A Pre-Holiday Vision of ‘Nutcracker’

Although plans for a pickup company to present the George Balanchine “Nutcracker” at the Universal Amphitheatre in December have fallen through, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre made partial amends by dancing Act 2 of the Balanchine version on Friday at the Hollywood Bowl.

In the latest edition of the Bowl’s annual “Tchaikovsky Spectacular,” local children played angels and candy canes in the Pittsburgh production, performing on the forestage while John Mauceri conducted the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra directly behind them.

Even under these conditions, with no scenery and with the usual distractions of an outdoor performance, the choreography displayed the brilliance, detail and unerring musicality that’s missing in nearly all of the dozens of “Nutcracker” productions on local stages each year.

The Pittsburgh performance may have been uneven--with such leading dancers as Jiabin Pan (Cavalier), Maribel Modrono (Dewdrop) and Terence Marling (main Candy Cane) looking underpowered in the wide-open spaces--but the company proved skillful and well-rehearsed. Ying Li typified its virtues as the Sugar Plum Fairy, dancing with spirit and precision--though at a grander scale with Pan than when alone.

Some of the most stylish dancing came in the Arabian Dance, choreographed by artistic director Terrence S. Orr, a former American Ballet Theatre principal and ballet master. Here Kristen Wenrick and Steven Annegarn used their long-limbed elegance impressively, both in conventional supported balances and a number of improbable lifts.

Daisuke Takeuchi also won fans with his buoyancy and interpolated flips in the Chinese Dance. As the boy-prince, the tiny Asher Saperstein created a big stir in the pantomime solo derived from the original 1892 production. Watching everyone with stars in her eyes: Alyson Yamada as the little girl called Marie in the Balanchine “Nutcracker,” Clara in most others, but Mary in the program.

For the audience, the same look of wonder could well have been inspired by the apocalyptic fireworks staged by PyroSpectaculars at the climax of the 1812 Overture. The actual, historical burning of Moscow may have been hotter, but only the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah could have been more awesome--and nobody was allowed to look at that.

Over the years, Mauceri has made a persuasive case for this score as real music rather than just a pretext for special effects, and the musicianship Friday reflected a thoughtful, carefully judged interpretation, one far more alive than his merely dutiful “Nutcracker” accompaniment or, unfortunately, his approach to the major musical challenge on the program this year: Tchaikovsky’s turbulent Symphony No. 5.

Obsessed by details, neglecting architecture and forward momentum, Mauceri let this music divide into isolated units that never linked up--and at the end of the third movement threatened to bog down completely. The all-important string playing remained strong, but, for all its energy and care, the performance represented a very preliminary exploration.