By Randi Bjornstad
The Nutcracker must be one of the best-known ballets ever produced, having been performed since about this time of year in 1892. That makes this holiday season the 130th anniversary of the classic “fairy ballet,” composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, choreographed originally by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and adapted for dance from a short story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, written in 1816 by E.T.A. Hoffman.
Eugene Ballet started performing the classic tale within three years of its founding in 1978 by Riley Grannan and Toni Pimble. They first put it onstage in the the company’s 1981-82 season, and never missed a year until the coronavirus pandemic shut down virtually all social and cultural activities early in 2000.
That means this year’s production of The Nutcracker probably is No. 38 for Eugene Ballet, and it has given hundreds of dancers — from professionals down to young dance students making their debut in the opening party scene — their chance to share in the onstage magic of this classic.
A prolific choreographer in her own right, Eugene Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker features Pimble’s original work.
For a synopsis of the ballet’s plot, a story written by Alastair Macaulay and published in the New York Times in 2015 is as good as any, describing it as containing layers “like a Russian nesting doll: (Each) houses another story, which in turn houses another.”
Macaulay goes on to describe the ballet as traditionally performed as the story of a young girl named Clara who receives a beautifully carved and painted nutcracker as a gift. She falls asleep and in her dream meets a young prince trapped in the form of a nutcracker, who, “thanks to her bravery in the battle with the Mouse King, has shed his Nutcracker form. Together they voyage to realms of snow and sweets where ballet is dominant. When they reach the Realm of Sweets, they’re welcomed by its monarch, the Sugar Plum Fairy — who, when she dances, becomes the ballet’s pinnacle, its transcendent revelation of the sublime.”
For the fifth year, Eugene Ballet’s 2022 run of The Nutcracker is accompanied by its resident orchestra, the nonprofit Orchestra Next. Brian McWhorter is music director and conductor of the training orchestra, which provides live music for stage productions with the goal of giving orchestral experience to aspiring professional musicians.
In addition to The Nutcracker, Orchestra Next has accompanied Eugene Ballet productions of The Great Gatsby, Peer Gynt, The Firebird, and The Snow Queen. The group also has performed national anthems for the World Indoor Track & Field Championship medal ceremonies and accompanied many other musical and theatrical productions throughout the community.
Eugene Ballet’s The Nutcracker
When: 2 p.m. matinees on Dec. 17, 18, and 24; 7:30 p.m. evening shows 0n Dec. 17 and 21-23
Where: Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, One Eugene Center (7th and Willamette streets), Eugene
Tickets: $15 for youths; $25 to $60 for adults, available at the Hult Center box office, 541-682-5000, or online at eugeneballet.org or hultcenter.org
