Lacking Punch (and more)

“The Nutcracker”
Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart State Opera
Stuttgart, Germany
December 19, 2023

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

After half a century without a family-friendly “Nutcracker”, the Stuttgart Ballet decided last year to fill the vacuum with a new version by Edward Clug. Clug, artistic director of the Maribor Ballet/Slovenia, had already contributed several short pieces to the Stuttgart company’s repertory, but “The Nutcracker” was his first full-evening story ballet for them. Stuttgart Ballet’s artistic director, Tamas Detrich, took the set and costume design choices into his own hands and commissioned a longstanding collaborator of the troupe – Jürgen Rose – to team up with Clug.

Rose’s design for the Stahlbaums’ Christmas celebration and their daughter Clara’s dream journey into a magical realm is a medley of old and new styles. The costumes and Clara’s bed are Biedermeier-ish, and the Stahlbaums’ mansion is ultra-modern. Its plain, washy-brown walls create a claustrophobic atmosphere. Walnuts of different sizes connect the scenes like a visual leitmotiv. Some normal-sized walnuts were cracked by a wooden nutcracker during the Christmas celebration, and a huge walnut descended from above when the Nutcracker Prince and Clara traveled through the magical winter forest. It resembled Clara’s brain, which the Nutcracker Prince cracked into splinters with a plus-sized hammer. Perhaps that freed Clara’s mind. In any case, the massive nut dangling above the young couple’s head prevented their pas de deux from flying high.
It became clear that the leafless tree in the magical forest and the black silhouettes of some hills on the horizon (one of them carrying a mini copy of the same tree) were also part of nuts when a wide door in the backdrop opened. Like the door of an Advent calendar, it revealed some super-sized walnuts, only the tops of which had previously been visible, two and a half times as large as the dancers. The tree grew out of a walnut like a premature seedling. The huge nuts contained an inner life (like the walnut miniatures that are crafted in the Erzgebirge) – a little theater, the squirrels’ stock of nuts, or the Nutcracker Prince, waiting on a bench to be discovered by Clara.

Stuttgart Ballet’s intent was a “Nutcracker” based upon Petipa’s original libretto that avoids dramaturgical weakness. The second act’s Arabian and Chinese divertissements had to go because they’re considered racial stereotypes. They were replaced by a duet of two camels and a group of baby bugs led by Grandfather Stahlbaum. By contrast, the Russian and Spanish divertissements remained. Usually, these numbers bring the stage to a boil, but the Stuttgart versions were so poor that any native Russian or Spaniard could claim them as racial ridicule. While the Cossacks delivered a lifeless Tropak, the three toreadors shaking their butts and exclaiming “Olé!” failed to impress at all. It was immaterial that the promotion of bullfighting is a no-go these days.
Another supposed weakness that had to be eradicated was the Land of Sweets where the romance between Clara and the Nutcracker Prince traditionally blossoms. Though I’ve never seen anybody on stage devour sweets in “The Nutcracker”, Stuttgart Ballet scrapped hints of sugar because “obesity in children is a serious problem worldwide.” (Consequentially, Ratmansky’s reconstruction of “Whipped Cream” ought to be dropped as well.) Apparently, no one noticed that the remarkable consumption of alcohol at the Stahlbaums’ Christmas party (above all, Drosselmeier) wasn’t wholesome either. Levels of intoxication were such that the merrymakers collectively fell onto their backs at one point.
Questionable too was the characterization of Clara’s little brother, Fritz. Fritz has always been a rascal, but I saw not a single production in which he pestered his grandfather or any other elders. I also disliked that Drosselmeier made the grandfather look like a fool.

As in other versions of “The Nutcracker”, the toys presented to the children in Act I came to life in Act II. A group of harlequins fooled around with long ladders; two squirrels played ball with a nut, a cute green dragon strolled around; and a swarm of colorful butterflies fluttered to the flower waltz (which was preponed to the beginning of Act II). The reshuffling might have worked well if some divertissements had stronger choreography and the dancers more pizzazz. Why didn’t Clug provide a fiery Spanish variation, a dashing Trepak, or a blissful waltz? His “Peer Gynt” is strong; “Master and Margarita” for the Bolshoi Ballet is superlative.
No doubt he’d be up to the job. True, he recycled some ideas – the two stags roaming through the magic forest are taken from “Peer Gynt”, and the wide V-formation of forest fairies, their arms undulating toward their Queen in the center, is copied from the satanic ball in “Master and Margarita”. Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that this “Nutcracker” is lame because of Clug.

Sadly, Mikhail Agrest and the State Orchestra Stuttgart added to the disappointment. Initially decent, their rendition of Tchaikovsky’s score (augmented by a part of his “Winter Song”) turned into tinny noise in Act II.
The evening’s cast was led by Agnes Su (Clara), Adhonay Soares da Silva (Nutcracker Prince), and Martino Semenzato (Drosselmeier). Marc Ribaud played the scary Mouse King.

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