Vienna State Opera Ballet.

OPERA HOUSE VIENNA, AUSTRIA DECEMBER 9, 2003

NOT ANOTHER Nutcracker? Well, actually, no; it was not just another Nutcracker on December 9, 2003. Renato Zanella's staging of the old chestnuts, parties, Christmas tree, and mushy snow classic is very different--bizarre, intriguing, enjoyable, and, yes, very different. Zanella has thrown out all, or almost all, of the old Petipa/Ivanov trappings. Now when this is done to Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty, as it often is, I will be among the first to shout sacrilege. But The Nutcracker, when so very little of the original Lev Ivanov choreography has been preserved, strikes me as fairer game.

Zanella's version of the ballet starts at a birthday ball given for Princess Clara-Maria by her father, Prince Karl yon Drosselberg, who has decided to abdicate in her favor. Her uncle, Baron Max yon Drosselberg, is also all too present. (Always be suspicions of Ruritanian barons called Max!) This Max, suspiciously young and dashing, plans a coup d'etat against his brother. Already he has his soldiers gathered underneath the palace in the sewer. A mysterious Fairy of the North, who apparently is only visible to Karl, warns him against Max's plans.

After the uprising Max abducts Clara in a rat-shaped sleigh, taking her to places far and wide. However, Clara acquired a devoted suitor at the ball, a Prince Alexei, who gave her a present of a nutcracker. Now Alexei, with two loyal lieutenants, gives Max and his captive a pursuit through the whirling snowstorm conjured up by the Fairy of the North.

Frenziedly Max circles the globe, including France, Spain, and China, with Alexei and friends in chase, guided by Clam, who, like a smart Girl Scout, breaks off bits of her wooden nutcracker to leave a trail. There is a duel; all ends happily, and a year later there is another ball, this time where Clara and Alexei are married.

You see, it really is different. So different, for example, that a passage from the tone-poem Romeo and Juliet is introduced at one point, and the Dance of Mirletons, representing la belle France, is performed by a small comic troupe of Napoleons. Then again, the dance of the Sugar Hum Fairy, that pinging celesta and all, is given to the Prince--surely the first time the Prince has been awarded the Sugar Plum since 1911, when Diaghilev had Fokine create a ballroom solo for Vaslav Nijinsky in his company's two-act version of Swan Lake. So nothing is really new these days, is it? Frederick Ashton once introduced Napoleon (and Wellington) into his Cinderella!

Joking apart, there is a genuine freshness to Zanella's theatrical vision, and, despite misgivings, this Nutcracker proves great fun. Christof Cremer's designs are ingenious, and while it is difficult to judge a choreographer or even a company on just The Nutcracker, Zanella's choreography was agreeable, resourceful without being particularly original. However--and what I saw was a third cast involving none of the company's principals-the ensemble looks far better than I had previously seen it. Kathrin Czerny made an attractive, lightweight Clara-Maria, Croatian Tomislav Petranovic revealed a neat grace as Alexei, and Slovakian Boris Nebyla stylishly buckled all necessary swashes as the wicked Max. But probably the best performance came from Japanese-born shoko Nakamura as the smoothly icy Queen of the North. The orchestra--what do you expect? This is the Vienna Opera House--sounded sumptuous as conducted by MichaelHalasz.

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