~The Nutcracker Suite~

This year I had a the wonderful pleasure of seeing the Nutcracker Ballet.  I was invited by one of my students (who was wonderful!) and I loved it!  The Nutcracker Suite has become part of Christmas for me. I have loved the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy for years, the sound of it always brings Christmas magic to mind.  Now it will also bring back memories of watching this magical ballet.



 ~The Story~

It's Christmas at the Stahlbaum home. There' s a huge tree, and many guests arrive to celebrate with the family. Clara's godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, makes magical toys. He entertains the guests with two life-sized dolls that dance around the room. Then he gives gifts to the children, and gives Clara a very special gift of a nutcracker. Her brother, Fritz, is jealous, and grabs the nutcracker and it gets broken! Clara is very upset, so Herr Drosselmeyer repairs the doll before handing it back to her...

Soon after, all the guests leave and the children go to bed. Clara gets up in the night and goes downstairs to get her nutcracker from under the tree. She falls asleep there, and is transported into Christmas fantasy where her nutcracker has grown to the size of a human. When the Mouse King attacks, the Nutcracker Prince tries to valiantly defend young Clara, but is struck down in the battle. Clara in turn saves her Nutcracker Prince by throwing her shoe at the Mouse King and defeating him.

With the nasty Mouse King out of the way, Clara runs to the Nutcracker Prince. When she kisses him, he turns into a human! Then she and her Prince are whisked away through the Enchanted Forest, where they see dancing snowflakes and other wonders. Then they travel further to the Kingdom of the Sweets.

In the Kingdom of Sweets, Clara and the Prince behold the wondrous beauty of the Sugarplum Fairy. She invites the couple to stay for a while and enjoy the entertainment of her subjects. Clara and the prince watch in awe as the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Sweets dance before them.

When the dancers are finished, Clara and her Prince sail home in a magic sleigh made of ice and candy. On Christmas morning, Clara wakes under the tree holding her nutcracker doll.




~The Legend of the Nutcracker~

There is an interesting backdrop to this seasonal fantasy. What today appears as a fairy tale of a young girl's magical dream actually began as a morbid story filled with dark undertones. E.T.A Hoffman, the author of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," never intended the story to be for children. His words portrayed a bleak view of humanity and relationships.

Published in 1816, Hoffman's tale was revised by Alexander Dumas. Much of the bitterness was eliminated and the story was adapted for children. The new version was read with interest by Marius Petipa, the senior ballet master of the Russian Imperial Ballet, who then commissioned Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1891 to compose a score for a full-length "Nutcracker" production. "The Nutcracker" debuted on December 17, 1892, in the Mariinsky Theatre, which is still the home of the Kirov Ballet today.

Although very popular inside of Russia, "The Nutcracker" wasn't presented outside of Russia until 1934, when Nicholas Sergeyev staged it at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in England. In 1940, a shortened version was debuted by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the United States. The full-length ballet that we know so well in America was first staged in 1954 by George Balanchine of the Kirov Ballet, and has come to be known as the Balanchine production.