The Nutcracker Mystery

[3113]

I'll admit that I'm not really fond of ballet, but even if I was, I don't think I'd be a Nutcracker fan. Can anyone explain to me why this particular, seasonal ballet is so beloved? Or why kids get taken to it year after year?

I'm mystified because:

1) It doesn't seem to contain any real show-stopping numbers. Not on a spectacle level (ooh, cool, hundreds of dancers as lava rolling down from a volcano!), or individually (Whoa! Look at the leaps that guys gets to do! Look at the spins that dancer gets on her toes to do!)...or am I'm missing something?

2) IMHO, the Music's not that great or inspiring. Memorable because it's played over and over and over again on holiday albums. But is it really that great musically? This is not Beethoven's Ninth.

3) The story...don't get me started on the story. What a crappy fairytale. A girl dreams about a nutcracker and his battle with the mouse king? She saves the day by throwing her slipper and killing the mouse king and then kicks back with the prince to watch all kinds of dances. Then she wakes up.

Then she wakes up???

I mean, yeah, it's very Christmas-y and potentially pretty with a party and tree and presents and sugar plum fairies...but there's not much of a plot here, is there?

Help me out here. What am I not getting?

 

[RogueLurker]

I'll admit that I'm not really fond of ballet, but even if I was, I don't think I'd be a Nutcracker fan. Can anyone explain to me why this particular, seasonal ballet is so beloved? Or why kids get taken to it year after year?

I'm mystified because:

1) It doesn't seem to contain any real show-stopping numbers. Not on a spectacle level (ooh, cool, hundreds of dancers as lava rolling down from a volcano!), or individually (Whoa! Look at the leaps that guys gets to do! Look at the spins that dancer gets on her toes to do!)...or am I'm missing something?

2) IMHO, the Music's not that great or inspiring. Memorable because it's played over and over and over again on holiday albums. But is it really that great musically? This is not Beethoven's Ninth.

3) The story...don't get me started on the story. What a crappy fairytale. A girl dreams about a nutcracker and his battle with the mouse king? She saves the day by throwing her slipper and killing the mouse king and then kicks back with the prince to watch all kinds of dances. Then she wakes up.

Then she wakes up???

I mean, yeah, it's very Christmas-y and potentially pretty with a party and tree and presents and sugar plum fairies...but there's not much of a plot here, is there?

Help me out here. What am I not getting?

Hmmm, what you're not getting is the instant flood of memories, images and emotions that come from hearing the opening bars to any of the musical pieces ... the awe and joy at being taken out at night with the adults, watching the Christmas lights along the city streets as you go downtown, the enormous christmas tree and sparkling decorations in the lobby of the Arts Centre, the thrill of being surrounded by hundreds of men and women in suits and long dresses in the audience and watching the amazing things that the dancers were doing on the stage, surrounded by the colourful magical sets and lighting. being all dressed up (ok, not always a good thing when it involved a dress and leotards and shiny patent leather shoes) and holding onto your Nana's hand, feeling the love and warmth in that clasp.

It was a special treat as a kid to go there ... and its a special treat when I see or hear it now.


On a side note ... I'm guessing that Pantomime is probably as much of a mystery?

 

[oggbashan]

On a side note ... I'm guessing that Pantomime is probably as much of a mystery?

Oh No It Isn't!

The Nutcracker's story is accessible to children. Several classical ballets e.g. Swan Lake are about more adult themes - love, betrayal etc. that require more understanding than a young child might have.

The music is also easy to comprehend unlike say The Firebird.

Og

 

[Weird Harold]

I mean, yeah, it's very Christmas-y and potentially pretty with a party and tree and presents and sugar plum fairies...but there's not much of a plot here, is there?

Help me out here. What am I not getting?

What you're missing is the combination of all the elements.

The Nutcracker is a story about children and FOR children, The Music is complex enough to entertain adults but built around themes appealing to children.

And finally, the Nutcracker is entertaining TO children while simultaneously introducing chidren to more adult modes of entertainment -- i.e. it's away to introduce children to "culture" that they won't run away kicking and screaming to escape from.

It has all of the same elements as made "Looney Tunes" and "Merry Melodies" the archetype for "family entertainment."

 

[rgraham666]

Damn. Now I'm going to have the Chinese Dance echoing through my head all night.

In a good way.

 

[Liar]

The Nutcracker is a story about children and FOR children,

Audience adaptation. Kind of like Teletubbies.

 

[Weird Harold]

Audience adaptation. Kind of like Teletubbies.

Nah, teltubbies is irritatiing to adults.

It's the "something for all ages" mixture that keeps the kids from running away yet lets the adults sit through the performance -- if the kids won't watch you're wasting your time and if the parents can't stand it the kids won't even gt the chance to object cause the parents won't take them.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I don't believe there is anything on this earth that appeals to everyone. When I was young, the Nutcracker was very spooky to me and I didn't like it because of that. Now when I see it, I can appreciate the dancing and historical themes. I do think the music is quite beautiful and when I appreciate the sheer muscle required of dancers performing ballet, even a seemingly simple move is amazing to me. Of course, I love to watch little kids perform dances and have fun but this is much better done by professionals.

 

[3113]

The Nutcracker is a story about children and FOR children, The Music is complex enough to entertain adults but built around themes appealing to children.

And finally, the Nutcracker is entertaining TO children

Not to me it wasn't...but then I was an odd child. I think even then I was annoyed with the story. "That's it? That's the whole story? A quickie fight and then she sits and watches all these dances?"

 

[3113]

Damn. Now I'm going to have the Chinese Dance echoing through my head all night.

And now I'm going to have Fantasia mushrooms doing the dance in my head all night

 

[rgraham666]

And now I'm going to have Fantasia mushrooms doing the dance in my head all night

I've got Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy stuck in my mind now.

 

[Weird Harold]

Not to me it wasn't...but then I was an odd child. I think even then I was annoyed with the story. "That's it? That's the whole story? A quickie fight and then she sits and watches all these dances?"

How old were you when you were first exposed to the Nutcracker? Cyncal teenagers are in a gap between the appeal to children and the appeal to adults.

Then again, there are people who don't think "Looney Toons," "Merry Melodies," and "Silly Symphonies" are entertaining. Those of us with an appreciation for the complexity of "fun for all ages" entertainment can only be sympathetic to the less fortunate.

 

[keyala]

I heard the Nutcracker at the symphony when I was six years old and didn't see the ballet until I was almost ten years. If it had been reversed, I might not be nearly as fond of it as I am.

The music in itself is less complicated than many of the more complex pieces that tend to impress adults while merely making most children cover their ears and look perplexed. At the same time, the trills and repeating themes that do make the Nutcracker somewhat simple seeming have a continuing appeal to children, as seen even today in such things as cartoon theme songs.

That said, there are a few variations on the Nutcracker story, even when it comes to the balletic performance. Which is truest to the original is occasionally debated, though in truth few people care that much.

In some variations, it seems she was dreaming, but winds up with a physical injury to leave the question of truth or dream to the imagination. In others, all those dances she is watching actually are presentations of gifts to the prince's bride. And in yet another variation, when she awakens, the prince is mysteriously a guest of the family and they are companions forever (or so it seems).

The story follows along the lines of a classic fairytale in many ways. If the fairly innocent fairytales children are exposed to don't appeal, then it is doubtful the Nutcracker will, either. But if you enter into it with the same suspension of disbelief that make stories such as Cinderella or Tom Thumb enjoyable, then the ballet will be, also.

The music is, in some ways, like the pop music of ballet. Repeating themes, fairly simplistic, yet more complex than the common person could achieve, it has a general appeal that both "grows on you"and repeats in your head, occasionally to the point of screaming annoyance.

Also, quite frankly, you don't have to "get it" for it to be popular/appealing to large numbers of people. I say that very thing to myself every time Justin Timberlake grates across my eardrums...

 

[angelicminx]

I think ballet is something like opera, either you like it or you don't. What's that line from Pretty Woman? (I had to look it up.)

“People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic. They either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul.”

I loved the nutcracker, one of the only ballets I've ever seen. I loved the magic. I often dreamed of having a prince when I was little. I thought of the Mouse King as the bratty brother. When Clara threw the slipper I cheered, because she'd protected her beloved prince/ nutcracker from her brother, which she'd been helpless to do earlier.

I took my daughter to see it when she was about 7. Unfortunately, she didn't like it, didn't 'get it'. She liked a little of the dancing, but only a little. *sigh* I plan on taking her again next year, when she's 12, but I don't hold out hope that it will be any better.

 

[FallingToFly]

I think it's the fairytale that fascinates, and the sensation that dreams can really become reality, if even for a little while. What child doesn't want to dream of something amazing and fantastic, and have it come to life? It's very much like The Velveteen Rabbit in that aspect of "nursery magic" where there is a secret life of toys and children that only they- and a few special, select adults, are privy to.

My son is the Mouse King in this year's performance of Nuncrackers, which is a comedy set around a bunch of nuns trying to put on a performance of the Nutcracker for a television special on a public access channel. It's entertaining for adults, but I get the biggest kick out of watching my son play the bratty brother, one of Santa's teapots, and the Mouse King (as well as the obnoxiously not wanting to be there Catholic schoolboy). He's so precious up there in his little mouse head and feet, dueling with the Nutcracker. I love it, and I love the magical feel of the actual ballet. Next year, if there's a performance close enough, I plan on taking my oldest. He's one of those kids that "gets it"- from opera to classical music to acting and dancing and art. He has an intense fascination with things like Cirque de Soleil and dressage, intricate and subtle pieces that makes his imagination work overtime.

Maybe you just have to have a dreamer's soul to get into it?

 

[3113]

How old were you when you were first exposed to the Nutcracker? Cyncal teenagers are in a gap between the appeal to children and the appeal to adults.

Then again, there are people who don't think "Looney Toons," "Merry Melodies," and "Silly Symphonies" are entertaining. Those of us with an appreciation for the complexity of "fun for all ages" entertainment can only be sympathetic to the less fortunate.

Sorry, Harold, but I don't buy your comparison to, at the very least, "Looney Tunes." I assure you that if the Mouse King kept trying to capture the Nutcracker with ACME products which resulted in him falling off cliffs or getting hit by mallets that I *would* have been entertained both as adult and child, and I'd probably love the Nutcracker.

And, no, I was not a cynical teen when I was first exposed to the Nutcracker.

Look, if you want to tell me that I don't get how wonderful the music is, I'll buy that. If you want to tell me that there are moments of amazing ballet in the Nutcracker and I haven't seen it enough times to realize that, I'll buy that as well. Or if you want to tell me, as some here have, that it's part of the seasonal sentiment and excitement, or that some like it some don't...I'll buy that as well. There are movies, music, plays that I love...but I know they're not really that great and I just like them because they resonate with me. And I know that there are some movies, songs, plays that stick around and resonate with people even if, under the microscope, they're really not so good.

I can buy all that.

But don't try to sell me on the idea that I somehow don't get "fun for all ages" stuff. Because I don't (1) believe that of myself, and (2) I don't buy that the Nutcracker is somehow magically infused with such a thing.

 

[3113]

But if you enter into it with the same suspension of disbelief that make stories such as Cinderella or Tom Thumb

Not to be contentious...but I'm not sure what suspension of disbelief is required. Girl has pretty dream. Here is what she dreams.... Why do I need to suspend my disbelief to get that?

And while I can't speak for Tom Thumb, I'm not sure that the comparison with Cinderella is apt. Unlike Cinderella, the heroine does not get to keep the prince, or remain a princess. The kid who broke her nutcracker can torment her at another party--unlike the wicked stepsisters who can no longer abuse Cinderella.

Clara doesn't even, as in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz, go through trials which teach her how to value herself and others when she awakes.

Let me emphasize, I understand that ballet and opera, etc. need not have a good story. The Magic Flute, most folk agree, has a pretty nonsensical story. But with the "Queen of the Night" aria in it, who the hell cares? So if you tell me that story is irrelevant and what matters is the great music and dancing or just the pretty costumes and spectacle, fine, I can understand that. But take away the music and the dancing and do you really have that good of a story? I don't think so. Not even, IMHO, on the level of a fairytale.

 

[Weird Harold]

But don't try to sell me on the idea that I somehow don't get "fun for all ages" stuff. Because I don't (1) believe that of myself, and (2) I don't buy that the Nutcracker is somehow magically infused with such a thing.

Apparently, tongue-in-cheek teasing doesn't translate well to text.

However, the "Something for Everyone" aspect of the Nutcracker IS why it's so enduringly popular, nothing that involves adults and "children of all ages" attending together can survive without some measure of "fun for all ages."

But, just as some people don't "get" Looney Toons and are afraid that watching them will cause their children to start dropping anvils on them, some people just don't like the Nutcracker. I don't have to like either to see the attraction to those who DO like them.