Nutcracker emotions

[bloke]

typical backstage comment:
"yeah...It pays the bills" (implying that a musician has grown quite weary of the music)

truth:
I do grow a bit weary of hearing it, but the first or second time through - each time I do this show - brings me back to (nope: not the first time I ever played it, but...) the first time I ever heard it - as a small boy...as well as a recollection of how magical it was, and the fact that real instruments were playing the music.

Even after having heard/played "Waltz of the Flowers" hundreds of times (including in Christmas pops concerts, and not just within the complete ballet) I still enjoy the harp cadenza, the horns, the bass trombone, the flutes, etc...and even (if done properly) the "feminine" ending (whereby the last three quarter notes subtly diminuendo, rather than crescendo).

The quality of particular musicians (as well as of the conductors) varies over the years/decades/etc. (I've worked series of these where the ballet conductors were so bad, that the principal trumpet had to function - again: not even being able to see the dancers - as the ACTUAL conductor) ..and some renderings have been superior to others (though - as mentioned in another thread), we've only ever seen the dancers and child-actors when we were children (and our parents took us) or (just doesn't measure up to live) on television.


to summarize: This music still touches my heart - after all these years of sitting in a stale pit and playing it...and even though the tuba parts "just ain't much".

[ronr]

Never played it. Always wanted to

[the elephant]

We do not do the Nutcracker here in Jackson. Never have. The *only* time I have played the full show was filling in for a sick student in the MSO Youth Orchestra and the Madison Ballet School.

I *loved* it. There is some real beauty in that music that many people like to bash as being pedestrian, but that is only because they play it so many times from top to bottom that they become unable to *hear* what they are playing. They also like to bash "work" with their colleagues because, hey, that's how you look cool, right? (I am guilty of that indulgence from time to time when the audience is predominantly children, I'll admit.)

Here is a true story, both funny and sad all at the same time…

Our ballet company used to be large and successful, with full-time principals and soloists, and a corps de ballet of about twenty dancers who were mostly full-time employed. However, they did not have an orchestra and, like the Mississippi Opera, used the MSO as their "house band".

But the ballet traditionally used canned music for the Nutcracker each year, as most of the "patrons" were little kids (who ostensibly would not appreciate a live orchestra) and a full orchestra tends to cut into the profit margins, dontcha know. (Hello, TubaForum Minnesotans!)



In December of 1993, I visited the MSO offices to pick up the Operations Manager, who was sort of my girlfriend at that time. Our Assistant Principal Violist was our Personnel Manager, and his wife was our Education Director. The four of us were about to head out to lunch, but David (the viola player) called us into his office so we could hear him make a phone call.

He dialed (yep, in 1993 we still had dial phones in our offices!) the Mississippi Ballet.

"Hello? Yes, I want to bring my six classes of string players to the Nutcracker. I would like tickets right up by the orchestra pit so the kids can watch the musicians, too. I mean, we both know that the live music is just as important as live dancing. Right?"

"Uh, sir, we don't use live music. We've found that our guest student dancers work better with a taped accompaniment."

"Oh, well, watching ballet to canned music is like watching your mom Jazzercize. Never mind."

He told me that he had called them with that same request every day for the past week and that he had been doing that every year for years. The ballet only used volunteers to answer the phones, so he got a new person almost every time. However, he told me that he had called several times when one of the employees had picked up, and within seconds he got a very irritated, "Dammit, David! You know we can't afford you guys! STOP F***ING WITH US!" followed by an epically loud CLICK that we all could easily hear. (No speakerphone, just really loud!)

We had an excellent lunch that day.

Later that week David posted a letter to the editor of our local paper (from a "concerned citizen") that compared the ballet using canned music to "aerobics in toe shoes". I miss David all the time, heh, heh…

Though I am crazy busy during the first three weeks of every December, I would *love* to have a long run of the Nutcracker every year. I love that work quite a bit, and while I might make fun of it, I would always be excited to play every performance. I play the tuba for a living. I am paid to play, but also to sit and listen to some of the greatest music ever penned by human beings. I have a great seat to every performance, too, and I never question the great good fortune of this fact. I will accept everyone's unwanted (paid) Nutcracker performances. Just "have your people call my people" to be added to my schedule. HAHAHA!!!

[Schlitzz]

It’s the one holiday selection where the brass section is completely entertained by the conductor and the auxiliary percussion. It only gets better when the choir starts in with “Away in A Major”….

[Three Valves]

I love ballet and opera.

Without dancers and singers.

[bloke]

every bit of that, Wade.

[the elephant]

I have a deep and abiding love for both ballet and opera. My mother and sister were both very heavily into ballet, my mom only quitting to have me, and my sister owning a dance and gymnastics studio. I know what to look for in a good performance versus an outstanding one. Conversely, or perversely, my father was a professional rodeo cowboy who rode bulls and bareback. I still love to watch live rodeo and can usually accurately estimate a rider's score — at least in those two events.

I do not advocate mixing ballet and rodeo, however. Too much blood and screaming for me, heh, heh…

[bloke]

yet (though I might not - myself - purchase a ticket to see this one) there are plenty who would.

"If you can think of it - no matter how unusual, goofy, disgusting, or dangerous - someone has already done it."

[Doc]

"If you can think of it - no matter how unusual, goofy, disgusting, or dangerous - someone has already done it."

And made porn of it.

[GC]

Rule 34

[bloke]

sublime to ridiculous in seven posts...

Is that a record (for the MOST posts that it took) ?

[Doc]

sublime to ridiculous in seven posts...

Is that a record (for the MOST posts that it took) ?

Not a record, but if it went to $#!+ and managed to come full circle in less than 10 posts, that might be a record. Certainly in the unicorn category.

[RenoDoc]

So I've never danced in my life. Two years ago our friend who runs the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective and my wife roped me into being one of the parents in the party scene. It's a relatively small production but she does mix in people like myself with some really accomplished professional dancers. I now have Dancer- 2019 Nutcracker on my CV.

At first I was pretty annoyed by the rehearsals and time it took but by the time we got to dress rehearsal week, I was 100% in and our three performances were a blast.

We just had our first rehearsal for this year and it's great seeing the kids 2 years later. SInce it's small, we use a a recorded version but as she grows this, I'm already telling her I'd love to be in the pit if she ever goes with live music.

[djwpe]

I’ve been fortunate to play it 3 times, once on tuba, and twice on bass trombone. Our community orchestra had a deal with a local ballet company who had previously used recorded music.

The Ballet company made a significant financial contribution to the orchestra that help cover our expenses.

Last year was canceled, and this year the ballet told us they couldn’t make their contribution, and as our costs were significant, we had to decline. I’m sad I’m not getting to play it this year with ballet, but we are doing some selections at our holiday concert.

Don

[bloke]

The Pas de Deux (the climactic number of the ballet) is very dramatic - with the tuba and bass trombone to the fore at the most dramatic moment (around 2:40...??, in the linked performance, below, which ends around 4:30).
That number (as just one example of some of the really great numbers that are really never heard outside of the ballet) is never (in others' experience as well…??) performed on “Christmas concerts”. (well… It doesn’t sound like Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, presents, 'n' stuff…)



' looked like a nearly-packed house, to me...probably a couple thousand folks.
' matinee, tomorrow, and that's it.



Back when more folks were interested in music other than rap and country, and in dance moves other than break-dancing and the tush-push, this ballet (each year, in this town) ran for a full week...For a few years, there were actually TWO competing companies, BOTH with full orchestra.

PACKED HOUSE / PACKED STALLS: At intermission, the most-convenient-to-the-pit "public" (patrons') restroom was crammed full of people waiting to pee...
...so (I drank coffee during the drive in - to be able to keep up my concentration through two hours worth of numbers...me? I'm old, and I worked all day, before driving into town to the hall) I had to go up two floors (backstage - climbing a bunch of stairs) to the "secret" backstage restroom that few (even in the orchestra) know exists. OF COURSE, all the dressing rooms (with their own restrooms and showers) were jam-packed full of dancers...and BOY, do those dancers suck down the carbs...There were tables outside EVERY dressing room - COVERED with all sorts of candy and other candy-like crap.

[humBell]

"If you can think of it - no matter how unusual, goofy, disgusting, or dangerous - someone has already done it."

And made porn of it.

"Slutcracker" exists.

Never been.

Neither have i been to Nutcracker for that matter.

But i got a friend involved with a production every year for the past decade or more* who becomes scarce Thanksgiving to New Years, and some optimal plane booking time, books a roundtrip to somewhere tropical to recover for most of January.

*obligatory pandemic asterisk.

[bloke]

I woke up this morning considering the vast carbon footprint of this enterprise, and then began to understand why the temperatures have been up in the 60s, this week…

…an epiphany

[humBell]

Wait...

Do you mean Nutcracker is contributing to global warming?

I figure it is just Murphy's law as applied to appropriate atmosphere for Nutcracker viewing...

[bloke]

fun stuff:
perfectly balanced, perfectly in tune, extremely short, extremely loud low brass chords that are so intense that they resemble cymbal crashes

[bloke]

This year, I only played a couple of movements from the Suite...no Waltz of the Flowers, this time...


https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=317828341178711