the nutcracker

As soon as we had arrived from our trip to Latvia and Lithuania, we went to see the Nutcracker, or “Pahklipureja” as they call it here, a ballet composed by Tchaikovski which is very popular around Christmas time.

We had been wanting to go to the Estonia Opera house for quite a while, but it was also the opportunity to accompany Lee, our portugese volunteer friend, which was spending her last evening in Tallinn, before going back home.

The audience was mostly composed of children, which were dressed up as if for a wedding, with suits ties, skirts and makeup at only ten years old or so, a generation (or cultural) shock for us. The show was fantastic, even though there was a problem at the very start, the rest went smoothly and the magic of the dancing made us forget the time.

We loved it as it helped us get into the Christmas spirit, but for me it had also a special meaning, for it reminded me of a childhood memory when my grandparents took me to see this same ballet when I was very young…

(click on the picture above for a short musical extract)