The Nutcracker ballet

Do I have self control?

Sure!

I wait until we get to double digits before I start counting down to Christmas. That’s September 17, everyone. 99 sleeps.

OK … so I’ve kind of been banned from counting down any earlier than that, so maybe ‘self control’ is the wrong terms.

You may as well know now (if you don’t already) that I’m one of Those People who adores Christmas.  Jase has had to enforce a rule in our house. No counting down until we get to double digits, or it’s Just Ridiculous.

Sometimes I get around this rule by counting down to the day that I can start counting down. ;-)

But no need for that any longer! We’re in double digits!

And how did I choose to celebrate?

By going to The Nutcracker ballet, of course.

I never really cared for ballet all that much. I appreciate it, and admire the dancing, but I never liked it enough to go out of my way to watch a performance.

But I became intrigued by this form of dance when I read Mao’s Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin. And by the time I watched the closing credits to the movie itself, all misty-eyed after the final scene, I’d fallen in love with the dancing. I started looking at the three biggest shows on offer throughout the year: Coppélia, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

I, of course, chose the Christmas one. :-)

And had a wonderful time.

I used a headset that I’d borrowed from the venue so I could access the hearing loop. (This made a huge difference, as the music really seemed quite tinny without it.) I gave myself access to external sounds also – one of the things I love about my cochlear implants. My hearing aid could only ever give me 100% telecoil. (I think there are better ones on the market these days.) For me, it meant I wouldn’t hear applause, laughter, gasps or murmurs from the audience, etc. So much of that external noise can help contribute to how much enjoyment you get from the night! Laughter, for example, is contagious. So I love the ratio control we can set for our cochlear implants. It was great being able to hear what the people around me were doing – I felt like I belonged with them.

Given I’d have partial access to external sounds throughout the show, I decided to choose the ‘Focus’ program. This can lead me astray sometimes, as it is sometimes too smart for its own good. For example, when it decides to amplify the sound of somebody having a sneezing fit (no, not Jase!) because it ‘thinks’ it’s a sound I need to hear! (I can totally forgive the odd time that it’s wrong, given that most of the time it is spectacularly right.) I decided to go with ‘Focus’ mainly because it has a noise filter. I thought that would tone down the roughness of the music I heard externally, as well as tone down the sound of applause so that it wasn’t uncomfortably loud. I left the volume and sensitivity settings at their defaults – 6 and 12, respectively.

Then I put the remote away and waited for the show to start.

Applause for the guest conductor and the orchestra. Then, the music.

Ooh! The sounds of Tchaikovsky! It sounded so beautiful! I tried to listen out for different instruments. I could identify about six different instruments: the violin, the cello, the flute, the trumpet, a percussion instrument and the French horn. (Thanks to Sound and Way Beyond for that last one!) Looking at the program, I see there was also the viola, double bass, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, trombone, bass trombone, harp and timpani. But although it sounded like a six-piece ensemble to me, instead of, perhaps, a fifty-piece orchestra, I could still feel the warmth of the music. Hear the dynamics, the crescendos, as more instruments joined in – even if I couldn’t distinguish each one.  

I smiled at Jase and sat back.

When the piece ended, the curtain rose, and there was a gasp from the audience. The stage looked incredible! We were immediately transported to Christmas Eve at the Stahlbaum house. And I was lost to the show after that.

For me, the lack of dialogue meant it was a stress-free night. I could just sit back and not worry about missing any lines on stage – this was a story told through dance and music, not dialogue. I could hear the music well enough to let it wash over me, set the emotions for the scenes on stage without my having to deeply concentrate on it. (I know I’m extremely lucky to be able to hear classical music reasonably well – I put that down to my musical background as well as the fact that I was using the hearing loop. The static and tinniness would have otherwise distracted me and probably annoyed me throughout the whole show.)

There were times during the show when I was too caught up in the dancing to pay much attention to the music at all – it was always there, in the background, but it blended in with everything else. I sat up and smiled whenever I heard a familiar song though – there were a couple of very well known ones in the second act. I found that when I recognised the song, I shifted my attention from the dancing and paid more attention to the music, and found the music much more pleasing to listen to. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is one that comes to mind. I listened closely to the song I just mentioned, as parts of that song are played with very high notes and I was sure those notes would be out of range from the highest electrode. But the melody sounded correct, so maybe it’s not as high as I thought. Or maybe my brain was overriding the sounds with the correct ones, hard to say.

(Note: I’ve just downloaded this off iTunes and had a closer listen – I think I can actually recognise some parts played by the harp where the notes sound a bit flat at the end. It’s an interesting piece to listen to, for research purposes!)  

Other than the sound of the music, and the sound of the crowd, I also loved hearing the sounds on stage. The crackling sound of the Christmas Eve firecracker. The chime of the clock striking twelve. The sounds of clapping hands that the dancers incorporated into their routines sometimes, to emulate a beat.

But my favourite sound of all … the one that had me smiling all night long … the sound of the ballet slippers hitting the stage after any leap, big or small.

I was originally nervous about how I’d go at this event, given that music is played non-stop throughout and there is no dialogue at all. But I’d call this one a huge success.

I would definitely go to the ballet again!

Even to watch a non-Christmas-related performance. ;-)