Nutcracker
highlights Tchaikovsky score Ballet comes to West Jefferson Dec.
6 & 7
The Conservatory of Dance & Theatre presents its fourth
annual production of The Nutcracker ballet at the Ashe Civic Center
in West Jefferson, Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Performances are also scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6, at 6 p.m.
and Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3 p.m. at the Galax High School auditorium
in Galax, Va.
The musical score of The Nutcracker, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
is perhaps the most beloved music composed for a ballet, said
a spokesperson for the theatre.
Conceivably the best Russian composer of all time, Tchaikovsky
was a genius for creating melodies, mastering musical structure
and highly developing the sense of musical drama, the spokesperson
said.
Born in Votkinsk, in the Ural Mountains of European Russia, Tchaikovsky
started piano at the age of 7, but only showed signs of musical
talent when he was 19.
At 19, Tchaikovsky began studying music theory and composition.
When the great Nicholas Rubinstein founded the Moscow Conservatory,
he hired Tchaikovsky as an instructor.
Tchaikovsky’s works did not please the world immediately.
Even the best of his works today were first thought of as noise.
His famous Swan Lake was a total failure to critics and listeners
at its premier, the spokesperson said.
In December 1891, some 30 years after he decided to be a composer,
Tchaikovsky’s new opera Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)
so impressed the Imperial Opera Directorate in Russia that he
was promptly commissioned by choreographer Marius Petipa to write
a ballet for the following season.
The ballet was to be based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s story “The
Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” a selection which Tchaikovsky
disliked. Nevertheless, he began work in early 1892 and completed
the music later that summer. Tchaikovsky felt his music for The
Nutcracker was “infinitely poorer than The Sleeping Beauty.”
In 1892, the first showing of The Nutcracker took place at the
Mariinsky Theatre of Russia, home of the Kirov Ballet.
In 1893, less than a year after the premier of The Nutcracker,
Tchaikovsky died during a cholera epidemic.
The Nutcracker made its way to Western Europe in the 1930s and
to America by 1940, performed by Ballet Russe. The first American
full length Nutcracker was performed by the San Francisco Ballet,
choreographed by W. Christensen.
The people of America, and soon all of Europe saw Tchaikovsky
as a very talented composer, as they went back to seek what other
works of his were stunning to the ear. To their pleasant surprise,
their answer was all of them, the spokesperson said.
The most beloved and famous of Tchaikovsky’s works today,
The Nutcracker, is one of great beauty, hiding a special memory
with emotional feeling in the hearts of the listeners. The Nutcracker
has since become an annual Christmas tradition, the spokesperson
said.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for children 13 and under. All
seating is reserved. Tickets are on sale at the Ashe County
Arts Council in West Jefferson, phone (336) 846-2787.
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