THE NUTCRACKER AT WEST ROAD
All the divinely diaphanous frocks from the ballet do distract anyone from the truly gruesome nature of Tchaikovsky ‘s Nutcracker. The Sugar Plum Fairy is one thing but she masks the romantic melodrama of the story. No wonder children love it. And on Saturday they certainly revelled in the way out, often cruel , very fantastically baroque backdrop to the heavenly tones of The Nutcracker. After all they love Roald Dahl with all his exaggeratedly overstated villains and weirdos.
Tchaikovsky was born into a world of riot and revolution after all ( I don’t think ‘The Music Lovers was far wrong). And it was stimulating to hear the original story ( amplified by a veil of English domestic cosiness) but this is no Mary Poppins of a play and the remarkable narrator. Anna Tolpin engaged the young ( babes in arms appeared to love it) with her strong nuanced ( highly trained ) voice. She beguiled the children into a listen of over than an hour with only a few defectors – firmly removed by disappointed parents.
But what an afternoon. Harry Sever , conductor, excelled in this milieu whilst the vast orchestra was quite simply wonderful . It was all different enough to intrigue but magical enough to enchant. The score appears to demand the most fanciful of instruments, all in the service of a most frightening – even grotesque – story. Each member of the orchestra had a huge role. Sound effects are so much party of the Nutcracker suite - yet even in the presence of an accomplished set of musicians it was hard to discern from whence the evocative notes emerged. Only by close observation of the superb conductor could one really discern their origin . Cymbals, endlessly inventive percussion, glorious brass and ethereal violins recreated this well known piece before our eyes. Anna Tolputt engaged the young and very young audience for an entire hour. She had them in thrall and the further the action went from the mundane ( I don’t think we needed the lav joke) the more intrigued they were.
The Nutcracker comes to grief early on when the boisterous son of the household forces a massive nut between his jaws. The moment of the crack, first heard as the nut, turns out to be his poor mechanism. But caring Maria looks after him and later in the night, he whisks her off for an enchanted ride across the rooftops. It isn’t long though before the hideous legions of the ferocious there headed Mouse Queen attack. After a great battle where confusion to the enemy is wrought by a massive distraction a cheese, and the Mouse army all fall apart in greedy disarray. Victory, but then the Nutcracker tells his own awful story. His father had been the servant of the Mouse Queen but when the castle he lived in was overrun with mice, he set traps everywhere. In revenge The hideous Queen changed his son into a Nutcracker. The spell, like many others, can only be broken if someone canloook on the bizarrely painted wooden face and love him. Maria does that. The next day , at the door arrives a proper boy restored to humanity and his father the once miserable toymaker.
How Anna managed despite all her huge range of stage roles and film appearances to keep up the energy around this complicated story is a mystery. But she did and everyone ( having sung a song with the magnificent choir) and fake skied with the conductor, left the Concert Hall in high spirits. A reamkable collaboration. Anna Tolputt told me later she herself was thrilled by the entire orchestral performance and counted her own narration as one of the best roles she had ever had.
Happy Christmas to all the players and their audience. You did wonderfully.
