Those expecting a traditional version of this favourite
Christmas Ballet with Christmas Tree and toys coming to life will be
surprised by this DVD of Béjart’s version as presented at the
Théâtre Musical de Paris – Châtelet. Béjart
abandons Tchaikovsky’s story and instead presents an autobiographical
story of an eight year old boy who adores his mother who died a year
before. He dreams of Christmas past and of meeting a woman who could
be his mother. He erects an enormous statue of this woman. But he cannot
find his mother’s love and under the influence of a Faust-like figure
decides to become a dancer.
Maurice Béjart interrupts the action from time
to time to give a commentary based upon his own life (subtitles are
available in English and four other languages) sometimes illustrated
with photographs of his life and at one point a short interview with
his grandmother. Béjart himself began his career as a classical
dancer in England and has had a distinguished career both as dancer
and choreographer and heads a ballet school in Lausanne which performs
in this DVD. His choreography of this Nutcracker is fascinating
and often spectacular with many unexpected touches (such as the Chinese
Dance on bicycles).
Béjart was strongly influenced by Marius Petipa,
the French dancer who choreographed the original version for Tchaikovsky,
and he uses the original choreography for the Pas de Deux. This
was derived from Petipa’s drawings and the dancing of the choreographer
Nicoley Segeyev who had danced under Petipa (Béjart had met Segeyev
during his early career in London).
The dancing is uniformly excellent and in particular
Gil Roman in the part of Faust/Petipa is often brilliant. Elisabet Ros
as Elle, the mother also puts in an exceptionally fine performance.
Juichi Kobayashi as Felix the cat and Damaas Thijs as Bim, the son,
convey their characters with panache. There is a large cast of other
dancers whose performance reflects strongly on the excellence of this
company. The staging and costumes are very good. The lighting also is
good but much of the action is against a black background which is so
fashionable these days; but as this reduces the visibility careful adjustment
of the contrast and brightness settings are needed to achieve a good
result.
The Orchestra Colonne is a much better orchestra than
the average ballet orchestra and plays well under the young conductor
Edmón Colomer. Tchaikovsky’s music is as written; Béjart
had the idea of adding a number of popular French numbers on the accordion.
Yvette Horner is an accomplished accordionist and also has a strong
stage presence. Rather to my surprise this works very well and enriches
Tchaikovsky’s music rather than diminishing it. An additional accordion
number is an air and variations by C.P.E. Bach which adds to the general
happy atmosphere of Act 2 of the Ballet.
Overall the DVD is a good one, presenting well what
was obviously a successful and well performed staging of Nutcracker.
The atmosphere is a happy one with just a suspicion of sadness in Act
1, this however never sinks to sentimentality. The commentary by Béjart
is however somewhat self-indulgent and will not stand repeated hearings.
I must confess an overall preference to the traditional Tchaikovsky/Petipa
version.
Arthur Baker
Overall the DVD is a good one, presenting well what
was obviously a successful and well performed staging … see Full Review
Choreography by Maurice
Béjart and Marius Petipa 
[103min
(Ballet)+ 26min (Documentary)]