“What the Audience is saying about “The Nutcracker”:

these are comments that have come to me via our email address and via phone from patrons who responded to our flyer.  Set it up so we get an assortment of quotes.  I don’t want to quote anybody by name, but I’d like to put their comments in:

“This is indeed shabby treatment to ballet dancers, orchestra players and patrons of the ballet.”

“The magic of dance will be greatly damaged without a live orchestra…Musicians and dancers are not for ever, and Pittsburgh may lose more in discouraging them than it can win in savings…”

“The program cover [for “Carmen”] says “Revel in the Passion”, but we found this very difficult to do while looking across a yawning black orchestra  pit…”

“I was so disappointed in the lack of live orchestra…and I heard lots of other patrons saying the same thing as I left the theater.”

“(I) won’t go back until live musicians are back in the pit.”

”…ballet performances are not fully alive without live music.”

“The recorded music [for “Carmen”] experience was not much better than our granddaughter’s dance recital, a venue where we expect no more than “canned” music that is consistent with an amateurish performance.”