FSogol's Advent Calendar Day 17: The Nutcracker

[FSogol]

Last edited Sun Dec 17, 2017, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)

The Nutcracker is a holiday favorite and the most popular ballet. (Mrs FSogol and her Aunt are going to see Regal Cinemas' performance of the Bolshoi Ballet's Nutcracker this afternoon.)

The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", by way of Alexandre Dumas' adapted story "The Nutcracker". It was given its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on Sunday, December 18, 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta.

Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker.

Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions, in particular the pieces featured in the suite. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutcracker

Picture of the 1st performance:


Original costume design


Olga Preobrajenska as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nikolai Legat as Prince Coqueluche in the Grand pas de deux in the original production of The Nutcracker

[pangaia]

1. The Nutcracker is a holiday favorite and the most popular opera.

Just got done playing a bunch of NUTS-- last week...
After all these years playing it um-teen times, I never heard them singing..

hummmm... what HAVE I been missing... ??

[Donkees]

3. Some singing :) Thought 'opera' also meant 'work'

[pangaia]

4. OPERA is the plural of OPUS.

So the sentence is botched either way. LOL..

Poor choristers have to hang for 2 minutes of singing.. :&gt )

[Donkees]

5. '' ... related to the Latin words opera (singular) and operae (plural) ... ''

... related to the Latin words opera (singular) and operae (plural), the ancestor of the Italian words opera (singular) and opere (plural). In English usage, besides the word opus, the word opera occasionally was used to identify a musical work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_number

[pangaia]

6. Look, it's not an opera.. I know an opera when I hear it.

I've played and conducted operas and I know damn well the NutBuster ain't no fucking opera.






THIS is opera!

Now I'm off to play yet one more orchestra xmas concert... red tie, funny hat ..
The old folks love it...

[Donkees]

7. 'In contemporary usage ... denotes the dramatic musical genre of opera or ballet'

'In contemporary usage, however, the word opera specifically denotes the dramatic musical genre of opera or ballet, which were developed in Italy.'[3]

[pangaia]

10. I have never, ever heard the word used that way..

Of course I'm just a lowly musician. What could I possible know?






"Nevah?"
"No, not evah."

[Donkees]

14. Just as in 'opera d'arte' (work of art)

[FSogol]

8. Whoops, meant ballet.

[pangaia]

11. LOL...

Better tell Donkees.


Anyway, I'm just a pompous know-it-all, don't worry.

[FSogol]

12. Yeah, didn't mean to cause any fights.

[pangaia]

13. Oh don;t worry, Donkees and I are not fighting

At least........ I'm not.. just having fun...


And BTW thank you for posting the pics and a bit of histgory.
I have p;layed the Ball Buster- tooo many times.... and never knew any of the history.

I just sit there in the pit, counting bars rest, watch for cues, check my cell, once in a while look up at the conductor.. to see if he/she is still flapping his/her arms...

[elleng]

2. Happy to see you and yours enjoy it.

I 'grew up' seeing it by the New York City Ballet (only in 'recent' years at Lincoln Center!)

[FSogol]

9. Hi Ellen. Happy Holidays.

[Donkees]

15. Same here, at Lincoln Center :)