Mrs O and I went to see The Nutcracker yesterday afternoon. Great Scot! it was fine. Really wonderful. Old Chai Kovski knew how to set down a choon, didn't he? The second act in particular is an absolutely smörgåsbord of hits.
We didn't actually see it in the flesh, as t'were. It was a live, high-definition broadcast from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and was screened at the Greenwich Picturehouse. The Bolshoi Ballet are renowned for their lavish and traditional productions of ballets like this one. No searing social commentary or transposition of the action from 19th century bourgeois Russia to a housing estate in 1960s Bradford for them. And thank God for it. The Nutcracker is a festive treat for classical lightweights, like myself. It's the equivalent of The Wizard Of Oz - beautifully done and timeless, but not there to challenge and/or upset the prevailing social order. It doesn't do to fcuk about with it. And I believe I speak for the cognoscenti there.
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