The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker with Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé – cinema audiences are in for a treat
Jonathan Gray sees The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker with Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé – “on this special evening I was very glad to become acquainted with it all over again”
| Title | The Nutcracker |
| Company | The Royal Ballet |
| Venue | The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London |
| Date | 7 December 2023 |
| Reviewer | Jonathan Gray |
Ballet in London in December can mean only one thing – The Nutcracker. For 2023, there are no fewer than three productions on view in the capital and, at the Royal Opera House on 7 December, The Royal Ballet was offering its 555th performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet. For those who are regular balletgoers, the production is so familiar it can sometimes feel as if you have seen every single one of those performances, but not on this occasion, as The Nutcracker came up as fresh as a daisy, and in one of the best accounts of the work I have seen in a long time. Luckily, for those not able to get to Covent Garden in person, or for those unable to afford the expensive tickets, this particular cast, led by principals Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé, can be seen in a live cinema broadcast on 12 December 2023 – click here to find out more.
Peter Wright‘s production, which next year celebrates its 40th anniversary, was created on a grand scale, and his designer, the late Julia Trevelyan Oman, provided him with some magical special effects, especially the growth of the Christmas tree, which, at Covent Garden, is a truly spectacular moment. Set during the Biedermeier period, Wright at first attempted to give his version of The Nutcracker an impression of what Lev Ivanov’s original choreography might have looked like in 1892 when the ballet was first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre, but he later re-thought the production so that more dancing could be allocated to young Clara and her Nutcracker beau. Some of Wright’s dances are run-of-the-mill, but, luckily, he retained Ivanov’s beautiful pas de deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Prince, and in recent years he has attempted to downplay some of the racist stereotypes that, to modern eyes, spoil such numbers as the Chinese Dance.
In a performance full of life and energy, the corps de ballet, especially during the “Snowflake” scene and the Waltz of the Flowers, was immaculate, and soloists – such as Isabella Gasparini, Téo Dubreuil, Joonhyuk Jun, Joseph Sissens, Francisco Serrano, and Stanislaw Wegrzyn – shone out, but the evening was completely dominated by the glorious dancing of O’Sullivan and Sambé. The couple are so attuned to each other, so well matched in height and physique, and so alike in their reactions to music, that they have a natural rapport and form a thrilling partnership.
Sambé, with his gold-encrusted hair, is a magnificent cavalier and presents O’Sullivan to the audience like the real treasure she is, supporting the ballerina superbly, so that every balance, every extension, every lift, and every pirouette is accomplished with astonishing, breath-taking ease. Individually, they both dance with spontaneity, authority and precision, and every step they take is not only clearly and precisely delineated, but performed with grace, lyricism, musicality, and a depth of movement. Their duet was exciting, intoxicating, wondrous, and imbued with a natural ease and grandeur – I could not fault them, nor praise them highly enough.
Likewise, Sophie Allnatt gave a wonderful performance as Clara, bright-eyed and sweet-natured, but not so sweet that you failed to notice the enjoyment she took in teasing her naughty younger brother, Fritz (Adrian Voinescu), during the party scene. Tiny and fair-haired, Allnatt’s dancing was light and airy, with quick footwork and a gorgeous flow of movement, especially in her arms and torso. She made much of Clara’s attachment to the Nutcracker himself, the handsome and ardent Leo Dixon, who mimes vividly and jumps with as much precision and ease as Sambé. Clara, in fact, was beautifully attended to not only by Dixon but also by Marco Masciari. as her partner during the party – so touching was Masciari’s care and devotion to Clara that I felt certain his character was destined to be the only one left with a broken heart at the end of the ballet. Thomas Whitehead was a kindly Drosselmeyer.
It was a wonderful performance. Adding to the pleasure, conductor Andrew Litton, music director of New York City Ballet, led the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in a fine account of Tchaikovsky’s score, finding just the right balance between accelerating the music when needed, and then slowing it down to luxuriate in its beauty at just the right moments.
As a jaded dance critic, I had been taking a break from The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker for a couple of years, but on this special evening I was very glad to become acquainted with it all over again – cinema audiences are in for a treat.
Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.
He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.
Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
Sounds wonderful. I will check to see if it is showing in a cinema in New York City!
The star-appeal couple Anne-Rose and Marcellino: charming and full of talent and joy – couldn
t be better. Im expecting this fabolous two in “Sleeping Beauty”.