The World Premier That Almost Wasn’t

from Intermission December 2021

Marquee

The Tulsa Ballet has been sharing the magic of “The Nutcracker” with Tulsa audiences since 2003. For almost 20 years, Marcello Angelini’s vision of the show has come to life before our eyes each December.

Last year was intended to be the closing of that spectacular show after almost two decades of Angelini’s choreography. Of course, that closing was never to be once the pandemic hit, but that isn’t stopping Angelini and his team from presenting their brand-new vision. The Tulsa Ballet’s original resident choreographer, Val Caniparoli, and current resident choreographer, Ma Cong, have choreographed a new version of the classic tale.

“The Nutcracker” seems to have a special place in the hearts of American ballet lovers that it cannot necessarily boast in the rest of the world. According to Caniparoli, who has choreographed five completely different versions of the show, the rest of the world doesn’t have the same trend of each company having their own version that is performed every year. In other places around the world, it isn’t necessarily performed each year or even during the holidays.

It was first performed and popularized in the U.S. by Willam Christensen and the San Francisco Ballet in 1944. That same original version is still performed to this day in Salt Lake City, performed by Christensen’s Ballet West.

Angelini’s version was set in 1920s Paris, but this new version will take the production back to the original setting of the story, 19th century Germany. The switch to the Victorian Era meant the set and costumes would have to be entirely recreated, so world-renown set and costume designer Tracy Grant Lord was brought in to complete the daunting task.

Incredibly, using Lord, who is based in New Zealand, almost brought the show to an end before it ever took the stage. Because of the difficulty in in our country’s current supply chain, the shipping containers carrying the set and costumes from down under arrived many months later than originally planned, and, for a time, the Tulsa Ballet thought they might have to scrap the new version and go back to the old.

That would have been particularly disappointing for Cong, who is leaving Tulsa after the close of “The Nutcracker.” He notes, “It has been long waiting, this project. … This will mark my farewell.” Luckily, everything came in, and Cong will get to have his project debut before leaving for his next adventure.

Though shipping everything from so far brought on “a lot of headaches for everyone,” according to Cong, he suggests it will absolutely be worth it: “We are confident that when we get to present it on stage, people will be wowed! It will be topnotch, excellent.”

If you’d like to see the newest rendition of this great Tulsan — and American — tradition, join us in the Chapman!