Moscow Troupe’s Bold but Weak ‘Nutcracker’

Cluttered, unmusical and often graceless, the familiar Moscow Classical Ballet staging of “The Nutcracker” has but one redeeming asset in its current engagement at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium: hard-sell virtuosity.

As choreographed by company directors Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyov (with borrowings from the same Vainonen version danced by the Kirov Ballet), this “Nutcracker” has no coherent storytelling, no believable character relationships and virtually no Christmas spirit. But it’s got bravura steps galore and enough forceful Russian technique to keep those steps tolerably diverting.

As in the Bolshoi production, the Nutcracker here is a big stuffed doll that turns into a cavalier-prince (Ivan Korneev) in virtually the same instant when the heroine Masha (Ekaterina Berezina) changes from a sweet little girl to an icy prima ballerina. Dancing together on Tuesday with no rapport whatsoever, they make a mockery of Tchaikovsky’s intense Adagio--though each brings spirit as well as proficiency to solo passages. (Natalia Ogneva and Konstantin Osin dance the roles at alternate performances.)

Nearly everyone gets showpiece opportunities in this “Nutcracker,” from little Fritz (the tireless and ac

complished Alexey Borzov) to old Drosselmeyer (the none too precise Valery Trofimchouk). But the hectic pace leaves many, many terminations looking careless, clumsy and sometimes desperate.

Indeed, the sense of a jumble of mindless effects extends to the Christmas card settings by Lev Solodovnikov and the fussy costumes by Elizaveta Dvorkina, each overloaded in a different way.

Paul Salinkov conducts with an emphasis on speed and virtually no concern for orchestral balances.

* Moscow Classical Ballet dances “The Nutcracker” Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St. $10 (children)-$56. (626) 449-7360.