Overture Magazine: 2016-2017 Season September - October 2016 | Page 46

{ program notes
The Nutcracker, Overture
Miniature and Act II

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born in Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840;
died in St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893

44 O v ertur e |

www. bsomusic .org

The BSO

The final dance of this set
features Mother Gigogne,
who hides her many
children under an
enormously full skirt.
Usually in the concert hall we hear
one of the suites Tchaikovsky extracted
from the score. But tonight we will
hear all of Act II, which contains the
ballet’s most elaborate dances and most
of its finest music. It takes place in
the fantasy Kingdom of Sweets where
the Nutcracker Prince has transported
Clara. But first we will also hear the
Overture Miniature that introduces Act
I. Since at only three minutes in length
it is considerably shorter than a normal
overture, the composer included the

Ch r is Lee

The world’s most beloved ballet, The
Nutcracker, began life as a semi-fiasco at
St. Petersburg’s Maryinsky Theatre on
December 18, 1892. While today we
smile with pleasure as the curtain rises
on a glittering scene of children playing
around the magnificent Christmas tree at
Clara’s party — perhaps one of them is
our child or grandchild — the sophisticated Russian audience thought a rabble
of untrained children a poor substitute
for their elegant corps de ballet. The
first Sugarplum Fairy was the pudgy
Italian ballerina Antoninette dell’Era,
unable to match the delicacy of the
celesta in her famous dance. The critics were generally unkind: they found
Tchaikovsky’s music to be “far from his
usual high level” and the choreography
(by Lev Ivanov replacing the ailing
Marius Petipa) to show “no creativity
whatsoever.” This may have been the
one and only time that The Nutcracker
failed to work its enchantment.
The usually thin-skinned
Tchaikovsky, who could be reduced to
tears by bad reviews, took it all in stride.
After all, as devoted as he was to the
ballet — taking great pride in his scores
for Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty
— he had not been very enthusiastic
about The Nutcracker assignment.
At the time, he was preparing for an
exhausting tour of the United States,
where he and his music would be the
focal point at the opening of New York’s
Carnegie Hall. He wasn’t impressed
either with the version of the tale
Petipa proposed to mount; Petipa had
chosen a watered-down French version
by Alexander Dumas, père of E. T. A.
Hoffmann’s darker original, which
Tchaikovsky much preferred. The
composer was only persuaded to write
the score when he was allowed to add a
one-act opera, Iolanta, on a subject of
his choice to make a double bill.

word “miniature.” It introduces the
innovative approach Tchaikovsky will
take for orchestration throughout
this score; here he chooses very bright
instruments — high woodwinds
and violins and violas, but no cellos
or basses — to create a magical,
child-like atmosphere.
Act II opens with the musical
sequence for the entrance of Clara
and the Prince and their presentation
to the Sugarplum Fairy, who presides
over the Kingdom. Dancers mime the
story from Act I of Clara’s heroism in
defeating the Mouse King and freeing
the Prince from his imprisonment as
the Nutcracker.
As Clara’s reward, a table is brought
out with an array of wonderful treats,
each represented by one of the five
famous divertissement dances in
different national styles that follow.