Tchaikovsky and a Noraebang (but not at the same time)

It seemed appropriate that a week that began with Puccini should end with Tchaikovsky. I have decided, quite happily I must add, that if it’s too cold to explore outdoors, the arts will be my substitute source of moments of wonder, so after a brunch opera on Monday, I spent Saturday night at the ballet.

Ballet has not always been a part of my life. I wasn’t one of those little girls who spends all her childhood years dreaming of tutus and pirouettes. I’ve been involved in dance in one form or another for years but it wasn’t until I became a regular Festino that I discovered the joy of ballet. There is a full ballet every year at Fest, usually performed by the Cape Town Ballet Company accompanied by one of the Johannesburg Orchestras, although they have on occasion had the South African Ballet Theatre and the Cape Philharmonic. Over the years, I’ve seen various ballets, including Coppelia, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and, my favourite, Carmen.

This is the first time I have seem ballet outside of South Africa, so I was quite excited. I was also very nearly late. I somehow got it into my head at some point during the week that this was a 7:30pm ballet instead of a 7pm start and it only occurred to me to check at about 6:15pm on Saturday, while sitting calmly sewing a missing button back onto my coat. In a panic, I finished getting ready, rushed down the hill, drew money and grabbed a cab. Luckily, the venue, the Suseong Artpia, is literally 10 minutes from my house, so I was (just) in time to get a ticket and be seated before the start of the show. Tickets ranged from 20000 won (for seats in the balcony) to 40000 won (for the main block of seats right in front of the stage). I picked the middle-ground of a 30000 won ticket (R190), thereby avoiding at least some of the many, many children and also avoiding being close enough to see the dancers sweat.

Suseong Artpia is another great venue. The main auditorium, the Yongi Hall, seats nearly 1000 people (including the large 2^nd floor balcony) and has lovely, lovely acoustics. When I first took my seat, I wasn’t sure if they would be using a live orchestra. Most of the information for these shows is in Korean so it’s always a bit of a guessing game. Then I saw the top of a harp appear and heard them tuning up and was glad. Ballet is always better with live music.

This ballet was performed by the Seoul Ballet Theatre, with original choreography by James Jeon. The first impression I got was of a large production. As we waited for everyone to settled and the ushers rushed around with extra cushions for small children, I had a chance to notice that even the front of the stage was part of the set, with large nutcracker figures stretching from the stage to the ceiling on either side and the clock face hanging in the middle at the top. The curtains weren’t closed. Instead a screen showed a village with snowflakes falling (lights) and the words ‘Merry Christmas’ in lights across the middle of the screen. I felt the tingly joy of anticipation and magic.

The Nutcracker opens with families of mothers and fathers and children arriving at a Christmas Party in all their winter finery. From the first moment, with the orchestra sweeping the audience up in waves of beautiful music, the dancers carried us into a magical world with perfect characterisation and attention to detail. In some performances of the Nutcracker, the mysterious godfather of Clara and Fritz, Herr Drosselmeyer, plays quite a small role. In this one, he was the ringmaster of the show and right from the start, it was he who led the audience into the ballroom, by ‘commanding’ the screens to open and village scene to fade away. The first scene of The Nutcracker is always lovely, with the children playing and the parents dancing. This one was particularly special because it seemed so natural – with almost equal attention to the acting/characterisation and dancing. I was struck right from the start by the exquisite performance and very strong dancing of the male lead dancing Clara’s father. The scene also had several delightfully authentic Korean touches – like the fact that everyone arriving and leaving would bow to each other and the important part played by the grandparents in the scene. It’s also great to see choreography which is not scared to introduce little touches of modernity and humour. The battle between the mouse-king and the nutcracker included some fairly modern hip-hop-style moves from the mice, and when two of them were injured in the battle, some of the other mice come in with a huge syringe to revive them.

At the end of the first scene, Herr Drosselmeyer emerged from inside a large grandfather clock and, while Clara watched, made the Christmas tree grow to enormous size and transformed the nutcracker into a prince, all shown on stage with full props and sets. The set and lighting design, as well as the changes, were dramatic and life-sized, requiring very little work from the audiences’ imaginations. I couldn’t helping thinking that this must have been a really expensive production to put together. Not that I was complaining – it was perfectly executed and created layers and layers of magic.

The only bit of the choreography that I didn’t particularly enjoy was the dancing of the snowflakes in the second scene. It took me a while to figure out what I didn’t like about it but I think it’s because the dancing was too frenetic – there was a lot of focus on arm movements and a little mechanical, losing some of the gracefulness. I was soon distracted, however, by the children’s choir. It’s unusual, except in very large and expensive productions, to actually see the children’s choir included in the Nutcracker but it is a delightful part of the original score and definitely adds to the ballet.

Act II of the Nutcracker, with the sweets dancing dances from different countries, never fails to delight. This production included the traditional Arabian and Spanish dancers, as well as the Chinese and Russian but also included some traditional Korean dancers. All the dancers were good but some of the touches and some of the choreography raised this part of the ballet above the norm. The Chinese dancers, for example, were accompanied by the cutest, funniest little silver dragon who completely distracted the audience with it’s antics. The Russian dancers, perhaps because Korea is so much closer to Russia and the culture is therefore more familiar, seemed so incredibly happy and so authentic. The Korean dancers were the highlight for many of the audience and were fascinating to watch. The woman danced with an hour-glass-shaped drum that she carried over her shoulder and beat and used to swing herself around in the turns. More spectacular was a male dancer wearing the black hat topped with what must have been a 6-foot long white streamer, from the Korean traditional farmer’s dance, which he swirled around as he jumped and danced with acrobatic movements across the stage. It really added a unique and impressive aspect to this part of the show. The dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Waltz of the Flowers were exquisite. There was none of the awkwardness of the snowflake dance. Instead, we were whirled away in a beautiful, flowing, elegant display of classical ballet. The prince danced, too, and was perhaps one of the most impressive dancers there. His leaps were perfectly executed, his movements both athletic and elegant and he was incredibly light on his feet. I was almost a little sad, when Her Drosselmeyer reappeared and transformed the magical world back into the ordinariness of Clara’s bedroom and she woke with her beloved Nutcracker.

The only negative about the show for me was the fact that, not surprisingly, so many parents had brought their children and a few of them became restless during the third act. Still, even children chattering a little couldn’t really detract from this magical performance. The audience didn’t stand up – perhaps standing ovations are not done here – but the performers received three curtain calls and it was obvious that everyone was enchanted. Including me. I left humming ‘O come all ye faithful’, which they played as the audience was filing out, and full of the joy and magic of ballet and Christmas. In terms of the dancing, although I loved almost all of it, I was particularly impressed with the male leads. Perhaps just because there aren’t very many strong male dancers in South African ballet, these men blew me away. Clara’s father (danced, I think by Jeong Woon Sik) and the Prince (Kim Sung Hun – although both those names may be wrong) were both excellent.

I had originally tried to get a group together to go to the show but they all had a thanksgiving dinner planned. I’m so glad I went on my own anyway. It was a delightful. I joined some of my friends afterwards, though, and we ended up sampling a very different kind of Korean entertainment. Since I arrived here, I’ve been meaning to go to a Noraebang – a Korean karaoke room. Last night I went with three friends to try one out.

The others had all done this before but I was a Noraebang novice. This is a little different to the karaoke I’m used to at home. Instead of singing in front of a large (and not very attentive) audience in a crowded bar, each group of people gets a private room. In the room are comfortable couches arranged around a table and TV. On the table are a couple of books with lists of songs and a control console which you use to choose your song. The range of songs is bizarre but there are always some fun ones. Once you’re chosen your song, one or two people pick up the mics and sing their hearts out. Not that you really hear a lot of what they’re singing – volume is permanently turned up rather high and the mics have some sort of built in reverb, so everyone sounds a little like a bad K-pop star. But that’s probably part of the fun. The four of us had a great time. We sang all sorts of things, from Moulin Rouge and Bon Jovi to Mariah Carey and Neil Diamond. In honour of the season, we also included a couple of Christmas numbers. We had a particularly funny moment when Christina found something called ‘The Christmas Song’ by Nat King Cole and we all watched as she put it on, not sure what to expect and then all jumped up at the same time and started singing at the tops of our voices as the words ‘Chestnuts roasting on an open fire’ appeared on the screen. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. After an hour and a half we didn’t even notice passing, we finished off with the almost obligatory ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Outside, we said goodnight and I headed home to dream sweet dreams of chestnuts, princes, nutcrackers and sugar plum fairies.