prévallée) on the floor like a top. In the first act, sudden moments of tension or release, rap rhythms, and droll sketches flourish. In the second act, each of the character dances occupies an expressive and vital space that separates it both visually and gesturally from the others.
Millepied has assembled a jolly mosaic, offering no respite either to the audience or to the dancers, whose response to the choreographer’s requests is so immediate and total that they seem to have become his property.
This new staging of The Nutcracker has given the company not only a masterpiece for the 21st century, but also a firm reference point for their artistic profile.
Ermanno Romanelli is a regular contributor to Danza & Danza and Il Giornale della Musica in Italy and around Europe.
