Queensland Ballet
THE NUTCRACKER
Lyric, QPAC
December
THE NUTCRACKER, not surprisingly, is the most performed of ballets. Often standard Christmas fare for companies, there are a myriad different interpretations of the E. T. Hoffmann tale. The Queensland Ballet last performed its version in Brisbane in 2007, and therefore it was a fitting conclusion to the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations to offer this classical confection again, this time on the larger Lyric Theatre stage, and accompanied by the Queensland Orchestra (QO) as well as the choir of St Peter’s Lutheran College.
Artistic director Francois Klaus has kept to the traditional 19th century tale, with minor alterations. Here, Drosselmeyer is a magician, conductor and theatre director. Adeptly portrayed by Nathan Scicluna, the character is more mischievous than Machiavellian as he manipulates and propels the action throughout. It is also very much a dancing role of crisply articulate footwork and flying leaps. Scicluna acquitted himself well on all counts.
Drosselmeyer, not the Nutcracker turned Prince, leads Clara (Teri Crilly) on her fantastic journey. Klaus places Clara at the centre of all the action, rather than as spectator, particularly in the second act, and therefore the ballet rests largely on her shoulders.
Crilly, who has been a member of the company for little over two years, is nonetheless more than up to the task. She convincingly captured the fresh wide-eyed innocence of the young Clara in a delightfully unaffected performance. Of diminutive stature, Crilly lit up the stage with her brilliant smile, soft ballon and clarity of line. Her wonderment as she arrived in the Land of Snow was quite infectious.
Costumes of the softest of white tulle in a beautifully effective design by Noelene Hill help make this the most magical scene, while the choir of St Peter’s adds further richness to the superb playing of the QO. Piran Scott, as the Prince, nobly partnered Crilly in the pas de deux, although a couple of the lifts seemed a little laboured. Rachael Walsh as the Snow Queen (and also Clara’s sister Sophia) however, was entrancing – with effortless technique and beautiful use of epaulement.
Instead of the Kingdom of Sweets in Act 2, we see Drosselmeyer’s Christmas gift of a puppet theatre transform into a life-sized world of theatre with performers including clowns, Spanish and Russian dancers and butterflies. Clara joins in dancing the Waltz of the Flowers, and performs a Chinese Dance with Drosselmeyer.
However, in spite of these entertaining divertissements, including a sensuous Arabian Dance by Katherine Rooke and Alexander Koszarycz, this act failed to sparkle as it should. The usual climax of this act, and of the ballet, the sublimely grand pas de deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince, is rendered rather less than grand by a complete reworking of the Petipa/Ivanov classic (here for a ballerina and her prince), including the segmenting of the delicate Sugar Plum variation into a learning experience for Clara. The spectacle was further diminished by a rather lacklustre performance from Clare Morehen who, beautiful line not withstanding, barely smiled throughout. Perhaps the fact that, according to the program, she was not scheduled to dance this performance may have had some bearing on her unusually restrained demeanour.
This season there were also several absences from the upper ranks of the company due to injury. And while the younger members and Professional Year dancers capably stepped up to the plate, in a small ensemble of 24 such absences are noticeable in terms of some uneven corps work and that indefinable lack of cohesion across the board. Hopefully subsequent performances allowed the work to gel and develop more effervescence. Meanwhile, this Nutcracker definitely belongs to Teri Crilly.
– DENISE RICHARDSON