After a sell-out 2024 season, BIG Live returns to Melbourne at Princess Theatre for an extended season. Witness BIG Live’s world-class dancers from around the globe perform ballet’s greatest Christmas show.
Be mesmerised by the breathtaking snowflakes and the exquisite Sugar Plum Fairy as they perform with dazzling costumes and exquisite sets.
Every moment will captivate you and your family’s imagination. Fill your hearts with the Christmas spirit this December with BIG Live’s iconic production of The Nutcracker!
The Nutcracker tickets | Princess Theatre | Ticketek AustraliaÂ
My family and I recently saw Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker at the Princess Theatre. This was a first time seeing a professional ballet (or any professional dance come to think of it.) It was a strange experience know so much of the music (which was sadly not a live orchestration) but not actually appreciating the ‘story’ that went with it.
To be honest, I probably should have prepared myself more than I did. I always thought the story of the nutcracker was about a magical nutcracker that comes alive to fight a bunch of mice. Having since gone back to read (or listened to) Ernst T. A. Hoffmann’s short story ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’, I realise there is a bit more going on that I had not picked up on, particularly in association with the bit about Princess Pirlipat and Madam Mouserinks, known as the Queen of the Mice. (Maybe my problem is that my knowledge and memory has been tainted by watching Barbie and the Nutcracker with my daughters?) Either way, I got a bit lost in Act II:
Clara and the Prince travel to the beautiful Land of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Prince’s place until his return. He recounts for her how he had been saved from the Mouse King by Clara and transformed back into himself. In honor of the young heroine, a celebration of sweets from around the world is produced: chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, tea from China, and candy canes from Russia all dance for their amusement; Marzipan shepherdesses perform on their flutes; Mother Ginger has her children, the Polichinelles, emerge from under her enormous hoop skirt to dance; a string of beautiful flowers performs a waltz. To conclude the night, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier perform a dance.
Source: Wikipedia
To me, all these groups of dances coming in felt like some sort of hip-hop dance off. I had no idea how this fit with the ‘story’.
All that aside, it was interesting to see a professional dance production after years of recitals where there is little continuity throughout. It was also interesting to listen to The Rest is History’s episode Tchaikovsky: LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall.