The Nutcracker ballet. Music by Tchaikovsky. Choreographed by Peter Wright after Lev Ivanov. Staged 2018 by Christopher Carr at the Royal Opera House. Stars Gary Avis (Herr Drosselmeyer), Anna Rose O’Sullivan (Clara), Marcelino Sambé (Hans-Peter/The Nutcracker, Drosselmeyer’s nephew), and:
Act. 1: David Yudes (Drosselmeyer’s Assistant); Caroline Jennings and Susan Nye (Maiden Aunts); Barbara Rhodes (Housekeeper); Christopher Saunders (Dr. Stahlbaum, Clara’s father); Elizabeth McGorian (Mrs. Stahlbaum (Clara’s mother); Amos Child (Fritz, Clara’s brother); Luca Acri (Clara’s partner); Hannah Grennell (Grandmother); Alastair Marriott (Grandfather); Kristian McNally (Dancing Mistress); Bennet Gartside (Captain); Benjamin Ella (Harlequin); Elizabeth Harrod (Columbine); Paul Kay (Soldier); Meaghan Grace Hinkis (Vivandière); Joonhyuk (St. Nicholas); Nicol Edmonds (Mouse King); Land of Snow singers from London Oratory Junior Choir and the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School, all directed by Charles Cole.
Act. 2: Marianela Nuñez (The Sugar Plum Fairy); Vadim Muntagirov (The Prince); Kristen McNally, Nicol Edmonds, Annette Buvoli, Erico Montes, Hannah Grennell, and Thomas Mock (Spanish Dance); Melissa Hamiston, Reece Clarke, Téo Dubreuil, and David Donnelly (Arabian Dance); Luca Acri and Leo Dixon (Chinese Dance); Kevin Emerton and Paul Kay (Russian Dance); Ashley Dean, Emma Maguire, Isabella Gasparini, and Elizabeth Harrod (Dance of the Mirlitons); Fumi Kaneko (Rose Fairy); William Bracewell, Tristan Dyer, Benjamin Ella, and Valentino Zucchetti (Rose Fairy Escorts); Claire Calvert, Itziar Mendizabal, Romany Pajdak and Beatriz Stix-Brunell (Leading Flowers in Waltz of the Flowers).
Barry Wordsworth conducts the Orchestra the Royal Opera House (Co-Concert Master Sergey Levitin). Designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman; lighting design by Mark Henderson. Directed for TV by Ross MacGibbon. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound output. Grade: B+
ROBNutcracker1 (Miyako Yoshida as Sugar Plum Fairy and Steven McRae as the Prince) was shot in 2009; ROBNutcracker2 (Lauren Cuthberson as the Plum and Frederico Boneli as Prince) was shot in 2016. And only two years later the Royal Ballet and Opus Arte came out with ROBNutcracker3 shot in 2018. To repeat, this is the 3rd Royal Ballet release of the Peter Wright production of The Nutcracker, now featuring Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov. Why are the Royals doing this? Our best guess is that want to reward their stable of excellent stars by giving them opportunity to appear in many fine Blu-ray recordings of the ROB repertory. And there may even be fans also who are willing to buy recordings of the same production multiple times to keep up with their favorite stars!
The PQ of Ross MacGibbon’s video file here is superb, as all the screenshots below will attest. In our 1st view below we see Dr. Stahlbaum (Christopher Saunders) center paired with the Dancing Mistress (Kristian McNally). To your left of the Dancing Mistress is the Captain (Bennet Gartside):
Anna Rose O’Sullivan is Clara, and Luca Acri is Clara’s partner. Both look a bit too old for these roles:
Elizabeth Harrod is Columbine and Benjamin Ella dances Harlequin:
Clara starts to think about a real, live soldier:
Nasty Fritz (Amos Child) deliberately breaks the Nutcracker doll:
Next below, Nicol Edmonds as the Mouse King:
Clara bravely disables the Mouse King. The Nutcracker (Marcelino Sambé) invites her to enjoy the Land of Snow and The Land of Sweets:
What a beautiful full-stage image below! This is a good as it gets in 2K. If the Royal Ballet publishes a ROBNutcracker4, they will have to go to 4K with HDR:
Another fine full-stage shot, this time of the Land of Sweets:
Next below, the current top stars at the ROB: Marianela Nuñez as The Sugar Plum Fairy and Vadim Muntagirov as the Prince:
Next below a wonderful mid-range shot; Ross MacGibbon is at the top of his game at framing shots of this ROB warhorse:
Alas, the divertissement dances are looking more out-dated than ever:
A low-energy Waltz of the Flowers:
But a fine grand pas de deux for the stars which you can see in our last screenshot and the official trailer below:
Well, surely the ROB has reached the end of the line in making videos of the current Peter Wright Nutcracker. If there’s going to be a ROBNutcracker4, it will have to be a new show. Because of the excellent PQ we see in ROBNutcracker3, we give this a B+. But if we had to pick just one of the 3 Peter Wright versions we have reviewed to send to a friend, we would probably go with ROBNutcracker2 on account of the radiant beauty of Francesca Hayward and Lauren Cuthbertson in that version.
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