The Nutcracker

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This article is about the ballet and the music by Tchaikovsky. For other uses, see The
Nutcracker (disambiguation).
"The Nutcracker Suite" redirects here. For the albums, see The Nutcracker Suite (Tim Sparks
album) and The Nutcracker Suite (Duke Ellington album). For other uses, seeNutcracker
(disambiguation).
Ballets and revivals of Marius Petipa

*Paquita (1847, *1881)

*Le Corsaire (1858, 1863, 1868, 1885, 1899)
The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862, *1885, *1898)
Le Roi Candaule (1868, *1891, *1903)
Don Quixote (1869, *1871)
La Bayadre (1877, *1900)
*Giselle (1884, 1899, 1903)
*Copplia (1884)
*La fille mal garde (1885)
*La Esmeralda (1886, 1899)
The Talisman (1889)
The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
The Nutcracker (1892)
Cinderella (1893)
Le Rveil de Flore (1894)
*Swan Lake (1895)
*The Little Humpbacked Horse (1895)
Raymonda (1898)
The Seasons (1900)
Harlequinade (1900)
* revival

The Nutcracker (Russian: , - / Shchelkunchik, Baletfeyeriya; French: Casse-Noisette, ballet-ferie) is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed
by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (op. 71).
Thelibretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was
given its premire at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Sunday, December 18, 1892,
on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's opera, Iolanta.[1]
Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky
extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous
popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily
during the Christmas season, especially in the U.S.[2] Major American ballet companies

generate around 40 percent of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The
Nutcracker.[3][4]
Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions, in particular the pieces
featured in the suite.[5] Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an
instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic
ballad The Voyevoda.
Contents
[hide]

1 Composition

2 History
o

2.1 St. Petersburg premire

2.2 Subsequent productions

3 Roles
o

3.1 Act I

3.2 Act II

4 Synopsis

5 The music

5.1 From the Imperial Ballet's 1892 program

5.2 Structure

5.3 Instrumentation

5.4 Tchaikovsky's sources and influences

5.5 Concert excerpts and arrangements

5.5.1 Tchaikovsky: Suite from the ballet The Nutcracker

5.5.2 Grainger: Paraphrase on Tchaikovskys Flower Waltz, for solo piano

5.5.3 Pletnev: Concert suite from The Nutcracker, for solo piano

5.6 Selected discography

5.7 Contemporary arrangements

6 In popular culture

6.1 Film

6.2 Television

6.3 Video games

6.4 Children's recordings

6.5 Journalism

7 See also

8 References

9 External links

Composition[edit]
After the success of The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the
Imperial Theatres, commissioned Tchaikovsky to compose a double-bill program featuring both
an opera and a ballet. The opera would be Iolanta. For the ballet, Tchaikovsky would again join
forces with Marius Petipa, with whom he had collaborated on The Sleeping Beauty. The
material Petipa chose was an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the
Mouse King by Alexandre Dumas pre called The Tale of the Nutcracker.[1] The plot of
Hoffmann's story (and Dumas' adaptation) was greatly simplified for the two-act ballet.
Hoffmann's tale contains a long flashback story within its main plot entitled The Tale of the
Hard Nut, which explains how the Prince was turned into the Nutcracker. This had to be
excised for the ballet.[6]
Petipa gave Tchaikovsky extremely detailed instructions for the composition of each number,
down to the tempo and number of bars.[1] The completion of the work was interrupted for a
short time when Tchaikovsky visited the United States for twenty-five days to conduct concerts
for the opening of Carnegie Hall.[7] Tchaikovsky composed parts of The Nutcracker in Rouen,
France.[8]

History[edit]
Ballets by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Swan Lake (1876)

Sleeping Beauty (1889)
The Nutcracker (1892)
List of all compositions

V
T
E

St. Petersburg premire[edit]

The first performance of the ballet was held as a double premiere together with Tchaikovsky's
last opera, Iolanta, on 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1892, at the Imperial Mariinsky
Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Although the libretto was by Marius Petipa, who exactly
choreographed the first production has been debated. Petipa began work on the choreography
in August 1892; however, illness removed him from its completion and his assistant of seven
years, Lev Ivanov, was brought in. Although Ivanov is often credited as the choreographer,
some contemporary accounts credit Petipa. The performance was conducted by Riccardo
Drigo, with Antonietta Dell'Eraas the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche,
Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, andTimofey
Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer. The children's roles, unlike many later productions, were
performed by real children rather than adults (with Belinskaya as Clara, and Vassily Stukolkin
as Fritz), students of Imperial Ballet School of St. Petersburg.
The first performance of The Nutcracker was not deemed a success.[9] The reaction to the
dancers themselves was ambivalent. While some critics praised Dell'Era on her pointework as
the Sugar Plum Fairy (she allegedly received five curtain-calls), one critic called her "corpulent"
and "podgy."[10] Olga Preobrajenskaya as the Columbine doll was panned by one critic as
"completely insipid" and praised as "charming" by another.[10]
Alexandre Benois described the choreography of the battle scene as confusing: "One can not
understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards
and forwards quite amateurish."[10]

(Left to right) Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz,
in the original production of The Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1892).

The original production of The Nutcracker, 1892

The libretto was criticized for being "lopsided"[11] and for not being faithful to the Hoffmann tale.
Much of the criticism focused on the featuring of children so prominently in the ballet, [12] and
many bemoaned the fact that the ballerina did not dance until the Grand Pas de Deux near the
end of the second act (which did not occur until nearly midnight during the program). [11] Some
found the transition between the mundane world of the first scene and the fantasy world of the
second act too abrupt.[1] Reception was better for Tchaikovsky's score. Some critics called it
"astonishingly rich in detailed inspiration" and "from beginning to end, beautiful, melodious,
original, and characteristic."[13] But even this was not unanimous as some critics found the party
scene "ponderous" and the Grand Pas de Deux"insipid."[14]

Subsequent productions[edit]
Main article: List of productions of The Nutcracker
In 1919, choreographer Alexander Gorsky staged a production which eliminated the Sugar
Plum Fairy and her Cavalier and gave their dances to Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, who
were played by adults instead of children. His was the first production to do so. An abridged
version of the ballet was first performed outside Russia in Budapest (Royal Opera House) in
1927, with choreography by Ede Brada.[15] In 1934, choreographer Vasili Vainonen staged a
version of the work that addressed many of the criticisms of the original 1892 production by
casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, as Gorsky had. The Vainonen
version influenced several later productions.[1]
The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934, [9] staged
by Nicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. Annual performances of the ballet
have been staged there since 1952.[16] Another abridged version of the ballet, performed by
the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, was staged in New York City in 1940,[17] Alexandra
Fedorova again, after Petipa's version.[9] The ballet's first complete United States
performance was on 24 December 1944, by the San Francisco Ballet, staged by its artistic

director, Willam Christensen, and starring Gisella Caccialanza as the Sugar Plum Fairy.[9] After
the enormous success of this production, San Francisco Ballet has presented Nutcracker every
Christmas Eve and throughout the winter season, debuting new productions in 1944, 1954,
1967, and 2004. The New York City Ballet gave its first annual performance of George
Balanchine's staging ofThe Nutcracker in 1954.[9] Beginning in the 1960s, the tradition of
performing the complete ballet at Christmas eventually spread to the rest of the United States.
Since Gorsky, Vainonen and Balanchine's productions, many other choreographers have made
their own versions. Some institute the changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen while others,
like Balanchine, utilize the original libretto. Some notable productions include those by Rudolf
Nureyev for the Royal Ballet, Yuri Grigorovich for the Bolshoi Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov for
the American Ballet Theatre, and Peter Wright for the Royal Ballet and theBirmingham Royal
Ballet. In recent years, revisionist productions, including those by Mark Morris, Matthew
Bourne, and Mikhail Chemiakin have appeared; these depart radically from both the original
1892 libretto and Vainonen's revival, while Maurice Bejart's version completely discards the
original plot and characters. In addition to annual live stagings of the work, many productions
have also been televised and/or released on home video. [2]

Roles[edit]

Olga Preobrazhenskaya as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nikolai Legat as Prince Coqueluche in the Grand
pas de deux in the original production of The Nutcracker. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, c.
1900

The following extrapolation of the characters (in order of appearance) is drawn from an
examination of the stage directions in the score.[18]

Act I[edit]

Dr. Stahlbaum

His wife

His children, including:

Clara, his daughter, sometimes known as Marie

Fritz, son

Louise, his daughter

Children Guests

Parents dressed as incroyables

Drosselmeyer

His nephew (in some versions) who resembles the Nutcracker Prince and is
played by the same dancer
Dolls (spring-activated, sometimes all three dancers instead):

Harlequin and Columbine, appearing out of a cabbage (1st gift)

Vivandire and a Soldier (2nd gift)

Nutcracker (3rd gift, at first a normal-sized toy, then full-sized and "speaking", then a
Prince)

Owl (on clock, changing into Drosselmeyer)

Mice

Sentinel (speaking role)

Hare-Drummers

Soldiers (of the Nutcracker)

Mouse King

Snowflakes

Act II[edit]

Angels

Sugar Plum Fairy

Clara

Nutcracker Prince

12 Pages

Eminent members of the court

Spanish dancers (Chocolate)

Arabian dancers (Coffee)

Chinese dancers (Tea)

Russian dancers (Candy Canes)

Danish Shepherdesses

Mother Ginger

Polichinelles (Mother Ginger's Children)

Dewdrop

Flowers

Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier

Synopsis[edit]

Konstantin Ivanov's original sketch for the set of The Nutcracker (1892)

Below is a synopsis based on the original 1892 libretto by Marius Petipa. The story varies from
production to production, though most follow the basic outline. The names of the characters
also vary. In the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story, the young heroine is called Marie Stahlbaum
and Clara (Klrchen) is her doll's name. In the adaptation by Dumas on which Petipa based his
libretto, her name is Marie Silberhaus.[6] In still other productions, such as Baryshnikov's, Clara
is Clara Stahlbaum rather than Clara Silberhaus.
Act I
Scene 1: The Stahlbaum Home

It is Christmas Eve. Family and friends have gathered in the parlor to decorate the beautiful
Christmas tree in preparation for the night's festivities. Once the tree is finished, the children
are sent for. They stand in awe of the tree sparkling with candles and decorations.
The festivities begin. A march is played. Presents are given out to the children. Suddenly, as
the owl-topped grandmother clock strikes eight, a mysterious figure enters the room. It is
Drosselmeyer, a local councilman, magician, and Clara's godfather. He is also a talented
toymaker who has brought with him gifts for the children, including four lifelike dolls who dance
to the delight of all. He then has them put away for safekeeping.
Clara and Fritz are sad to see the dolls being taken away, but Drosselmeyer has yet another
toy for them: a wooden nutcracker carved in the shape of a little man, used for cracking nuts.
The other children ignore it, but Clara immediately takes a liking to it. Fritz, however, purposely
breaks it. Clara is heartbroken.
During the night, after everyone else has gone to bed, Clara returns to the parlor to check on
her beloved nutcracker. As she reaches the little bed, the clock strikes midnight and she looks
up to see Drosselmeyer perched atop it. Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and the
Christmas tree begins to grow to dizzying heights. The nutcracker also grows to life-size. Clara
finds herself in the midst of a battle between an army of gingerbread soldiers and the mice, led
by the Mouse King. The mice begin to eat the gingerbread soldiers.
The nutcracker appears to lead the gingerbread soldiers, who are joined by tin soldiers and
dolls who serve as doctors to carry away the wounded. As the Mouse King advances on the
still-wounded nutcracker, Clara throws her slipper at him, distracting him long enough for the
nutcracker to stab him.
Scene 2: A Pine Forest
The mice retreat and the nutcracker is transformed into a handsome Prince. He leads Clara
through the moonlit night to a pine forest in which the snowflakes dance around them,
beckoning them on to his kingdom as the first act ends.
Act II
Scene 1: The Land of Sweets
Clara and the Prince travel to the beautiful Land of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy in
the Prince's place until his return. He recounts for her how he had been saved by Clara from
the Mouse King and had been transformed back into a Prince.
In honor of the young heroine, a celebration of sweets from around the world is produced:
chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, and tea from China all dance for their amusement;
candy canes from Russia; Danish shepherdesses perform on their flutes; Mother Ginger has
her children, the Polichinelles, emerge from under her enormous skirt to dance; a string of
beautiful flowers perform a waltz. To conclude the night, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier
perform a dance.
A final waltz is performed by all the sweets, after which Clara and the Prince are crowned
rulers of the Land of Sweets.
In the original libretto, the ballet's apotheosis "represents a large beehive with flying bees,
closely guarding their riches".[19] Just like Swan Lake, there have been various alternative
endings created in productions subsequent to the original.

The music[edit]
From the Imperial Ballet's 1892 program[edit]

Titles of all of the numbers listed here come from Marius Petipa's original scenario, as well as
the original libretto and programs of the first production of 1892. All libretti and programs of
works performed on the stages of the Imperial Theatres were titled in French, which was the
official language of the Imperial Court, as well as the language from which balletic terminology
is derived.
Act I

Act II

01 Petite ouverture

13 Entr'acte; Grand scne de Confiturembrg

02 Scne: Une fte de Nol

03 Marche et petit galop des enfants

04 Danse des incroyables et merveilleuses

05 Entre de Drosselmeyer

Grand divertissement
14 "Chocolat"Danse espagnole
15 "Caf"Danse arabe
16 "Th"Danse chinoise
17 Danse des Bouffons
18 Danse des mirlitons
19 La mre Gigogne et les polichinelles
20 Grand ballabile

06 Danses des poupes mcaniques

a. Arlequin et Colombine
b. Soldat et vivandire

07 Le Casse-NoisettePolka et la berceuse

08 Danse "Grovater"

09 Grand scne fantastique

10 La bataille de Casse-Noisette et du Roi des souris

11 Le voyage

12 Valse des flocons de neige

21 Pas de deux
a. Grand adage
b. Variation de Prince Coqueluche (M. Pavel Ge
c. Variation de la Fe-Drage (Mlle. Antoinetta
Era)
d. Coda

22 Coda gnrale

23 Apothose: Une ruche

Tchaikovsky's sources and influences[edit]

Ivan Vsevolozhsky's original costume sketch for The Nutcracker(1892)

The Nutcracker is one of the composer's most popular compositions.

The music belongs to the Romantic Period and contains some of his
most memorable melodies, several of which are frequently used in
television and film. (They are often heard in TV commercials shown
during the Christmas season.) The Trepak, or Russian dance, is one
of the most recognizable pieces in the ballet, along with the
famousWaltz of the Flowers and March, as well as the
ubiquitous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The ballet contains
surprisingly advanced harmonies and a wealth of melodic invention
that is (to many[who?]) unsurpassed in ballet music. Nevertheless, the
composer's reverence for Rococo and late 18th-century music can be
detected in passages such as the Overture, the "Entre des parents",
and "Tempo di Grossvater" in Act I.
Tchaikovsky is said to have argued with a friend who wagered that the
composer could not write a melody based on the notes of the scale in
an octave in sequence. Tchaikovsky asked if it mattered whether the
notes were in ascending or descending order, and was assured it did
not. This resulted in the Adagio from the Grand pas de deux, which, in
the ballet, nearly always immediately follows the Waltz of the Flowers.
A story is also told that Tchaikovsky's sister had died shortly before he
began composition of the ballet, and that his sister's death influenced
him to compose a melancholy, descending scale melody for the
adagio of the Grand Pas de Deux.[21]
One novelty in Tchaikovsky's original score was the use of the celesta,
a new instrument Tchaikovsky had discovered in Paris. He wanted it
genuinely for the character of the Sugar Plum Fairy to characterize
her because of its "heavenly sweet sound". It appears not only in her
"Dance", but also in other passages in Act II. (However, he first wrote
for the celesta in his symphonic ballad The Voyevoda the previous

year.) Tchaikovsky also uses toy instruments during the Christmas

party scene. Tchaikovsky was proud of the celesta's effect, and
wanted its music performed quickly for the public, before he could be
"scooped."
Although the original ballet is only about 85 minutes long if performed
without applause or an intermission, and therefore much shorter than
either Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty, some modern staged
performances have omitted or re-ordered some of the music, or
inserted selections from elsewhere, thus adding to the confusion over
the suites. In fact, most of the very famous versions of the ballet have
had the order of the dances slightly re-arranged, if they have not
actually altered the music. For instance, the 1954 George
Balanchine New York City Ballet version adds to Tchaikovsky's score
an entr'acte that the composer wrote for Act II of The Sleeping Beauty,
but which is now seldom played in productions of that ballet. It is used
as a transition between the departure of the guests and the battle with
the mice. Nearly all of the CD and LP recordings of the complete
ballet present Tchaikovsky's score exactly as he originally conceived
it.
Tchaikovsky was less satisfied with The Nutcracker than with The
Sleeping Beauty. (In the film Fantasia, commentator Deems
Taylor observes that he "really detested" the score.) Tchaikovsky
accepted the commission from Vsevolozhsky but did not particularly
want to write the ballet[22] (though he did write to a friend while
composing it: "I am daily becoming more and more attuned to my
task").[23]

Concert excerpts and arrangements[edit]

Tchaikovsky: Suite from the ballet The Nutcracker[edit]
Tchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet
before the ballet's December 1892 premire, forming The Nutcracker
Suite, Op. 71a, intended for concert performance. The suite was first
performed, under the composer's direction, on 19 March 1892 at an
assembly of the St. Petersburg branch of the Musical Society.[24] The
suite became instantly popular, with almost every number encored at
its premiere,[25] while the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its
great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a
hit in New York City.[26] The suite became very popular on the concert
stage, and was featured in Disney's Fantasia. The Nutcracker
Suite should not be mistaken for the complete ballet. The outline
below represents the selection and sequence of the Nutcracker
Suite culled by the composer.
I. Miniature Overture
II. Danses caractristiques
a. Marche
b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy [ending altered from ballet-version]
c. Russian Dance (Trepak)
d. Arabian Dance
e. Chinese Dance
f. Reed-Flutes

III. Waltz of the Flowers

Grainger: Paraphrase on Tchaikovskys Flower Waltz,
for solo piano[edit]
The Paraphrase on Tchaikovskys Flower Waltz is a
successful piano arrangement from one of the
movements from The Nutcracker by the pianist and
composer Percy Grainger.
Pletnev: Concert suite from The Nutcracker, for solo
piano[edit]
The pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev adapted some
of the music into a virtuosic concert suite for piano solo:
a. March
b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
c. Tarantella
d. Intermezzo (Journey through the Snow)
e. Russian Trepak
f. Chinese Dance
g. Andante maestoso (Pas de Deux)