In Moscow, the premiere of the new ballet “The Nutcracker” was held. A month and a half later, after the presentation in Zurich, the ballet was shown in Russia.
German choreographer Christian Shpuk presented his vision of Hoffmann’s fairy tale.
In an interview with Russian journalists, he said that he wanted to convey the general mood of Hoffmann’s picture as accurately as possible. Christian Shpuk noted that in recent times, too often artificially added to the joyful New Year mood in the production. Initially, it is more mysterious and even slightly gloomy. But the artistic director of the ballet tried to present it in such a way that the “Nutcracker” was still interesting to the children. This is achieved by the colorfulness of the costumes and the enchantment of the performance itself. Beauty and pretentiousness have been noticed by many. Some even thought that the dancers in them are not very comfortable. But all the costumes are made of very light materials, which are attached to the frame. The artist of these wonderful costumes was the debutante Buka Schiff.
The troupe consists of fifty people. All the dancers coped with their task remarkably. Instant shift of outfits, clear, well-coordinated game – pleases the eye.
There were a lot of “special effects” – smoke puffs, the departure of mice on rollers, pruning princess nuts in an aquarium, screaming, screaming.
The music of Tchaikovsky was not in the original. In some places it was speeded up, slightly edited. Christian Shpuk explained this by the fact that it was possible to achieve the desired emotional effect in certain passages. Many Russian critics noted that this decision was not the most successful. The result of this “interference” was that the plot and music go on separately. It can be seen that the director is inspired more by Hoffman than Tchaikovsky.
