Posted on 12/24/2018 6:03:06 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Many people this holiday season will experience the joy of attending a local performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It’s the most implausible American tradition imaginable, an import from fin-de-siècle Russia straight to your hometown. It’s living proof of the capacity of music and the art of dance to leap the bounds of time and space and delight us forever.
Perhaps some viewer’s own children will perform in it, and that’s part of the appeal.
What theater goers don’t entirely realize is that they are watching something even more wonderful than what they see. In this one ballet, we gain a picture of a prosperous world that emerged in the late nineteenth century, was shortly shattered by war and revolution, and then was nearly killed off by the political and ideological experimentation of the twentieth century.
Think of it: This ballet debuted in 1892. The generation of Russians living in St. Petersburg that saw it for the first time were experiencing a level of prosperity never before seen in history. It was the same all over Europe, of which Russia was considered a part.
(Excerpt) Read more at tucker.liberty.me ...
The gift of the nutcracker first breaks and the child cries, but then a magician arrives to put it back together again, and it grows and grows until it becomes real and then a true love. You can make any symbol you want to out of this little man, but it is not a stretch to see it as a symbol of the economic life of this nation and many other nations at the time. There was no limit to prosperity, no limit to growth, no end to the magic that could come to the world. Something that broke could be fixed and grow to new life.
It was an age before the creation of passports, and traveling the world and seeing it all was first becoming possible for many people. You could ride on ships and not die of scurvy. Trains could take people from place to place in safety. Goods crossed borders as never before, and multicultural chic invaded arts and literature of all sorts. And hence in the ballet we see not only the famed sugar plum fairies but also Arabian coffee dancers, Chinese tea dancers, Danish shepherdesses, and of course Russian candy cane dancers along with a beautiful array of fantasy figures.
Here is a vision of a time and a place. It was not just Russia. In “The Nutcracker” we gain a vision of an emerging global ethos.
Think of the person of the nutcracker himself. He is a soldier but not a killer, not a person destined for being maimed and killed or slaughtering others. A soldier in those days was a symbol of the nation, a protector and a well-dressed person of discipline and dignity who made the peace possible. He was an extension of regular society, someone performing a light duty deserving of extra respect.
The key is this: None of these writers, and this goes for Tchaikovsky himself, could have imagined the horror that was unleashed by World War I. The killing fields—38 million ended up dead, wounded, or missing—were inconceivable. The concept of a “total war” that did not exclude the civilian population but rather made everyone part of the army was not in their field of vision.
Many historians describe World War I as a calamity that no one in particular intended. It was a result of states pushing out the boundaries of their belligerence and power, a consequence of leaders who imagined that the more they pushed, they more they could create a globe of justice, freedom, and peace. But look at the reality of the mess they made. It was not only the direct carnage. It was the ghastly possibilities this war opened up. It inaugurated a century of central planning, statism, socialism, and war.
How could they have known?
They apparently forgot the horrors of the French Revolution.
Back before I got some ‘class’ and taste for the ‘arts’, I figured a Nutcracker was some kind of hard nosed woman.
Great Post!
If we are lucky, the 21st century will see us turn this around into a new golden age, but if we are unlucky, the Dark Age will extend itself for 200 years.
Nah. It’s something a man does off the high dive!
Nah. It’s something a man does off the high dive!
I enjoy seeing a good Ballet performance, but when I think of The Nutcracker, I first think of the music, I don’t think about the visual part. I’ve never gotten wrapped up in the Soap Opera of the child and the gift, or the numerous subplots.
It’s minutiae I can do without. I understand some people do enjoy being walked through the narrative. That’s fine for them.
Anytime I can hear Tchaikovsky’s musical score is a good time. I understand The Nutcracker has become the default show to attend during Christmas Season for those who prefer to keep it secular. Others, just go because that’s when the shows are offered.
I am going to raise an eyebrow here. Total war was the way of war since war began. The civilian was part of it always. It was not until the 20th century that the idea of civilians, people who were outside of the war and should not be touched if possible, was really observed.
Occasionally but very rarely women were allowed to depart the battle field or besieged city unmolested but usually everything and everybody was considered either soldier or loot. In either case, they were considered fair game.
Oh and the idea that it was "an age before the creation of passports" is very wrong.
There was about a thirty year period when passports had fallen out of favor in Europe although not in the rest of the world. The first "modern" European passports was issued in the 1400.
At this point I am not sure that this article is worth dissecting any further.
In 1981, the New World Society, a leftist group in West Los Angeles that slavishly followed Moscow's party line was presenting the Nutcracker ballet live via a video hookup with Moscow--some sort of cable device. The hookup worked, but given the video technology of the time, the cathode ray tube monitor made it somewhat hard for a large group to watch because it was so small. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the show.
After the performance, the master of ceremonies wished everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, which I felt was odd coming from a Marxist-Leninist who, by definition, would have been an atheist. However, someone behind me said in Russian, "S Novym Godom"--happy New Year--but not "S Rozhdyestvom Khristovym"--to the birth of Christ, or merry Christmas. Considering where I was and the nature of this group, I figured this was par for the course.
Just watched a grandaughter in the nutcracker.
Ballet coma hit me after the first hour.
Endured another 1.5 hours before I could escape.
There was a particularly annoying teen playing an old man.
Would it be OK to hit him with the cane?
Asking for a friend...
Thank you.
I call them ballet busters.
The ballet music was written by Tchaikovsky in the 1890s, but the story is by Hoffmann, and is from the mid-19th Century.
“were experiencing a level of prosperity never before seen in history.”
i doubt that, but i’m no history scholar. I know egyptian empire was very prosperous as was Roman empire, I’m sure others along the way, Spain?
Back before I got some ‘class’ and taste for the ‘arts’, I figured a Nutcracker was some kind of hard nosed woman.
The Deeper Meaning of "The Ballbuster"
It is amazing to me that Tchaikovsky himself was not fond of this work.
Tchaikovsky was actually more popular here than in Russia, as he noted when he came here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
