Also this year, In December, on the occasion of the opening of the 2016-17 Ballet Season, the event that should not be missed is The Nutcracker by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky.
After last season’s great success and the sell out at the box office, the original version of The Nutcracker returns to the Teatro dell’Opera staged by the innovative choreographer Giuliano Peparini, who, with an explosion of fantasy, through special effects and video projections, finds his strength in a stylistic diversity capable of establishing a dialogue with different audiences and bring young generations to the theatre.
The starting point of Peparini’s version is Alexandre Dumas, with a hint of Roland Petit. In fact Giuliano Peparini, who has been an assistant to Roland Petit for long time, became principal dancer in Petit’s own company, playing the role of Drosselmeyer.
The protagonist Marie fancies the Prince who turns out to be the nephew of Drosselmeyer, the godfather, as it happens in the story by Hoffmann. In the Peparini’s adaptation the fantasies of a little girl waiting for her Christmas presents, are transformed into the emotions of a young teenager who meets for the first time love with its desires. She does so thanks to the help of the mysterious and charming Uncle Drosselmeyer who donates her the Nutcracker, a toy closely resembling his young nephew.
The second act is thus a journey of initiation into adulthood. The two young people, together, will embark on a journey that, for better or worse, will make them aware not only of their own emotions, but also of the world around them. The inevitable mechanical puppets, the fantastic worlds made of sweet, wonderful places and monstrous creatures, everything, like in a big daydream, becomes a fascinating metaphor of reality.
