美国国家公共电台 NPR Taking A Crack At A New 'Nutcracker': This One's Set At The World's Fair

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

Ballet companies all over the country are putting on "The Nutcracker." For most of these companies, this holiday classic helps them to stay in business. In Chicago, a new $4 million production for the Joffrey Ballet premieres tonight and expectations are high, as our man Jeff Lunden reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE¹: If this music by Tchaikovsky gives you visions of sugar plum fairies, you're not alone. For many ballet fans, and practically every ballet dancer, "The Nutcracker" is kind of the gateway² drug. Christopher Wheeldon danced his first "Nutcracker" when he was 11, with London's Royal Ballet.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON: And I was selected to be one of the kids in that production. And then I, you know, continued dancing in "The Nutcracker" for my years as a dancer, especially moving to America. So as a dancer with the New York City Ballet, I danced in the Balanchine production for the years that I was there.

LUNDEN: Wheeldon is now a choreographer³. And he's created a brand new "Nutcracker" for the Joffrey Ballet. It replaces the work that founder⁴ Robert Joffrey choreographed⁵ in 1987 - his last before he died of AIDS.

GREG CAMERON: From the business side of the Joffrey, "The Nutcracker" generates over 50 percent of our annual box office revenue.

LUNDEN: Greg Cameron is the Joffrey's executive director. He says the annual production doesn't just bring in revenue. It expands audiences.

CAMERON: It helps us introduce them to ballet, and then, I think, helps us extend invitations to them to return and see the other kinds of work that we do.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

LUNDEN: So when the Joffrey production grew a little bit long in the tooth, the company raised more than $4 million for a new production. Christopher Wheeldon says he was game but definitely had questions.

WHEELDON: You know, if I'm going to approach a classic like "The Nutcracker," how can I put my stamp on it? You know, why is it worthwhile to look at this?

LUNDEN: The key for him was setting the new production in Chicago, specifically at the famous World's Fair of 1893, a period that's actually contemporaneous with the original ballet. He and his team began to do research and came across...

WHEELDON: One photograph, in particular, of a worker's shack⁶ sitting under the towering skeletal sort of construction of the buildings going up. And that sort of made us think about, oh, perhaps, this is maybe the story of an immigrant worker's family rather than, you know, the child of a wealthy Victorian family.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

LUNDEN: So Wheeldon's "Nutcracker" - with a new scenario⁷ by children's book author Brian Selznick - focuses on Polish immigrants.

WHEELDON: The largest innovation in this production is its setting, is the idea that it's a poor family, that it focuses on a community that sort of comes together at Christmas and very much makes do with what it has.

LUNDEN: And it has a big cast, some 50 professional dancers and more than 100 kids. Principal ballerina Victoria Jaiani danced her first "Nutcracker" in Tbilisi, Georgia, when she was 11. She's been with the company for 14 years and danced many roles in Joffrey's "Nutcracker," including the Sugar Plum Fairy. This year, she's doing the equivalent part but says Christopher Wheeldon has added psychological dimension.

VICTORIA JAIANI: Here we have a chance to build a story. It has a bit more depth, in my perspective, and meaning. So the first act I play the sculptress, also a single parent to Marie and Fritz. She is sculpting⁸ one of the biggest sculptures of the World's Fair in Chicago. And then, in the second act, in Marie's imagination, it's in her dream that her mom becomes a golden statue herself.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

LUNDEN: And the World's Fair setting seems a natural fit for the second act with the magical Drosselmeyer character, here called the Impresario⁹, takes young Marie on a tour of the fair.

WHEELDON: It seemed like a no-brainer in a way because the (laughter) - the international pavilions at the World's Fair are kind of the perfect setting for the sort of standard national dances of the second act.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

LUNDEN: Christopher Wheeldon says despite the fresh take, he's making sure his production delivers what's expected of a "Nutcracker."

WHEELDON: We follow the structure of the story quite closely and the things that are dictated¹⁰ by the score, like the Christmas tree growing, "The Land Of The Snow," "The Waltz Of The Snowflakes," all of those are still very much in this production.

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE NUTCRACKER" BALLET)

LUNDEN: And despite the high price tag, the Joffrey's executive director, Greg Cameron, feels it's worth every penny of the $4 million.

And he hopes the production can tour and be taped so people outside Chicago can experience it as well. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。

3 choreographer   

n.编舞者

参考例句：

• She is a leading professional belly dancer, choreographer, and teacher. 她既是杰出的专业肚皮舞演员，也是舞蹈设计者和老师。 来自辞典例句
• It'stands aside, my choreographer of grace, and blesses each finger and toe. 它站在一旁，我优雅的舞蹈指导，并祝福每个指尖与脚尖。 来自互联网

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 choreographed   

v.设计舞蹈动作( choreograph的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• There was some carefully choreographed flag-waving as the President drove by. 总统的车经过时，人们按精心编排的动作挥舞着旗帜。
• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself. 阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。 来自辞典例句

6 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

7 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

8 sculpting   

雕刻( sculpt的现在分词 )； 雕塑； 做（头发）； 梳（发式）

参考例句：

• The quality of the result is determined by a Craft( sculpting) check. 由手艺（刻）定决定结果质量如何。
• Another difficulty in the process of ice sculpting is time control. 冰雕过程中的另一项困难是时间的掌控。

9 impresario   

n.歌剧团的经理人；乐团指挥

参考例句：

• The impresario will present an expanded series of concerts next season.下个季节将举办一次大型的系列音乐会。
• The impresario had buttoned his astrakhan coat.乐团经理扣好了羔皮外套。

10 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》