NUTCRAKER 

“Nutcracker”: Requiem for a Great Choreographer
Premiere Retrospective: Jochen Ulrich Would Have Been Delighted

If there is a heaven and Jochen Ulrich is in it, then he surely rejoiced at the Chemnitz premiere of his Nutcracker on Saturday. That very morning, Ulrich passed away in Linz at the age of 68 after a long illness.

General Director Bernhard Helmich was visibly moved when he stepped in front of the curtain. “With Ulrich, we have lost one of Germany’s most important choreographers,” he said. Ulrich was known not only for individual choreographies but also for shaping modern dance theater through his unique aesthetic and style. Many ballet directors and choreographers across Europe were influenced by Ulrich’s vision during their time as his students in Cologne in the 1970s and 1980s—including Lode Devos, the ballet director in Chemnitz.

When Agnes Schmetterer, who portrayed Marie with both touching sensitivity and fierce strength, brought Lode Devos on stage for the final bow, it was clear that both he and rehearsal director Darie Cardyn had honored their mentor with this premiere, which the Chemnitz Theater dedicated to Ulrich.

Ulrich’s version of Nutcracker and Mouse King bears no resemblance to the familiar Bolshoi or Mariinsky tutu spectacle. No snowflakes or incense-smoking figurines here. Instead, it’s a life-and-death battle between the thieving Mouse King and the noble Nutcracker. There’s also an internal struggle within a pubescent girl transitioning into womanhood, ignited by newly discovered sexuality that nearly consumes her.

Ulrich demanded intense physicality, strength, and even acrobatics from the entire ensemble. While the audience was left breathless just watching, the performers remained fully present—both in their individual actions and as a collective. Stunning imagery unfolded, telling a story that E.T.A. Hoffmann never wrote (though the libretto is based on his work), but one he might have imagined in a smoky beer-fueled dream in Bamberg. A brilliant performance by the entire company.

In the orchestra pit, another man experienced a special evening: Tobias Engeli, currently First Kapellmeister at Theater Plauen-Zwickau and a candidate for the coveted, now vacant Kapellmeister position in Chemnitz. He delivered solid work, and the musicians of the Robert Schumann Philharmonic breathed new life into even the most overplayed earworms from Tchaikovsky.

This Nutcracker became a requiem—lamentation, triumph, death, and redemption. The choreography, originally created in Cologne in 1989 and premiered in Linz in 2006 during Ulrich’s tenure as ballet director, proved just as powerful and relevant in Chemnitz more than 20 years later. Helmich was right: Ulrich was truly one of the greats.