ČAJKOVSKIJ,P.I.: Casse-Noisette Circus / Les Ballets de Monte Carlo (DVD)

Ballet: Les Ballets de Monte Carlo

Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot

Though the current Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo was established in 1985, its lineage can be traced back directly to Diaghilev`s ground-breaking troupe through a number of related ballet companies attached to the city. In 1993, the choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot became the company`s artistic director and has subsequently helped it evolve from a regional company charged with upholding a tradition to a European contender with a unique vision and style. The tradition that Maillot has mostly maintained is the narrative style that Diaghilev pioneered. Many mid-century choreographers, like George Balanchine, who was a product of the Ballets Russes, tried to make modern ballet purer, as movement set to music with no overt story to tell. Maillot not only connects everything on stage to the story, he makes the story his own in ways that traditionalists may find alarming.

His version of the classical ballet The Nutcracker is an innovative interpretation of the well-known subject. It was Maillot’s brainchild to transpose the ballet into the world of circus, while keeping the basic tenet wherein the real world blends with the fantasy world of childhood. In the first part of the ballet, set in Paris during the Second Empire, he alters the plot by splitting the character Drosselmeier into a couple- Drossel and Meier – seen all throughout the ballet as they inspire Marie’s initiatory dream. The ballet reaches its climax in the second act: the world of circus then opens up to little Marie, with a series of funny, touching and poetic scenes that will delight and enchant both the young and old.

The recording presented on the DVD in hand was recorded in the Festival Tent of Fontvieille in 1999.