December at Tufts can be a trying time for the well-meaning overachiever. Away from home, swamped with final exams, the closest many Jumbos come to a little holiday cheer might be a peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks. While you might feel like you won't get far beyond the bright white walls of Tisch for the next three weeks, think this happy thought: A short T ride away are some wonderful holiday performance events in Boston and Cambridge - events that are bound to lift your spirits for the holidays and perhaps remind you of those easy years of the past.
While Boston has an impressive array of holiday performances eager to invoke your nostalgia and bring out your inner child, there are a few events that truly stand out. One of the most beautiful and sense-stimulating evenings of this holiday season can be found in the Boston Ballet's "The Nutcracker," playing through Dec. 30 at the recently restored Boston Opera House.
After decades of traditional Christmas performances, "The Nutcracker" is sometimes considered more of a holiday icon than a vibrant and meaningful dance event. In a thoughtful display of its artistic maturity, the Boston Ballet's rendition of "The Nutcracker," now in its 39th straight year with the company, manages to provide a beautiful, warm performance of the much-beloved children's classic.
As the beautiful painted backdrop of a winter scene rose to begin the classic tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann last Thursday evening, the thematic material central to the Boston Ballet's performance immediately - and literally - jumped out on stage: a young male dancer, leaping high, his face bright with an excited vibrancy. This "Nutcracker," for all its very capable and professional soloists, is truly about the children. Over 200 children from the Boston Ballet School perform in this year's "Nutcracker," and their presence on stage is the emotional heart of this ballet, as choreographed by the Boston Ballet's Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen.
Little girls in velvet dresses and curls, as to be expected, make up a good percentage of the Opera House audience. Amid the excited giggles and sugar, spice and everything nice, however, will be an audience of notable variety, including a slew of college students, many couples in their 20s and 30s and a sizeable percentage of men. With a sign on the theater doors stating the shocking words that concessions are allowed inside the theater, an eager audience filled the Opera House, which has been beautifully redone in recent years to an impressive effect.
The children of this performance are a joy to watch, and the older dancers' sensitivity to the youthful magic of Tchaikovsky's great work, as seen in the child dancers' performances, is a testament to the integrity still to be found in this holiday workhorse. Set design by Helen Pond and Herbert Senn, costumes by David Walker and lighting by Alexander V. Nichols are also particularly poignant, a tribute to the innocent joy that can still be found in the holiday season.
After rediscovering your inner child at "The Nutcracker," don't forget to sharpen your singing voice at Boston's next-best holiday tradition: holiday sing-alongs - with some of the finest singing groups in the country.
In a step up from your Uncle Joey at the family piano, the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus' "Holiday Sing" serenades its way into a second year on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 3 p.m. at Boston's Symphony Hall. Whether you're a coloratura soprano or tone deaf, you too can join one of Boston's most acclaimed choruses in sing-along renditions of holidays classics like "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night." After hearing the singers, along with a brass ensemble, and a handbell choir, don't forget to stand for that triumphant tune that ushers in the holiday, the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah.
If listening is more your style, you can't go wrong with the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Holiday Pops concerts. Keith Lockhart leads the Pops in an evening of popular Christmas carols, and actors will read "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus," along with other stories of Christmas and Hanukkah.
If the old-school holiday cheer is getting too much for you, don't miss the Pops with Barenaked Ladies at 1 p.m. on Dec. 14. BNL will join Lockhart and Co. on songs from their 2004 album "Barenaked for the Holidays."
Finally, if you're beginning to wonder where all the "holiday cheer" of Christmas really came from, check out a unique Christmas celebration with the Revels organization of Boston and The Christmas Revels, running through Dec. 15 through Dec. 30 at Harvard's beautiful Sanders Theatre. Now in its 36th year, The Christmas Revels is a participatory theatrical event of music, dance and theater that draws on German and Swiss traditions in celebration of the winter solstice.
