Dear Friends:
Yes, we're only a few short weeks away now from the opening of one of our audience's favorite events here at Cal Performances—Mark Morris' beloved re-take on the Nutcracker ballet—The Hard Nut.
The holiday season is a busy time of year for everyone, but for me it's an especially exciting time because since 1996, I wear two different hats during this time of year: my usual as Director of Cal Performances, and a musical cap too, as conductor for The Hard Nut. Over the years, the latter is a role that's taken me from right here in the orchestra pit of Zellerbach Hall during the West Coast premiere to performing with the company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and last year, for a
I first saw The Hard Nut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music back in the early 1990s and immediately knew we needed to bring it to Berkeley. It took awhile however, to work out all of the issues in bringing such a large production to Zellerbach (it was originally created for a very large opera house stage) but by 1996, we were finally able to present the West Coast premiere at Cal Performances. And then, a slight glitch occurred in our plans. The conductor originally scheduled for the production cancelled about a month away from opening night and suddenly, we were scrambling to find a replacement so the show could go on. To my surprise, Mark asked whether or not I could do it, knowing of course that I had been a conductor in my pre-Cal Performances life and had conducted Nutcracker many times.
As I alluded to earlier, Mark Morris first created this piece as part of the Dance Group's residency at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, the national opera house of Belgium. It may be hard to believe now, but it was considered to be quite... controversial... at the time. Here was this brash young American choreographer daring to completely
Happy Holidays from all of us here at Cal Performances!
Sincerely, |
Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow!
19-performance run at Sadler's Wells, the premier theater for dance in London. But of course, I'm always happiest when the production returns "home" here to Berkeley and our own Cal Performances audiences once again have the chance to enjoy this witty, heartwarming, and critically acclaimed Morris masterpiece.
Stepping into the job, I was faced with a very tight schedule of just three rehearsals (a somewhat inadequate amount that I had negotiated myself in my role as budget-conscious Producer!), but somehow we made it through and the rest is history. The Hard Nut premiered to great critical acclaim and audience delight and during this, our Centennial Season, it will be making its 57th appearance on our stage on December 9th. Each time, it's been my privilege to not only host this superb company, but to be able to work side-by-side with Mark, the dancers, and the extraordinary members of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra as well to bring this new Bay Area holiday tradition to life once again. And like much of our audience (and staff!), I find I never grow tired of its many, many charms.
change the staging of what is arguably the most beloved work in all of ballet history. Time, of course, has a way of smoothing everything out and we now see The Hard Nut not as an irreverent affront to a classic tradition, but rather as a as a welcome breath of fresh air and new life for the timeless E.T.A. Hoffmann tale of Nutcracker and Mouseking. And yet it's interesting to note that The Hard Nut is set to perhaps the most musically true version of the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker score that I have ever run across as a conductor. The work follows the original score to the last note; there are no cuts, no re-arrangements of movements, etc. for this version, unlike the scores to which many other Nutcracker productions are set. Even Tchaikovsky's original tempo markings are closely followed at Morris' direction and the result, I think, is to deepen our appreciation and love for this great piece of traditional holiday music at the same time we're marveling at Morris' whole new creative approach to the dance itself. I for one know that I'll never be able to hear the score again without hilarious visions of confetti-filled snowflakes dancing through my head!
I hope you'll join us this year for Mark Morris' The Hard Nut. If you'd like to read more about what other members of our audience and the press have to say about the production, or catch a sneak peak at what everybody's talking about through video clips, I encourage you to visit The Hard Nut Holiday Scrapbook located on our web site. (see the button below.) And a special thank you to our Email Club members who have helped us with this project for the second time in a row by lending us their words and thoughts.
