Helgi Tomasson’s 2004 Nutcracker is a glorious production, hatched from the same company that delivered the first North American full-length holiday classic in 1944, well before it was a holiday classic. Surely there’d been excitement, trepidation, a sense of history being made back then, and it was precisely this mood one could feel throughout opening weekend in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. Not just the return of San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker, but the return of in-person performances following Covid-19 forced closure 21 months earlier. “We are back,” artistic director Helgi Tomasson publicly announced, and fewer words have sounded more welcoming, more triumphant.
Saturday's matinee performance revealed changes, to be sure. Proof of vaccination required, and once inside, mandated masking. Being expected to scan the QR code on a lobby poster showing the day’s casting, versus being handed a paper copy. No performers under the age of twelve, due to vaccination and Covid protocols. New auditorium seats, a welcome and much-needed renovation. But finally, Tchaikovsky’s dear, familiar overture, the reassuring sameness of Wendall K Harrington’s slide show projecting 1915 San Francisco scenes onto the curtains, and we were all, most decisively, back.
Tomasson’s production sets the ballet in this city, the year it hosted the Panama-Pacific Exposition to celebrate its rebound from the 1906 earthquake. A sumptuous Edwardian living room (scenic design by Michael Yeargan) and the late Martin Pakledinaz’s elegant period costumes create a scene of warmth, elegance and family closeness, with a touch of wit throughout to keep it real. Ricardo Bustamante, as a lively Uncle Drosselmeyer, entertained all with his arsenal of tricks and gifts, of which Luca Ferró’s Harlequin and Julia Rowe’s Ballerina Doll were especially enjoyable. From the audience arose a chorus of delighted sighs from the little girls at the life-sized doll’s first appearance. It was such a sweet sound, it gave me chills. Enjoying the younger audience’s enjoyment is one of the perks of attending a Nutcracker. Through their eyes, it’s all magic. The whole performance sustained that magic, aided in no small part by the superb sound of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, led by Ming Luke.
The Land of Snow is a blizzard extravaganza, one of the production’s big draws, with brisk, clever choreography and 600 pounds of descending snow. Saturday afternoon's Snow Queen and King Isabella DeVivo and Lucas Erni, young dancers with promise, deftly took on the challenge, rebounding quickly from minor snow-related mishaps.
Act 2 delivered its usual delightful fare in well-rehearsed numbers. Spanish Dancer Norika Matsuyama (within a quintet that included Lauren Parrott, Daniel Deivison-Oliveira, Joshua Jack Price and Jacob Seltzer) always catches my eye with her stellar dancing and infectious exuberance – why hasn’t she been promoted yet? The Arabian Dance was an abrupt shift to the dreamy, sensuous, and for the female, it’s not just a matter of looking mysterious, but embodying that mystery. Elizabeth Powell found that sweet spot, aided by Sean Bennett and Alexander Reneff-Olson in a slow-moving dance that ingeniously transports Powell onstage and off in an enormous genie lamp. Longtime principal Sarah Van Patten was a familiar and welcome sight as a controlled, elegant Sugar Plum Fairy.
Most impressive were Sasha de Sola and Aaron Robison, performing the grand pas de deux (Tomasson has cast an adult Clara here, versus the traditional Sugar Plum Fairy) with power, assurance, and a sense of sheer delight. De Sola is one of those dancers who always seems to be performing at her personal best, knocking out rock-solid fouettés in the coda as if she could go on forever. As I watched Robison soar through the air in his variations, landing all his jumps and tours with perfect, cat-like grace, I wondered to myself if he’d always been this good and 21 months’ absence had simply made me appreciate him more. No matter; he’s a formidable presence on the San Francisco Ballet stage. In some ways, these two seem to have taken the place of beloved former company dancers Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan. The audience was crazy about this pair, this grand pas de deux, roaring their approval well before the end. It was hard to imagine a happier crowd, a happierNutcracker.
In 2022, San Francisco Ballet audiences will need to grapple with more change, when Helgi Tomasson concludes his 37-year tenure at the end of the season. A new artistic director will likely mean, at some point, a new Nutcracker production. Hopefully it won’t be any time soon; this production is a treasure. Seventeen years since its inception, it’s still as fresh and unforgettable as a young girl’s dream.
