Technical Details: Interactive Menu Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1/ Digital Stereo Region Code: 0   Picture Format: 4:3 Specials: Artist Biographies Production Infos   Running Time: ca.111 min.     Order No: 60065 P.I. Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Orchestra: State Orchestra of Victoria Ballet: The Australian Ballet Company Soloists: M. Scott, V. Attard, S. Heathcote a.o. Conductor: Noel Smith "It's sense of drama grips the imagination from beginning to end. It dazzles the eye, tickles the fancy and touches the heart."                                                        (The Bulletin) In a stunning departure from tradition, Australia’s most eminent choreographer, Graeme Murphy, transforms Nutcracker into a turbulent portrait of a famous Russian- Australian ballerina. Recorded in 1994, it is a moving tribute to the vision and dedication of artists. The concept for the work was created jointly by Murphy and Kristian Fredrikson. Together they reinterpreted the traditional story giving it an Australian context while retaining enough elements to make it recognisably a version of Nutcracker. Clara's Christmas party opens the ballet. Set in the late 1950s, an elderly woman is struggling home in the scorching summer heat. She enters her flat, it is Christmas Eve and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is playing on her radio. Delightful visions fill her mind as she recalls her life as a youthful and beautiful dancer. The daydream is interrupted when her Russian friends arrive to pay their annual 'homage' to their great friend and once great ballerina, Clara. And so the story unfolds… The magical dance of the Snowflakes and the Bolshevik rats with their nasty tales have been reworked and fused in this rich and textured storyline. Clara drifts back through her memories - as a young ballet pupil in Tsarist Russia, the nightmare of war and the death of her lover, a life of touring the world as a famous ballerina and her finale in the inaugural production of Australia's Borovansky Ballet.