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“The Nutcracker”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
December 31, 2024 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

During this year’s Christmas sermon, my pastor asked which moment should best represent Christmas. The Christmas dinner? The lighting of the candles? Or, perhaps, unwrapping the presents? For me, this moment was the moment during the Bolshoi Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker when the newlywed Marie (Elizaveta Kokoreva) and the Nutcracker Prince (Artem Ovcharenko) were lifted by their court toward the star at the top of the Christmas tree. It was the climax of their spiritual journey and of Yuri Grigorovich’s choreography for which I had been waiting since I last saw his Nutcracker live in Moscow in 2022.

Two live streams on December 30th (evening performance) and December 31st (matinee) enabled a vast audience to follow the heroes’ journey. To meet the demand, the number of cinemas offering live broadcasts grew from one hundred to three hundred in December. Most were located in Russia, but cinemas in Belarus, Armenia, and the United Arab Emirates also participated. I was able to watch the matinee on the Bolshoi’s vk video platform.

In Grigorovich’s Nutcracker, Marie’s journey from the bottom of the Christmas tree to the top, which represents the kingdom of her dreams, is an allegory for her transition to adulthood. Backed up by Denis Savin’s fabulously odd Drosselmeyer, she passed her first test when she saved the Nutcracker Prince from the attack of the infamous Mouse King (Mikhail Kryuchkov, whose mouse face mask had eerie, blinking red eyes). But the Mouse King and his troupe tracked Marie and the Prince through the fir branches, and only the brave Prince’s sword thrust could transport him back to hell (i.e., down the trap door) from where he initially emerged. Courageous to the core, the Prince even followed the Mouse King into the underworld, finished him off, and resurged with his crown and purple shawl as trophies.
Despite these feats, Marie and the Prince were humble, pure-minded, and blessed with a genuine, innate grace. Their greatness stood out against the artificiality of the puppets that accompanied them and the stilted etiquette of the Stahlbaums (Andrei Sitnikov and Anastasia Meskova) and their party guests. They approached the Stahlbaums’ home like a procession of marionettes. Some scurried busily or because of excitement, while others kicked their legs in sync as if exercising on a parade ground. They marched home in a similar fashion, albeit tired and a bit tipsy.

Kokoreva spoke briefly during the break about the importance of mesmerizing the audience with a magical atmospheric fairy tale and accomplished exactly that. At ease with any technical demands, she portrayed the character of Marie in a way that made everyone love her. Her purity and perfection radiated a warmth that couldn’t but bring happiness to her audience.
Ovcharenko, who celebrated his birthday on December 31st, was greeted with applause when his Nutcracker awakened as a handsome, flesh-and-blood Prince after the fierce battle against the mice army. Every step and leap, each pirouette and tour en l’air struck home. Knowing that he was about to conclude a fabulous performance, he dashed through his final series of pirouettes with an exuberance that made me smile.
Of the many dolls that came to life, Drosselmeyer’s Harlequin (Nikita Oparin) achieved prodigious jumps and turns, whereas his Columbine (Uliyana Moksheva) couldn’t stop blowing kisses. The fiery-red witch (Elizaveta Gaponenko) and the devil (Akib Anvar) whirled through the Stahlbaums’ parlor like dervishes.
Marie’s Nutcracker doll only broke because Little Fritz (Elina Kamalova) forced it into a breakneck pas de deux. The Spanish dolls (Kristina Petrova and Alexei Putintsev) had zing, their Chinese counterparts (Maria Mishina and Ratmir Dzhumaliev) jumped tirelessly, and the Russian dolls (Nina Biryukova and Vitaly Getmanov) scampered at a mind-boggling speed. As blue-skinned Indian dolls, Anna Tikhomirova and Ivan Alexeyev danced like Shiva (though on four legs). The French dolls (Daria Kokhlova and Klim Efimov) took their little toy sheep for a drive but seemed engaged in a shepherd’s romance.
As always, the corps, whether waltzing as snowflakes or adding splendor to the kingdom of Marie’s dreams, performed with a fine-tuned unity unrivaled in the world of ballet.

General director Valery Gergiev took to the conductor’s stand, and I was surprised to learn that he was conducting Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker score for the very first time for this live stream. The music had a sparkle and vitality that attested to the excellence of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.
In addition to Kokoreva, other artists and staff members conveyed Christmas greetings during the break. Among them were the artistic director, Makhar Vaziev, and the former artistic director, Boris Akimov, who was brimful as ever with passion and soulfulness. Gergiev spoke twice, summarizing the achievements of the Bolshoi in 2024. He and many others emphasized the importance of familiarizing the younger generation with Russian culture. The Minister of Culture, Olga Lyubimova, also used the opportunity to extend Christmas greetings to the audience.