Rare must be the ballet company that has not wished for some other show with which to supplement the perennial money-maker, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. The Northern Ballet Theatre, based in Manchester, England, came up with this attractive ballet, loaded with favorite Christmas music and based on the English language's favorite tale of the holiday. Artistic director Christopher Gable's policy was to create new story-oriented ballets emphasizing direct communication with the audience. For this one, he chose a composer who already had an impressive record. Carl Davis specialized in scores that often adopt pre-existing favorites, including new scores for silent film classics and arranging Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio. Davis approved a selection of music arranged by John Longstaff to create this suite from A Christmas Carol.

The suite begins straightaway with the carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and continues its bustling mood to depict the efforts of Scrooge's nephew and niece to draw the old miser into the Christmas spirit. In "Keeping Warm," an opening series of woodwind solos suggests the inadequate fire in Scrooge's establishment. His clerk, the impoverished Bob Cratchit, attempts to keep warm with a sad waltz. "Patapan and Cornhill Slide" The Provençal carol Patapan allows for exotic, colorful percussion in this march movement that rapidly becomes a whirling dance. This happy music represents a scene added to the scenario drawn from Charles Dickens' original story: Bob Cratchit, coming home from work, first warms himself by a street brazier, then leads a group in sliding fun at the Cornhill. "Belle and Young Scrooge" This amorous waltz is part of the vision granted Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Past. "Phantoms" is another dance, this one with eerie, Prokofievian harmonies and a haunted saxophone solo that shows Scrooge what happens to those who let their earthly lives spin out without doing good. "Dressing Dance" The English favorite "Ding-Dong Merrily on High" blends with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as the transformed Scrooge bustles about trying at the last minute to get Christmas together for himself, his relatives, and above all, the Cratchits and Tiny Tim. "Deck the Hall," the jolliest of Christmas carols, brings the ballet to a festive close as everyone celebrates the holiday.

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi