So we have been watching Battle of the Nutcrackers on Ovation TV: a series of four presentations of The Nutcracker Suite on four different nights, after which one can vote for his/her favorite performance.
Each is different: from the classical Bolshoi Ballet to the silly Hard Nut version…
As we watched I commented to DH that ballet is better on tv than live on stage…and he agreed with me.
I was referring of course, to the time in the REMOTE past that we took DS to a free concert at Symphony Hall in Phoenix. I don’t know if they still do it, but when we lived there in the eighties, there was a monthly free concert: first come, first seated…for various performances.
Anxious to expose DS to “culture,” we often went, and were excited to take him to a ballet performance. Arriving early, we were “lucky” enough to get seats in about the third row center.
I eagerly anticipated the show, having never seen live ballet myself. We were….sorely…disappointed.
Oh, the dancing was wonderful, the performance entertaining….but the audible …..THUMP….as the dancers landed their leaps, and the GLISTENING of the sweat on their brows, and the PANTING as they worked through the exhausting choreography was all we could hear and see….
Tv (and editing….) are a good thing!
(Matthew Bourne’s Dickensian Orphanage version is best….!!!)
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