11/29/25 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT: The Nutcracker Rudolf Nureyev and Merle Park (1968)

Rudolf Nureyev‘s 1968 staging of the Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden fundamentally altered the perception of The Nutcracker. Nureyev discarded the simplistic notion of a pure children’s fantasy, instead turning the entire dream sequence into a complex psycho-sexual exploration of Clara’s burgeoning maturity and her subconscious desire for her godfather, Drosselmeyer. Continue reading