The First Lincoln Center Nutcracker
The Waltz of the Snowflakes. Photo: Andrea Mohin for the NY Times
On December 11, 1964, the New York City Ballet danced the first Nutcracker in its new home at Lincoln Center.
A 2015 article by Laura Jacobs in Vanity Fair gave a lengthy account of that first performance. Here are some excerpts:
“I recall sitting in the chair right before the curtain going up,” says Jean-Pierre Frohlich, who 50 years ago danced the role of bratty little boy Fritz in that afternoon's performance. "It's strange to explain, but in the overture you're between the angel curtain and the scrim, and for some reason that angel drop was moving forward, moving forward, moving forward—because of all the air. There's a lot of air in that theater."
Shaun O'Brien as Drosselmeyer, Judith Fugate as Clara (as she was then called), and Jean-Pierre Frolich as the Nutcracker Prince. Photo: Martha Swope via NYPL
“It was very exciting,” says Gloria Govrin, who that day unveiled a sinuous new version of the Arabian Coffee dance in Act Two. A "mini-Salome," Balanchine called it. Previously the piece had been for a man with a hookah and four little-girl parrots. But Balanchine decided, "We're going to wake up the fathers," and so for glamorous Govrin, all five foot ten of her, he fashioned a seductive solo of Georgian Orientalism. "I remember the reception of doing it," says Govrin, "because nobody knew there was going to be a change. It got a huge ovation, several bows. In the middle of Nutcracker it's kind of unusual to have one or two more bows."
Allegra Kent, who was just returning from the birth of her second child when she danced the Sugarplum Fairy, recalls, "It was thrilling! Bigger stage, farther to run, farther to jump, more expansive, more magic, more exultation in your blood."
“I remember [Balanchine] rehearsing the Waltz of the Flowers,” says Frohlich, “and just telling them to ‘move big, you’re young, move ... ’"
The Waltz of the Flowers, led by Tiler Peck. Photo: Andrea Mohin for the NY Times
Down in the orchestra pit, the timpanist Arnold Goldberg was positioned, as always, to see Balanchine in his usual place, downstage right. What Goldberg hasn't forgotten in five decades of State Theater Nutcrackers is the first time the Christmas tree—this one bigger, better, and more beautiful than before—began its inexorable growth upward. It wasn't the 4:45 performance but the dress rehearsal, and Goldberg was watching not the tree but Balanchine. "He's standing with his hands in his jeans pockets, looking around," says Goldberg. "And it came up. He was breathless. It was priceless, the joy of watching Mr. B.'s face . . . I mean, he'd dreamt about it. He had the stage built so that the tree could be one piece. That tree meant everything to The Nutcracker."
The Nutcracker Prince (Leighton Ho) battles the Mouse King (Justin Peck) in front of the tree. Photo: Andrea Mohin for the NY Times
“He used to love to rehearse the mice,” says Govrin. “There were always his pet pieces in a ballet, parts he was constantly either tinkering with or just in there doing it with people.” Also, says Barbara Horgan, “the dancers were holding back because they felt silly doing little mice steps.”
“What I heard him say a number of times,” says [Patricia] Wilde, “aside from his own recollections of being a child in The Nutcracker and how much he loved it, he was thinking of it as a gift to American children. A lovely Christmas experience.”
“What makes his Nutcracker so fantastic for children,” says Robert Weiss, “is it’s about them.”
