San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
The Nutcracker
Opening Night, December 11, 2001

The holiday season got off to a delightfully snowy start last Tuesday with the San Francisco Ballet's opening of The Nutcracker at the War Memorial Opera House. I admit that in all these years, and after seeing both provincial and national productions every single year from age five to age twenty, I had not been able to bring myself to see the San Francisco Nutcracker, but it turned out to be my loss. Despite a few peculiar choreographic moments, it was overall a fanciful, enchanting, eye-filling production which featured some of San Francisco Ballet's finest dancers, among them an elegant and icy Muriel Maffre as the Snow Queen and a radiant Joanna Berman as the Sugar Plum Fairy.

The current production, which debuted in 1986 seems visually and dramatically unified, although choreographically disjointed. Lew Christensen, SFB's artistic director from 1952 to 1967, was in the process of revising SFB's Nutcracker at the time of his death in 1984, and his work was completed by his brother Willam Christensen (who staged the first American production of the ballet in San Francisco in 1944) and Helgi Tomasson. The first act seems mainly to be of Willam Christensen's devising, while Tomasson has made contributions into the divertissements of the second act that Lew Christensen had already begun. Unfortunately in many places the variation of styles does show and not always for the better.

Strange to say, but in some ways I enjoyed the first act more than the second. The notorious Party Scene, which in many productions is about as exciting as watching slush melt, was wonderfully staged here, with detailed storytelling and colorful, charming set and costume designs and a brisk tempo from the orchestra, led by Jean-Louis LeRoux. The 19th century German settings devised by Jose Varona were somewhat overwhelmingly pink, but still appropriate for the atmosphere of the ballet. From the opening scene in Herr Drosselmeyer's workshop, through the trek in the falling snow into the Stahlbaums's house, the design of the storyline took us through the music of the overture beautifully and expeditiously.

The children of the Party Scene, who study at the San Francisco Ballet School, acquitted themselves well, and Sean Orza as Drosselmeyer's nephew was a perfect gentleman to Jenny Winton's sweet Clara. A highlight to the act, though, was Amanda Schull's turn as the Dancing Doll, displaying the best work that I've yet seen from her. Her precise footwork and settled port de bras lent a neatness to the variation and showed off an improvement in her technique since last season.

All in all, the action moved along swiftly, from the famous "growing of the tree" scene to through the battle between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker. Though filled with highly entertaining details, the scenes never dwelt too long on them and before you knew it, you were at the stunningly beautiful transition into the Land of Snow, presided over by Muriel Maffre and Benjamin Pierce. It was a pleasure watching such a long and yet fleet-footed pair of dancers, and even with a gathering dust of snow coating the floor, they covered the space in broad elastic strokes that emphasized a certain grandness.

The second act, set in the Land of Sweets, is mainly an excuse for every conceivable type of variation in a kind of Candy Roll Call. Joanna Berman, as the Sugar Plum who rules this kingdom, was an amiable and warm presence as always, and worked hard to inject coherence and a bit of drama into the somewhat sketchily-defined role of Head Fairy. Among her subjects, the Spanish-flavored Chocolate variation was well-executed by the three couples, with Dalene Bramer standing out for an extra jolt of sexiness in her attitude. Julie Diana was as coolly appealing as ever in the Arabian Coffee role, although the choreography really doesn't call for much except to move in an enticing manner. In the Russian Cossacks variation, Gonzalo Garcia stunned the audience before the music even started with a huge double saut de basque à la caractére onto stage before he and Pablo Piantino and James Sofranko performed one of the more crowd-pleasing pieces. Kristin Long flitted confidently through the role of the Butterfly in the Waltz of the Flowers, moving with such ease that the stage seemed almost too small for her.

Sadly, in the Grand Pas de Deux, which should have been the culmination and highlight of the entire act, Berman, partnered by Cyril Pierre, had the unenviable task of making some very peculiar choreography look good. Even with all the majesty they could muster they couldn't hide the fact that the supported adagio seemed somehow to have been choreographed in such a way that they were always jammed up to one side of the stage, and that there were many long moments of what one might call "milling about". Pierre's variation featured monotonous choreography and he seemed hard put not to make it look labored. It was difficult to tell if it appeared sloppy because his technique was suffering or if the steps were simply uninteresting. The worst moment, however, was seeing Berman, a famously musical dancer, slog through one of the most unmusical versions of the Sugar Plum Fairy's variation that I have ever seen. The one momentary flash of insight came in her manége of turns near the end, which she phrased so that the châines déboulés perfectly reflected a musical descent from the oboe.

Nevertheless, Berman was Berman, and she always shines, as might be said of the whole company. In the end, her all-encompassing smile and the polish of the company members in a lovely setting were the memorable points.

More information on San Francisco Ballet's website.

Return to the review index

This review initially appeared on criticaldance.com, December 13, 2001.

For questions or comments, please contact maryellenhunt@yahoo.com.