Fairytale charm for Christmas at the LAC

For the Christmas holidays, in Lugano, LAC presents a new and eagerly awaited production: The Nutcracker, reinterpreted by choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti to music by Tchaikovsky performed by the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana conducted by Philippe Béran, with the participation of the Coro Clairière choir of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana prepared by Brunella Clerici. The ballet will premiere on Friday 19 December at 8 p.m., with repeat performances on Saturday 20 December at 8 p.m. and Sunday 21 December at 5 p.m. "The star of the show is the award-winning MM Contemporary Dance Company, directed by Michele Merola, a leading figure in Italian dance", explains the press release. "A choreographer active all over the world, former director of Aterballetto and the Corps de ballet of La Scala in Milan, Bigonzetti reinterprets the timeless fairy tale of The Nutcracker in a contemporary key, giving shape to a choreographic story suitable for audiences of all ages".
It is Christmas Eve, and a young girl receives a beautiful puppet with a princely face as a gift from a mysterious and magical gentleman. Night falls, and the gift comes to life in an imaginary place populated by figures that move as if they were alive.
 Figures and faces that she recognises as familiar organise themselves into an army opposed to a large rat followed by a handful of rodents. The story is crowded with other characters who oscillate between reality and dream, immersed in fantastical and dreamlike atmospheres that move along the fine line that divides the real from the imaginary.
This is the starting point for this version of The Nutcracker. An engaging ballet that, retracing the stories of Drosselmeier and Clara, invites the audience to let themselves go in the world of their imagination, thanks to a visionary stage design that, with its 3D architecture, immerses itself in a game between reality and fantasy, between the visible and the unconscious.
Bigonzetti is accompanied in this production by his close collaborators Carlo Cerri, who designed the sets composed of three-dimensional images and lights, and Kristopher Millar and Lois Swandale, who created costumes without a specific temporal setting.
On Friday 19 December at 6 p.m. in the LAC Hall, Mauro Bigonzetti and Lorenzo Conti, dance consultant, will introduce the show in a meeting open to the public. After its premiere in Lugano, The Nutcracker will make its Italian debut on Sunday 18 January 2026 at 5.30 pm at the Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni in Modena, the project's production partner, and will be staged at the Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia on Saturday 24 at 8.30 pm and Sunday 25 January 2026 at 4 pm.