And tell Beethoven some news of your own. They do “The Nutcracker Ballet” in Albuquerque just fine, too.
Having ventured out to see and hear Nutcracker on the Rocks last weekend, tonight NewMexiKen took in the real thing presented by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the New Mexico Ballet Company. Bravo!
When, just before the overture, a tiny little girl in front of me was asked if this was her first “Nutcracker,” I had to marvel because, well, it was my first “Nutcracker,” too. (Unless you count the dancing hippos in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.) And it was really wonderful; like the two boys near me (age seven or eight and nine or ten) I sat engrossed.
While it’s hard to fault James Brown or The Stones as heard in “Nutcracker on the Rocks,” a live orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s masterful music is really beyond marvelous. I also have to laugh because in no way do I feel capable of commenting on dance, yet after two performances in one calendar week I began to notice things. The prima ballerina, Angelie Renay Melzer as the Sugar Plum Fairy tonight, taught me how it’s done. While there were many excellent dancers, and many athletic ones, she was the dancer who brought the music and the dance into one. Just sublime.
Life offers so many moments of beauty and pleasure if we just give them a chance.
When I was about 10 years old, I think, my mother got passes for my sister and I to watch from the sidestage as the Royal Russian Ballet Company performed “The Nutcracker” in Tucson. It was tremendous! It was one of those times in life one never forgets.
BTW, I think this is comment #3000!