December 15, 17 & 18, 2022
A Nutcracker Christmas Celebration
Program notes by J. Michael Allsen
Arizona Philharmonic and Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet are proud and excited to
present to you our first collaboration, A Nutcracker Christmas Celebration.
This afternoon’s performance begins with the voices of young girls: Voci Sorella from Yavapai
Youth Choirs. They will be joined in the second half by the Una Voce Women’s Choir. The
remainder of this program is taken up by two ballets danced by guests of the Margot Fonteyn
Academy of Ballet and members of Lessons by Lexe dance studio. The first is a tribute to the
ballet Le Patineurs (The Skaters), a lighthearted and lively ice skating party, danced to music by
Giacomo Meyerbeer. We close with selections from the most beloved of all ballets, The
Nutcracker, with its colorful and expressive score by Tchaikovsky.
This production has been a long time in planning and execution. Margot Fonteyn Academy of
Ballet is an international organization, drawing students and dancers from across the world.
Arizona Philharmonic is a regional professional orchestra, drawing musicians from across the
southwest. Voci Sorella, Una Voce, and Lessons by Lexe are local, drawing youth and adults
from within our community. Each group contributes their magic to create the beautiful
experience unfolding here, in Prescott.
Arizona Philharmonic wishes to offer a special thank you to Ken Ludden, Artistic Director of
Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet. Long before the Academy’s fall reopening in its new home
in Prescott, he imagined what you are about to see and hear. We are grateful for his vision and
honored to help realize it.
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PROGRAM
ACT I
• Noel Nouvelet (arr. Michael McGlynn) with Voci Sorella
• Pat-a-Pan (arr. Kirke Mechem) with Voci Sorella
• Il est né le divin enfant (arr. John Rutter) with Voci Sorella
• Skaters Holiday (by Giacomo Meyerbeer)
An homage to Sir Frederick Ashton, to the music of Les Patineurs with dancers Cassidy Blake,
Chloe Fitchette, Kaishi Fugita, Lungani Gwala, Alix Henning, Mataji Prevolnik
INTERMISSION
ACT II
• O Come All Ye Faithful (arr. Dan Forrest) with Una Voce
• Ding Dong Merrily on High (arr. Kirke Mechem) with Voci Sorella
• Silent Night (arr. Dan Forrest) with Voci Sorella
“The Nutcracker Suite” (by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
• Overture
Narration by Ken Ludden
• Snow Scene
Tricia Albertson and Eric Trope
• Spanish
Anbi Ono
• Arabian
Mao Hayashi
• Chinese
Kanade Yamamura
• Reed Flutes “Danse des mirlitons”
Ako Omiya
• Trepak (traditional Ukrainian dance) “Danse des Bouffons”
Lungani Gwala
• Mother Ginger “La mere Gigogne et les polichinelles”
Kanami Yaginuma
• Waltz of the Flowers “Grand Ballabile”
Kio Sagae
• Grand Pas de Deux
“Adage” – Tricia Albertson and Eric Trope
“Male Variation” – Eric Trope
“Sugar Plum Fairy Variation” – Tricia Albertson
“Coda” – Tricia Albertson and Eric Trope
• Finale
Full Ensemble
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NOTES
Noël nouvelet (arr. Michael McGlynn) with Voci Sorella
We open with a set of three selections sung by Voci Sorella. The French carol Noël nouvelet
dates from the 15th century. The word noël—now used in French as a term for Christmas itself—
has been used as a joyful acclamation in French poetry since the 13th century.
In the 15th century the noël became a particularly popular French genre of poetry associated with
the Nativity, with hundreds of noëls assembled in large collections. A few of these, including
Noël nouvelet, have survived with their original melodies. Michael McGlynn’s delicate 2008 a
capella arrangement preserves the medieval mystery of this lovely carol.
Pat-a-Pan (arr. Kirke Mechem) with Voci Sorella
Kansas-born Kirke Mechem (b. 1925) is a proli c composer of music in all genres, from operas
—including his acclaimed Tartuffe—to orchestral and chamber works. He is best known,
however, for his well-crafted and often witty choral music—Mechem has been lauded as the
“dean of American choral composers.”
In 1964, he was serving as composer-in-residence at the San Francisco College for Women, now
part of San Francisco State University. His Seven Joys of Christmas was written that year for the
College’s Chamber Singers. It was his intent to set carols that might not be particularly popular,
but which could be utilized to express the many shades of joy in this season. He also chose
traditional holiday music that gave this work an international avor. The fourth movement, titled
The Joy of Children is a sweet version of Patapan. This carol, published in about 1700 by the
Burgundian lawyer and multitalented writer Bernard de la Monnoye (1641-1728), is a wonderful
picture of children making a joyful noise on Christmas day.
Il est né le divin enfant (arr. John Rutter) with Voci Sorella
Englishman John Rutter (b. 1945) is celebrated as both a choral conductor and as a composer of
choral works, from small anthems to settings of the Gloria, Magni cat, and Requiem. Rutter has
explained that Christmas music has “always occupied a special place in my affections, ever since
I sang in my rst Christmas Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols as a nervous ten-year-old boy
soprano. For me, and I suspect for most of the other members of the Highgate Junior School
Choir, it was the high point of our singing year, diligently rehearsed and eagerly anticipated for
weeks beforehand. Later, my voice changed and I turned from singing to composition, but I
never forgot those early Highgate carol services...”
Il est né, le divin enfant is an anonymous French carol rst printed in the 1860s, but which is
probably much older. Many French carols were set to folk melodies or popular songs, and in this
case, a joyous poem to the baby Jesus is sung to an old hunting song from Normandy. Rutter’s
1969 setting, written for a chorus of children’s voices, maintains the pastoral style and childlike
joy of the original carol.
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Skaters Holiday (by Giacomo Meyerbeer)
The rst half concludes with a ballet, Les Patineurs, which uses music by Giacomo Meyerbeer
(1791-1864). Meyerbeer was phenomenally successful in his time, but was a particularly
important gure in the history of French opera, a eld he dominated completely in the middle of
the 19th century. In particular, he established the form of French “grand opera”—enormous
works, often four hours or more in length, and extending over ve acts. One invariable
expectation of French opera composers at the time was that operas must include an extended
ballet scene, whether or not it made any sense in the plot! Ballets typically occurred in the third
act, partly as a concession to fashionable Parisians of the day, who never arrived before the end
of the second act...and who would have been incensed if they missed the ballet. These scenes
sometimes served as pure comic relief. Meyerbeer’s grand opera Le Prophète (1848), for
example, had an unrelentingly serious plot set against the background of Dutch religious
upheaval in the early 16th century. It is based upon the life of the Anabaptist leader John of
Leiden. John was able to establish a religious state in the city of Münster, proclaiming himself
“King of New Jerusalem,” before his eventual downfall and death by torture. Its Act III ballet,
however, features a group of bumptious Dutch peasants enjoying a skating party on a frozen
river. This ballet also featured a new invention that was all the rage in Paris at the time: roller
skates!
In 1936, British composer Constant Lambert, who was music director of the Vic-Wells Ballet
in London, assembled an eight-movement score that incorporated all of Meyerbeer’s skating
music from Le Prophète, adaptations of a few additional numbers from that opera and a waltz
from Meyerbeer’s 1853 comic opera L’Étoile du Nord. (The version of Lambert’s score heard
here was reorchestrated for a smaller orchestra in 2020 by Tadeusz Biernacki, music director of
the Winnipeg Royal Ballet.) Choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton created the ballet for the Vic-
Wells Ballet: no roller skates this time, but many of the ballet’s moves are translated into ballet
from traditional moves used in skating. The ballet premiered on February 16, 1937, and proved
to be a lasting success, remaining in the repertoire ballet companies around the world down to
the present day.
The plot of Les Patineurs centers around a skating party with a constantly-changing cast of
characters in colorful costumes: lighthearted music and dance with frequent ashes of humor.
Presented here, is a homage to Sir Fredrick Ashton’s choreography. The opening movement
(Entree and Pas Seul) opens with a waltz, a duo for the low strings and piccolo, as the
background for a dance by MFAB students. The sequence ends with a more sprightly galop. The
Variation, opening with brass fanfare, backs a duo of young men, who are obviously on the ice
to show off! The Pas de Deux, however, is pure romance: a long lyrical melody on horn, and
later oboe, supported by the harp. This accompanies pairs of graceful dancers. The Ensemble is a
series of waltzes for the company, backed by the dancers from the opening. Next two women
take the stage in a lively polonaise (Pas de trois). Pas de patineuses features a pair of digni ed
young men, skating effortlessly together until they both end up slipping. They quickly recover
their poise in hopes that no one was watching. The Ensemble that follows features acrobatic
leaps by the men and daring spins by the women. Les Patineurs ends with an extended Galop
nale, an exuberant showcase for the entire company.
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O Come All Ye Faithful (arr. Dan Forrest) with Una Voce
Following intermission, Una Voce Women’s Chorus takes the stage. The origin of the familiar O
Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste delis) was long a mystery. It was known from at least the middle
of the 18th century in both its original Latin and was in English translations. The hymn was
attributed to medieval poets, various Portuguese and English writers—and even Handel—but the
true author was not discovered until the 1940s: an 18th-century English Catholic named John
Francis Wade (1711-1786).
Wade ed religious persecution in England and spent most of his career in Flanders and France,
selling Catholic service books. His Latin hymn Adeste delis was written sometime in the early
1740s. There have been many English translations, but the familiar words heard here were
written by Francis Oakley in 1906 for The English Hymnal. The version heard here was
published by South Carolina-based composer and arranger Dan Forrest in 2015. Forrest’s
arrangement moves from a quiet, expectant opening to a truly “joyful and triumphant” nal
verse.
Ding Dong Merrily on High (arr. Kirke Mechem) with Voci Sorella
When hymn-writer George Ratcliffe Woodward wrote the words to Ding Dong! Merrily on
High in 1924, he reached back to a much earlier time the melody. It was originally a tune
included in a 16th-century dance manual, Thionot Arbeau’s Orchesographie (1588) intended to
be played with a circle-dance called the bransle. Here Voci Sorella present another movement
drawn from Kirke Mechem’s Seven Joys of Christmas: The Joy of Bells: a joyful, tintinnabular
setting of this exuberant song.
Silent Night (arr. Dan Forrest) with Voci Sorella
No Christmas program would be complete without Silent Night. This most popular of all
Christmas songs was written in 1818 by the organist Franz Gruber (1787-1863) and Rev. Josef
Mohr for a Christmas Eve service at the tiny church they served in village of Oberndorf, Austria.
This gentle piece, part of the long tradition of lullabies to the baby Jesus, came to the attention of
two touring German singing families, the Rainer Family, and the Strasser Sisters—who
popularized the song across Germany. Silent Night was eventually published in over 150
languages, and remains one of the most beloved Christmas hymns.
Together, the girls of Voci Sorella and women of Una Voce sing Silent Night in a 2020
arrangement by Dan Forrest, accompanied by piano and strings. After an atmospheric
introduction, the treble voices lay out the song in an unhurried, almost dreamy way, reaching a
subdued peak before a hushed ending.
“The Nutcracker Suite” (by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
The three great ballet scores of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) include some of the nest
ballet music ever written: Swan Lake (1876), The Sleeping Beauty (1889), and The Nutcracker
(1892). Nutcracker is of course the best-known of his ballets. Composed for a performance in St.
Petersburg during the Christmas season of 1892, it remains a staple of the ballet repertoire, and
his suite of movements from the ballet is one of the most popular concert works in the orchestral
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repertoire. Tchaikovsky, however, was convinced at the time that he had written a op. He didn’t
particularly like the E.T.A. Hoffmann story that was selected as the basis for the ballet, and
fought with the original choreographer, Marcus Petipa, about every detail of phrasing.
Thankfully, his musical instincts prevailed, and he created a score full of wonderfully evocative
music.
This ever-popular ballet begins with the Miniature Overture, the perfect opening: delicate and
ultralight music from the upper strings and woodwinds to set the stage for this fairytale story,
told through the eyes of a young girl, Clara. The full ballet opens on Christmas Eve at the home
of Clara’s godfather Drosselmeyer, a toymaker (and—of course!—a magician). Clara receives
the Nutcracker as a Christmas gift from her godfather. Later, in a dream, she sees an invasion of
mice in Drosselmeyer’s parlor. Toy soldiers, lead by the brave Nutcracker, valiantly march to
defend the parlor. The battle ends when Clara throws her shoe at the Mouse King, distracting him
and allowing the Nutcracker to defeat him.
This past fall, Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet formally reopened its doors to students from
across the world, after relocating to Prescott from Peekskill, New York. For this rst
collaboration between Arizona Philharmonic and Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet, we are
presenting the solo and pas de deux highlights of Nutcracker, featuring invited international
ballet guests.
The sections of the ballet presented here begin with the magical Snow Scene pas de deux that
ends Act I. In Act II, the Sugar Plum Fairy welcomes the audience to the Land of Sweets, to be
entertained by a series of “characteristic dances,” some of them representing sweets and
refreshments from around the world. (Tchaikovsky clearly used this section as an opportunity to
bring in a fascinating variety of musical in uences.) The Spanish Dance: Chocolate is set in a
lively Spanish rhythm, and is led by a jaunty trumpet solo. The Arabian Dance: Coffee is languid
and exotic, with slow, sinuous lines from the violins and solo woodwinds played above a pulsing
background from the low strings. The Chinese Dance: Tea features a lovely pseudo-oriental
melody for ute and piccolo. The Dance of the Reed-Pipes is a dainty ute duet. This is followed
by a lively Ukrainian Dance (Trepak), a wild Ukrainian folk dance showcasing spectacular male
jumps and technique. Following is the Bon Bon, a fun and light-hearted solo. The grand Waltz of
the Flowers comes at the end of the banquet’s entertainment. After an enchanting harp cadenza
sets a magical mood, horns introduce the rst of a series of lilting waltz themes, alternately
delicate and forceful.
The dramatic climax of Act II comes when the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier, join for the
Grand pas de deux. This is Tchaikovsky at his Romantic best: music that rises gradually to an
enormous emotional peak. The brief Variation of the Cavalier is a forceful tarantella, and the
famous Variation of the Sugar Plum Fairy features the delicate sound of the celeste. The Coda
Generale is a series of waltzes danced as a farewell by the entire company.
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