Cracking nuts

Since quite early in the year, we'd been eagerly looking forward to 4th December, since the Birmingham Royal Ballet had seen the error of their ways, and were once more presenting The Nutcracker as their Christmas special. Whilst last year's digression, a brand new production of Beauty And The Beast, was spectacular, I'm afraid my inner brat sulked at being denied its annual fix of The Nutcracker. Well, it was only the second Christmas since 1994 that we'd been deprived of this - the first being a couple of years earlier when Birmingham Hippodrome was being refurbished.

Anyway, it was SO good to see it again. Spectacular scenery, great set pieces, brilliant dancing (I'm slowly learning to appreciate the finer points of ballet) and, with our front-row seats, a ringside view of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia playing like demons. The woman sitting to our left, another regular subscriber, was really swept up by it - at the climax of the Transformation Scene, after the Christmas tree and fireplace had grown to giant proportions and the leader of the rats emerged from the glowing fireplace, she was obliviously shaking her fists in front of her face in sheer glee. I must admit, I came pretty close to whooping and cheering myself!