Spragtukas came to Lithuania almost a hundred years ago
Klaipėda State Musical Theater presents the latest staging of Piotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker created in Lithuania – a dance performance staged by Russian choreographer Kirill Simonov at the Klaipėda State Musical Theater Ballet. This is probably the ninth production of this classical ballet in Lithuania. We offer several excerpts from the books of art critic Helmutas Šabasevičius “Lithuanian Ballet Today” (Vilnius: Krantai Editorial, 2000), “A Brief History of Lithuanian Ballet” (Vilnius: Krantai, 2010) and reviews introducing the history of Lithuanian Spragtukai.
“Lithuanian audiences have been performing this performance for more than two decades [po premjeros Sankt Peterburgo Marijos teatre]- 19 January 1928 [buvęs Marijos teatro šokėjas ir baletmeisteris] Pavel Petrov prepared the first premiere of “Spragtukas” [Kauno Valstybės teatre]. Decorated by Barbora Dikienė, in the performance by students of P.Petrovas’ studio, the Snow Princess was danced by Olga Malėjinaitė, Princess Dražė – Eugenija Žalinkevičaitė, Prince Caramel – by P.Petrovas herself. This performance, like other works in the classical repertoire, was not very popular and did not return to the ballet repertoire until May 11, 1963. Building a Nutcracker [Lietuvos operos ir baleto teatre Vilniuje], Bronius Kelbauskas followed the staging of S. Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater. For the first time in the post-war years, the forces of the School of Choreography are dedicated to the performance. When discussing the general rehearsal, it was about the freshness of the performance, the classical, the novelty. As the action of the dominant ballets was staged in Lithuania on Saturday, many evaluations of B. Kelbauskas’ intentions to return to the ballet theater pure choreography based on a complex classical dance. Three pairs of soloists were prepared for the performance: Masha-Princess was danced by Leokadija Aškelovičiūtė, Pranutė Sargūnaitė, Genovaitė Samaitytė, Prince – Česlovas Žebrauskas, Henrikas Kunavičius, Viačeslavas Nikulajevas Among other students who participated in this performance, we find the names of Jelena Švedaj and Rūta Krugiškytė.
On March 24, 1973, another premiere of “Spragtukas” took place, prepared by choreographer Elegijus Bukaitis and artist Regina Songailaitė. This was the last production of the ballet in the old theater. The libretto of the performance already testifies to a completely different choreographer’s approach to the art of ballet – there is no coherent narrative here, rather choreographic episodes are described in short sentences. The performance was rehearsed for more than a year, all the choreography was original, except for the Snaigiai dance, which was edited by E. Bukaitis according to the building of choreographer Vasilijus Vainonenas. The artist R.Songailaitė, in order to create a festive, glowing performance, planned to use a lot of silver for decorations – it was intended to prepare various lighting, and “silver is very receptive to light”. The choreographer himself will say “classical chocography in the Rococo style”. E.Bukaitis did not create a traditional children’s fairy tale – he said that the work is intended for both children and adults. The play managed to create a dramatically captivating action, although the individual scenes – especially the finals – lacked clarity. The role of Droselmajer was very interesting – many of them emphasized the impressive performance of Voldemar Chlebinsk during the discussion of the play. In general, when discussing the review, it was mentioned that the artists did not trust E. Bukaitis’ decision, but after the premiere they were happy with their “good performance”.
More than ten years later, “Spragtukas” was renewed by Vytautas Brazdylis (premiere on December 30, 1987, artist Algis Kariniauskas). As in other performances of his classical repertoire, the choreographer gave the libretto an ambiguous uncertainty, avoiding the straightforward primitiveness often found in classical ballets. Although the blindness of the Shepherds’ Dance was not fully prepared (the famous Shepherd’s Dance was not built), the choreographer created interesting episodes – the first farewell dance of the guests of Sttalbaum, the duo of Prince and Mari, the variation of Mari, the Spanish dance of the second act.
In 1996, the original “Nutcracker” was created by Andrejus Melanjinas, presenting his own libretto edition of Marius Petipa and a new choreography (the premiere of the performance was on February 23, the scenery was created by Rafail Volski, and the costumes by Viktor Volski). The first action of “The Nutcracker” staged by A. Melanjin is quite unified, his dances seamlessly connect with each other, creating the mood of a merry Christmas bustle. An interesting second painting of the second action, the beginning of Mari’s dream – here we managed to create a paraphrase of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann’s mood: lighting, ingenious composition of stage elements accentuates the paradoxical contrast of big and small world Of the individual choreographic episodes, the second action makes a good impression Adagio and a variation of Mari, Oriental Dance, a duet by Harlequin and Colombina.
The choreographer insightfully selected the soloists – Eglė Špokaitė and Edvardas Smalakys and Rūta Jezerskytė and Mindaugas Baužys danced in the premieres of the performance; the artists helped the ballet master get closer to his goal. Although the character of the Prince is not thought out, E. Smalakys and M. Baužys do their best to make the drawing of this character as prominent as possible. Mari is different and attractive: R.Jezerskytė is fascinated by modest, restrained, girly acting, an exciting sense of the fragility of a dream, E.Špokaitė suggestively creates her heroine as a dreamy creature of the week of the performance, the scenes are related to her individualistic states. Vytautas Kudžma and Voldemaras Chlebinskas dance the throttle, mechanically and at the same time merry Spragtukas-Lėlė and agile and lucky Mouse – Laima Petersonaitė. ”
A few years later (January 30, 1999), choreographer Irena Ribačiauskaitė, assisted by conductor Virgilijus Visockis and artist Giedrė Riškutė, provided her choreographic vision of the Tchaikovsky Ballet at the Kaunas State Musical Theater. According to H.Šabasevičius, the choreographer also slightly edited the libretto according to ETAHofman’s well-known fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice” – in the finale of the performance the fulfillment of hopes. The scene was dominated by the bright, variegated, bright mood of the toy world, and Droselmajer is portrayed in the performance as a good, just a bit mannered uncle.
The choreographer filled the space of the performance with dance, focusing on vivid characteristic episodes, supplementing traditional dances not only with original choreography, but also with unexpected characters – for example, a bunny-drumming team on the stage of the Battle of the Nutcracker with the Mouse King or a little sheep pas de trois. Interesting characteristic episodes: a party scene, an episode of three puppets – Soldier, Doll Clare, Arabo – where the technique of classical dance and characteristic acting details are ingeniously combined, the dances of the second act divertement – Spanish, Chinese.
An important principle of composing the performance is the change of individual scenes and pictures, which is solved with the help of scenography, actively using a movable painted curtain; significant role in Spragtuke and various plastic elements of the landscape. The artist of the performance, Giedrė Riškutė, turned “Spragtukas” into a colorful Christmas wrapping paper and seasoned it with powerful festive scents and small details, but with cute fabulous details: toys, candles, hearts, fish, sweets and other delicacies.
“At the end of 2009, an ambitious idea was implemented at the Klaipėda Musical Theater by a young choreographer and director Marija Simona Šimulynaitė, a graduate of the Ballet Department of the MKČiurlionis School of Arts, a student of directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. She edited Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker in an editing that revealed the fantasy world of a lonely child. Based on the movements of both neoclassical and modern dance in the choreography, Šimulynaitė did not avoid the elements of cartoon, grotesque, which were expressively used in the characteristic dances of the second part. The artist Simona Biekšaitė gave meaning to the paradox-filled space of the performance: in the first action, the large round table dominating the stage in the second turns into a plate with a ship that travels through the colorful world. Aurelijus Liškauskas, Marija – Aušra Krasauskaitė, Puppet – Kristina Tarasevičiūtė, Droselmajerio – Valdemaras Marcinkus
2014 The cozy “Spragtukas” – already the fifth on the LNOBT stage – was created by a choreographer, the team of the then LNOBT ballet artistic director Krzysztof Pastor, conductor Martynas Staškus and the artist Viačeslav Okunev. According to H.Šabasevičius, who reviewed the Prime Minister, “the editorial staff of the performance aims to take a new look at the dramaturgy created on the basis of ETAHoffmann’s tale, to look for new accents in the history of ballet. One of them has become an extremely simple decision of a choreographer – in the land of dreams and dreams, the great action of the performance takes place, placed in the theater and the desires of the main heroine of the performance are connected to the stage. Such a line in the global crackdown does not seem to have been so clear yet. Another highlight is the attempt to link it with Vilnius as part of the Spragtukas advertising campaign. Although it is not new to bring the action of a classical performance closer to the country where it is being staged, such decisions in Lithuania can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. ”
December 16 Avia Solutions Group Arena, Vilnius, December 22 – In Švyturys Arena, Klaipėda, we will see Olga Konošenko, who danced Mari, K.Pastor – the Queen of Mice, and K.Simonovas Dr. Mrs. Droselmajer (a female version of the sorcerer and godfather Droselmajer) is probably the most intriguing party in Klaipėda-based Spragtuke, a must-see for everyone.
KVMT info