KVT – The Dream of Quynh Lan in Fairy Land

KVT and an abbreviated Nutcracker

Thursday night saw The Vietnam National Opera and Ballet strut their stuff with their own little Ballet based loosely on Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker Suite’, using music from the Nutcracker and a couple of bits from The Sleeping Beauty.

The orchestra of the VNOB under Mr Sutcliffe’s baton was nicely rehearsed and in the first act, which was the most impressive part of the night, played very nicely indeed. And later when the flutes and woodwinds were called on to carry or emphasise the tunes in The Chinese Dance and The Mirliton, I was agog with admiration. The harpist has to be congratulated as do the bevy of choristers who made the Queen of the Fairy Kingdom’s dance with the female corp de ballet (correct me if I’ve got the wrong bit between my teeth) a delight to watch and to listen to.

I was a little sorry that Cao Chi Thanh wasn’t the principal male dancer of the night as we’d sort of booked tickets with his usual firey stage presence in mind. But that aside, the really memorable balletic moments for me were danced by the 4 high-leaping courtiers in scene one and the first pas de deux between the two leads.

It was a sensible thing to compress the usual one hour and forty minute length into a fifty five minute show and to concentrate on the dances that an audience immediately relates to even if the story line was left a little wanting….not that this mattered to most of the children around me who were hooked from the beginning right through to the end, which sort of says lots about its overall appeal. After all, wherever “the Nutcracker ‘ is performed, the audience always has lots of wide-eyed girls in it who adore all the silk, satin and net costumes and who fall in love with the female lead and that gorgeously tighted prince in flashing white. And there were enough costume changes to please even a jaded eye.

The kids clapped the scene changes and pretended to be a bit scared of the evil mice and were right behind the various, abbreviated, nationality dances and only a couple of little boys seemed to get bored.

It was a good outing for the dancers, allowing them to demonstrate their classical moves to classic choreography. Obviously there are a lot of young, inexperienced dancers in the male section which used to be pretty phenomenal but it’s shows like this that allow them to do their bit in front of a generous public.

As I stated before, an impressive showing by the orchestra who don’t seem to get the chance to perform together very often.

I’m not usually a classical dance fan, reveling more in the contemporary stuff. But I didn’t mind Thursday night’s effort at all even if it didn’t have those awe-inspiring leaps and lifts and dips and firey bits we like to go ape over. The kids in the audience made up for it all.

For those into the real Nutcracker and Clara and her Prince, here’s a great clip of from The Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg which I’ve been looking at on and off all morning.