The Nutcracker

It happened! After anxiously waiting for the promised treat, the family went to see the performance of the Nutcracker at the Stevens Arts Center.
Finalmente aconteceu! Depois de uma longa e ansiosa espera, a familia foi assistir ao Ballet "Nutcracker" no centro das artes "Stevens Center".

It was a success!
It was beautiful, entertaining, involving and... rather long in my daughter's opinion!
A few weeks ago I read the story of the Nutcracker Ballet of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to my children, while listening to its music recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra. They loved it and we ended up repeating the reading and talking about the story quite a while. For Ana Christina the fact that the mice did not win the battle against the toy soldiers and the Nutcracker was very reassuring (she kept repeating it on the way to the ballet!!). Well, she still jumped into my lap predicting the battle scene was coming and hid her face when the enormous "rodents" showed up. It ended up in a really happy manner, she relaxed but after two hours sitting with a break to line up for water, she had had enough...
My son loved it. He was maybe disappointed for the king rat was not as scary as in the book...
Foi um sucesso!
O ballet foi bonito, divertido, envolvente e... muito comprido na opiniao da minha filha!
Ha algumas semanas atras, eu li a historia do bailado do "nutcracker" (quebra-nozes) de Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ao mesmo tempo que ouviamos a sua musica num CD gravado pela Philharmonia Orchestra. Eles adoraram e acabamos por ler o livro varias vezes e conversar sobre partes excitantes da historia. Para a Ana Christina foi muito importante que os ratos nao ganharam a luta contra os soldados brinquedos, o quebra-nozes e a Clara, (facto que ela repetiu varias vezes no caminho para o ballet!). Bom, com a cena da luta a aproximar-se, a minha filha saltou-me para o colo e quando os enormes roedores apareceram no palco, escondeu a cara no meu pescoco! Mas com o final feliz, a minha petiz acalmou-se. Mas depois de duas horas sentada e um intervalo em que pacientemente esperou pela sua vez para beber agua, estava pronta para se ir embora....