Alexandra Dariescu’s “The Nutcracker and I” at Milton Court

A full house at Milton Court Concert Hall sits waiting as little Clara walks to the upright piano and begins playing her first chords.

Then her image disappears, replaced by graceful snowflakes whirling around, and behind the gauze screen on which a digital animated story would unfold before our eyes for the next 45 minutes, we see Alexandra Dariescu, concert pianist and creator of “The Nutcracker and I”, a multimedia show featuring music from Tchaikovsky’s well-known ballet which has now become synonymous with Christmas, ballet and life-sized digital animation.

Last night “The Nutcracker and I” celebrated its 100th performance at Milton Court, symbolically in the same hall where it was first premiered 7 years ago. In fact, it celebrated both its 99th and 100th performances on the same day, because there were two shows on that evening, one at 6pm and one at 8pm!

And this was no mean feat for Alexandra Dariescu, who memorized 15 movements of music taken from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, adapted by composers such as Percy Grainger, Mikhail Pletnev and Gavin Sutherland. Some of these were real tests of virtuosity too–as a pianist I can attest to that! But Alexandra handled the music flawlessly and with grace, all the while interacting with the action that was happening on stage.

“The Nutcracker and I” follows the story of little Clara, who receives a Nutcracker as a Christmas present. She then falls asleep and dreams that the Nutcracker Prince comes alive, and that she has become a ballerina. It is at this point that the real ballerina appears on stage, becoming the dream version of Clara. What ensues is a fantastical dream journey where ballerina Clara accompanies the Nutcracker Prince as he battles the Rat King. She then travels across the magical kingdom before reuniting with her paramour against the backdrop of the castle, at which point real-life ballerina and digital Nutcracker Prince dance to Mikhail Pletnev’s climactic arrangement of “Pas de deux” performed by Alexandra. The story ends in the “real world” and we discover Clara has become a concert pianist, embodied by Alexandra performing Percy Grainger’s devilishly virtuosic arrangement of “Waltz of the Flowers” without breaking a sweat.

And so the digital and real world come together in “The Nutcracker and I” to reimagine a beloved classic fairytale, bringing its own imaginative twists, an wonderful experience for both young children and music lovers, a show suitable–I imagine–for both concert hall and TV screen.

Of course, creating a multimedia project and bringing a new perspective to a well-beloved classic presents great challenges for the creator and the performer (in this case, both are Alexandra Dariescu!). Nevertheless, the animation was extremely well-executed, with very colourful and ever-changing backdrops to vivify the audience’s imagination of this imaginary kingdom. The choreography was superbly timed, with the ballerina not only dancing alongside digital characters but also interacting with them, taking their hands and even hugging them! The imagination of the audience is completed by Alexandra’s flawless performance, evoking sounds from the piano that matched the orchestral colours of Tchaikovsky’s ballet while showing the room for imagination by nature of the fact that all the music are in fact arrangements.

A small tip: if you are to catch one of its shows, make sure not to sit too close to the stage, where you can see the separation of the screen and the real-life performers. The illusion works best if you are a little further back in the hall!

Article featured image credits to Andrew Mason, courtesy of Alexandra Dariescu’s website.