Boston Ballet keeps its ‘Nutcracker’ in tune

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Boston Ballet members perform at the end of Act I during the dress rehearsal of “The Nutcracker’’ at the Boston Opera House. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

By Jeffrey Gantz

Globe correspondent

Dance Review

The Nutcracker

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Choreography by Mikko Nissinen. Set and costumes: Robert Perdziola. Lighting: Mikki Kunttu. With the Boston Ballet Orchestra conducted by Mischa Santora. Presented by Boston Ballet. At Boston Opera House, through Dec. 30. Tickets $37-$325. 617-695-6955, www.bostonballet.org

Opening night of Boston Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,’’ Thursday at the Boston Opera House, reminded us that this holiday staple owes its popularity in large part to its fabulous score. Right from the start, in a chirping overture bright with piccolo and triangle, Tchaikovsky creates a magical world of childhood. There’s the children’s military march, and their “petit galop’’ that gives way briefly to a stodgier sequence for the ’rents. Clara celebrates her Nutcracker with a polka; Fritz and the other boys disrupt the girls’ lullaby berceuse with a battery of toy instruments; the battle scene pitting Clara’s dolls and Fritz’s hussars against the mice is a percussion riot.

Yes, as Act 1 goes on, the low end of the orchestra (representing the mice, for one) begins to assert itself, anticipating the adulthood that awaits Clara. This development climaxes in the erotic pas de deux for the Snow Queen and Snow King. But the second act brings the musical delights of the divertissements for Clara’s international dolls, not least from the flutter-tonguing flutes as Clara arrives in the Nutcracker Prince’s kingdom, and from the delectable celesta that accompanies the Sugar Plum Fairy’s variation.

Boston Ballet’s new music director, Mischa Santora, made his official company debut Thursday, in an interpretation with a driving energy and long arcing phrases that, in particular, pulled the first act together. The reading didn’t always dance; there were times I missed the body — the dramatic weight and local color — that the company’s previous music director, Jonathan McPhee, brought to this score. The orchestra too wasn’t in top form. But it was a creditable first performance, and obviously Santora will need time to get to know his players, the music (this was his first time conducting the complete ballet), and the acoustic properties of the Opera House.

As adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 novella “Nutcracker and Mouse King,’’ the ballet tells the story of a girl whose love for an ugly enchanted nutcracker breaks the spell and turns him back into a prince. It’s a poignant fairy tale about growing up, and Boston Ballet has always recognized that. But the company’s productions of “The Nutcracker’’ have also always been very funny, especially in Act 1. Here, in the middle of the processional Grossvatertanz (“Grandfather Dance’’), Clara’s grandparents break into a zippy polka, as if to prove they’re as young at heart as she is. Drosselmeier, after arguing with Clara’s father over the reliability of their respective timepieces, gives Clara’s brother Fritz his “on the fritz’’ watch. The mice, for their part, enter in yoga poses and reenact the “boat’’ tableau from George Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son.’’ And keep an eye out for the rabbit, who’s part of the ballet’s original 1892 scenario and has a recurring role here.

The opening-night Clara, 17-year-old Weston resident Mia Steedle, danced Act 3 of “Raymonda’’ in the company’s “Next Generation’’ last June; she was a showstopper then and she confirmed that good impression Thursday. Matthew Slattery was a young, dashing, slyly engaging Drosselmeier, especially good with Clara and the party children. Patric Palkens gave depth to Clara’s father; So Jung Lee and Andres Garcia were adorable as the grandparents. We got a teasing Harlequin Doll from Sun Woo Lee and a properly robotic Ballerina Doll from Dalay Parrondo. Lawrence Rines hammed it up as the bear, to everyone’s delight.

Act 2 didn’t sparkle to quite the same extent — it was as if the dancers were just starting to get into roles they hadn’t done in a year, if at all. But Desean Taber and an undulant Kathleen Breen Combes stood out in Arabian (which benefited from the elimination of the two claps with which the man used to summon the woman). I liked the long line of Michael Ryan in Pastorale. And Misa Kuranaga, in her usual opening-night role as the Sugar Plum Fairy, keeps finding new ways to point Tchaikovsky’s music and play with it at the same time.

The Nutcracker

Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at jeffreymgantz@gmail.com.