The Nutcracker (ballet)

The Nutcracker is a popular Christmas-themed ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in the late nineteenth century. Based on famed French writer Alexandre Dumas's updated version of author E. T. A. Hoffman's 1816 fairy tale The Nutcracker and Mouse King, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is the story of a young girl named Clara, who is transported into a magical dream world by a nutcracker that her uncle gives her for Christmas. Although it was not an immediate hit when it first debuted at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre in December 1892, The Nutcracker eventually found a following when it was later performed in the West. In particular, choreographer George Balanchine's renowned 1954 staging of the ballet helped make The Nutcracker one of the most popular programs in American ballet history. Given its widespread popularity, The Nutcracker remains a holiday staple that ballet companies around the world perform every year during the Christmas season.

Background

Tchaikovsky's version of The Nutcracker begins on Christmas Eve as the Stahlbaum family prepares to host a holiday gathering. The Stahlbaum children, Fritz and Clara, are particularly eager for the festivities to begin. As their family and friends begin to arrive, the party grows livelier. The celebration is briefly interrupted, however, by the appearance of a mysterious man dressed all in black. While Fritz is wary of the mysterious guest, Clara realizes that it is her toymaker uncle Drosselmeyer. With that, the merriment resumes.

Later that night, Drosselmeyer presents gifts to the Stahlbaum children and their cousins. After presenting Fritz with a drum, Drosselmeyer turns to Clara and offers her a special gift: the Nutcracker. Jealous of his sister's beautiful present, Fritz grabs the Nutcracker and throws it around with his cousins. Inevitably, the Nutcracker falls to the floor and breaks. Clara is dismayed, but Drosselmeyer quickly repairs the Nutcracker and places it in a bed under the Christmas tree.

At the end of the night, Clara returns to the Christmas tree to visit her Nutcracker one more time and falls asleep holding it in her arms. When the clock strikes midnight, Clara wakes up with a start and is amazed to find that the room around her appears to be growing larger. What's more, the toys come to life, and an army of mice led by the Mouse King marches in to fight. With the Nutcracker as their leader, the toys battle the mice until the Mouse King traps the injured Nutcracker in a corner. Out of desperation, Clara throws her shoe at the Mouse King and helps the Nutcracker to defeat him. Overwhelmed, Clara collapses onto the Nutcracker's bed, which soon transforms into a magical sleigh that he uses to take her on a journey through a snowy forest.

Eventually, Clara and the Nutcracker arrive at the Land of Sweets, a world of confectionary delights where the pair meet the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Sugar Plum Fairy invites Clara and the Nutcracker into the Candy Castle for a grand celebration. After an amazing evening of fun, Clara and the Nutcracker watch the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier perform a final dance together. The next morning, Clara reawakens under the Christmas tree with the Nutcracker still cradled in her arms.

Overview

The Nutcracker is loosely based on Hoffman's The Nutcracker and Mouse King, a fairy tale in which many of the ballet's central elements were first established. Like the work it inspired, The Nutcracker and Mouse King is about a young girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life and helps it fight against the villainous Mouse King. Hoffman's version of the story is considerably darker and more nightmarish than the one around which Tchaikovsky eventually wrote his ballet. Among other things, Clara, whom Hoffman originally called Marie, finds herself trapped in a world of harsh rules and regulations enforced by her relentlessly strict family. Further, the people and things she encounters on her journey are often as frightening as they are enchanting. Years after Hoffman published his original work, French writer Alexandre Dumas, best known as the author of The Three Musketeers, rewrote and softened the story into an 1844 adaptation called The Story of the Nutcracker. It was this version of the story that later served as the basis of Tchaikovsky's ballet.

Decades later, the director of the Russian Imperial Theatre read Dumas's version of the Nutcracker story and hired Tchaikovsky and ballet master Marius Petipa to turn it into a ballet. Tchaikovsky agreed to write the score on the condition that he would be allowed to work simultaneously on an opera called Iolanta that he was preparing at time. Previously, Tchaikovsky and Petipa worked together on The Sleeping Beauty, another wildly successful ballet. As a result, expectations for The Nutcracker were very high.

The Nutcracker debuted at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 18, 1892, as part of a double premiere alongside Iolanta. Initially, The Nutcracker was panned by critics and audiences alike. It did, however, find an important supporter in Tsar Alexander III. Thanks to the czar's support, The Nutcracker eventually came to be seen as one of the greatest works of Russian ballet.

Outside Russia, The Nutcracker was first seen in England in 1934. Its American debut came ten years later when the San Francisco Ballet staged a performance of it. It was not until the New York City Ballet performed a production of the show under the direction of choreographer George Balanchine in 1954, however, that The Nutcracker became a full-fledged phenomenon. Balanchine's take on The Nutcracker soon became an annual event that captivated audiences and transformed Tchaikovsky's once bemoaned ballet into a holiday classic.

Since the 1950s, many versions of The Nutcracker have been staged. Some productions, for example, replace the final dance between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier with a dance featuring Clara and the Nutcracker. Some productions alter Tchaikovsky's original score or change the choreography. Many European productions omit Mother Ginger, a pantomime character who serves as a symbol of fertility and has numerous children hiding under her oversized skirt. While such productions are generally accepted as genuine interpretations of The Nutcracker, it should be noted that they are not fully accurate representations of Tchaikovsky's original work.

Bibliography

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Macaulay, Alastair. "10 Ways to Tell If Your 'Nutcracker' Is Traditional." New York Times, 21 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/arts/dance/what-makes-a-traditional-nutcracker-ballet.html. Accessed 15 Jan. 2018.

Mackrell, Judith. "The Nutcracker – A Ballet Beginner's Guide." Guardian, 18 Dec. 2012, www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/dec/18/movetube-nutcracker-beginners. Accessed 15 Jan. 2018.

"No Sugar Plumbs Here: The Dark, Romantic Roots of 'The Nutcracker.'" NPR, 25 Dec. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/12/25/167732828/no-sugar-plums-here-the-dark-romantic-roots-of-the-nutcracker. Accessed 15 Jan. 2018.

O'Connell, Ellen. "'The Nutcracker's' Disturbing Origin Story: Why This Was Once the World's Creepiest Ballet." Salon, 24 Dec. 2014, www.salon.com/2014/12/24/the‗nutcrackers‗disturbing‗origin‗story‗why‗this‗was‗once‗the‗worlds‗creepiest‗ballet/. Accessed 15 Jan. 2018.