The Nutcracker - January 2014

First outing of the year again was to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see the Royal Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. Again it was the final night and it coincided with Rachael's birthday. Like I said last year, I was looking to make it a yearly tradition and we have indeed continued with it and intend to do so next year.

The worse thing about booking is that you then have to wait what feels like forever before you even get to go and see the production. When booking, I decided to stick to where we sat last year due to the low pricing. At £10 per ticket, even with the restricted view, it is completely worth the money. Though I have to admit, it still makes my stomach flip when I look down at the people below because of how high up we are.

We had arrived in London early, so I could treat Rachael to McDonalds, have a look round the shops in Covent Gardens and allow me the chance to get a few shots of London at night. Probably not the best decision due to the fact, it ending up costing me a fortune! In the ROH shop, I ended spending nearly £30 on merchandise, including £10 on a miniatue, working Nutcracker. I ended making Rachael promise me she would allow me to take the cost of that and the toy she brought in the Disney Store out of any birthday money she got! I did make sure to include a CD of music from the Nutcracker for myself, as I used to own a cassette tape of the music. This prompted Rachael to ask me what a cassette player was!

As always the Royal Ballet's production of The Nutcracker was amazing, beautiful and performed such talented and graceful ballet dancers. I have to make special mentions for two of the artists performing in lead roles, Yuhui Choe and Leanne Cope, who danced their parts of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara, absolutely beautifully and so gracefully. Yuhui Choe is currently a First Soloist with the Royal Ballet, but the way she performed the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy was elegant, that I feel it was high time she was promoted to a Principal. Leanne Cope is current a First Artist, a role within the Royal Ballet which generally does not provide many opportunities for lead roles, and she took the chance to shine and she shone and I feel like it was time for her to be promoted to Soloist to gives the audience more chances to see her perform in solo roles.

Seeing The Nutcracker last night was a great start to the year and a great end for the Christmas period and I absolutely look forward to returning to see it next year!