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THE NUTCRACKER HISTORY

These notes compiled by Gerard Charles, BalletMet Columbus, November 1998

 

The History

Following the success of The Sleeping Beauty, Ivan Alexandrovitch Vsevolojsky, the director of the Imperial Theaters, proposed a second partnership between choreographer Marius Petipa and composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. It was Vsevolojsky, who had been in the diplomatic corps in Paris, who convinced the great Tchaikovsky to write for the ballet again. Vsevolojsky was also a minor librettist and a designer himself. Up until his time as director, many different artists would independently design the decor for a single production with no heed to what the others were doing, nor to the ballet. Music was ordered by the yard from obliging but not distinguished composers. Vsevolojsky is notable as securing the collaboration of all the artists involved in producing a ballet.

Vsevolojsky proposed The Nutcracker of Nuremberg based on the book L’Histoire d’un Casse Noisette (The Story of a Hazelnut-cracker) by Dumas père, itself based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) was born in Königsberg, East Prussia to a family with strong ties to the legal profession. Originally his middle name was Wilhelm, but he changed it to Amadeus in honor of Mozart. He went on to study law at the University of Königsberg. Despite his course of studies, Hoffmann was mostly interested in the arts, music, painting and literature. He became a civil servant and was very successful, but his personal life took control and he was forced to move from posting to posting on account of one local scandal or another. He was transferred from Königsberg to Glogau, to Posen to even lesser Plock and eventually to Warsaw with the influence of a friend. All the while he composed music and painted.In Warsaw, Hoffmann founded an orchestra and composed his first important piece, the incidental music to Kreuz an der Ostsee. With the arrival of Napoleon's rule, Hoffmann had to try and make a living in Warsaw as a professional musician. Refusing to take an oath of allegiance to France, he was deported to Berlin where he almost starved to death. He worked various odd jobs until, in 1808, he was offered the post of musical director in Bamberg, Southern Germany, a cultural shrine at the time. In Bamberg he was very active in the theater and also wrote his best music, the opera Undine. He also began to write literature.Leaving Bamberg in 1813 on account of the lost love of a 16 year old girl, Hoffmann’s career moved between Dresden and Leipzig, depending on the location of the opposing armies of The Napoleonic Wars. He drank heavily and it is said that he sold the rights to his first book, Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier for a cellar of wine.The final period of Hoffmann’s life began with his being recalled to Berlin to official duties, again with the help of Hippel. There he became chairman of the Kammergericht (Prussian Supreme Court) and continued to produce his fiction and criticism. Forever a part of his life, heavy drinking and overworking made Hoffmann’s living hard. He contracted digestive difficulties, degeneration of the liver and neural ailments, the treatment for which was applying red hot pokers to the base of his spine. Eventually on June 25, 1822 he died having just finished dictating the story Recovery. As a critic, Hoffmann was highly respected. He wrote under the name of Kreisler, he was one of the first to recognize the talent of J.S. Bach and he championed Beethoven.Hoffmann’s influence extended beyond literature into opera and dance where his works have inspired, among others, Coppélia, and Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann in addition to The Nutcracker.

Hoffmann's story was originally published in 1816 as part of a collection of children's fairy tales (titled Kindermarchen) with a decidedly dark side. Where the first act story of the ballet leaves off, Hoffmann continues with the story of many digressions and multiple transformations. Princess Pirlipat is transformed to a hideous dwarf that can only be restored by someone cracking the incredibly hard Krakatuk nut. None other than Drosselmeyer’s nephew can perform this trick. When it looks like a happy ending Drosselmeyer once again upsets Dame Mouserink and another evil spell is cast. It can only be broken by killing the seven headed Mouse King. The Nutcracker eventually is triumphant over the Mouse King and sails off with Marie through various enchanted places to arrive eventually at the Marzipan Castle. Some years later Marie encounters Drosselmeyer’s nephew in real life thus placing a shadow on the line between myth and reality. Hoffmann bases the Stahlbaums on the family of a Berlin publisher, Julius Hitwig and the character of Drosselmeyer on himself. The Stahlbaum's children are Fritz, Marie and older sister Louise. Clara is one of Marie's dolls who is asked to give up her bed for the injured nutcracker. The Dumas version is much sweeter than the original Hoffmann.

Neither Petipa nor Tchaikovsky liked the story and refused the commission. Petipa felt that the story left little reason for a glittering spectacle, or classical ballet dancing. Marie was no role for a ballerina and who would dance the grand pas de deux? His first attempt at a scenario finished at what we know as the end of the first act, in the kingdom of the snow. Vsevolojsky persisted and eventually convinced Petipa to take charge of the production and to write a new scenario. Petipa’s creation of the Sugarplum Fairy to rule the Kingdom of Sweets (an excuse for a fashionable set of divertissements) and the relegation of Drosselmeyer and Marie to minor roles, though satisfying to Petipa, displeased Tchaikovsky who felt these changes watered down the strength of the story. In 1891, by commissioning a one act opera as well, Vsevolojsky had convinced Tchaikovsky to participate. Work began on the score at the same time as the opera Iolanthe. Both would premiere at the Maryinsky Theater on December 17, 1892.Despite his misgivings about the plot and the feeling that he was not writing the music from his heart, Tchaikovsky completed the first draft rapidly by July 7, 1891. The orchestration did not begin until January 1892 and took three months to complete. "And now it is finished, Casse-Noisette is all ugliness," he wrote. However as time progressed the music endeared itself to Tchaikovsky. "Strange that when I was composing the ballet I kept thinking that it wasn't very goof but that I would show them [the Imperial Theaters] what I can do when I began the opera. And now it seems that the ballet is good and the opera not so good."

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. Born in Moscow in 1834, Ivanov was a pupil of Marius Petipa’s father Jean Petipa. Ivanov was a natural musician; he could play, by ear, the entire score of a ballet on the piano. This talent was not universally respected. The director of the Theater School where Ivanov received his dance training threatened to "let him rot for his uncontrollable inclination toward music." By his own admission Ivanov was never one to make a decision himself. Having been a premier danseur, then ballet master and eventually Petipa's assistant he became a choreographer by command of his superiors.Though lacking in self confidence, Ivanov did produce some wonderfully poignant choreography. His most famous contributions to ballet are the 'white' acts of Swan Lake; however he also choreographed versions of La Fille mal Gardée (his first ballet), The Magic Flute, The Awakening of Flora and Coppélia. Choreographically Ivanov's taste lay closer to the Romantic era that he grew up in than the new Classical era of Petipa. He could not impose his own ideas on The Nutcracker as he had to work within the strict Petipa guidelines. His strongest work in The Nutcracker seems to have been in another 'white' act, the Snow Scene.

"Momentarily freed from the constraints of the libretto, for The Dance of the Snowflakes Ivanov focused his attention on the physical look and emotional feel of a snowstorm, and came up with a masterpiece of simplicity that embodied the music perfectly and drew unanimous praise" wrote dance critic Barbara Newman.

The premiere performance of The Nutcracker shared the performance with the one act opera Iolanthe December 17, 1892. Ricardo Drigo was the conductor, the Italian ballerina Antonietta dell'Era was the Sugar Plum Fairy and Pavel Gerdt her Prince Koklush. It was the fashion that the Italian guest artist should get the opening performance. (Miss dell’Era had started out as a cafe-concert performer). Although Czar Alexander III was delighted with the ballet, critics were far less kind and The Nutcracker was not deemed a success at its first performances. Tchaikovsky himself wrote "The opera [Iolanthe] was evidently very well liked, the ballet not...The papers, as always, reviled me cruelly." However, The Nutcracker has been performed sporadically, in various guises, by the Russian companies ever since. Its unquestioned popularity around the world, particularly in the United States, is surely vindication for Tchaikovsky’s music.

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Variations on a Theme

Bearing titles as varied as The Magic Nutcracker, Alternutcracker, The Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie, The Hard Nut, Jazz Nutcracker Fantasie and Winter Carnival and Sugar Plums, The Nutcracker has been reformed in many ways. Ivanov's original choreography was changed by a series of dancers and ballet masters in Russia before any version of the ballet was seen in the West. In Moscow, in 1919, Alexander Gorsky presented a realistic version of the ballet. Masha (as Clara is called in Russia) is transformed into the Sugar Plum Fairy and dances the grand pas de deux in Act 2 with her Nutcracker Prince. Grigorovich took this version but made Masha the only real character in the ballet, with the story taking place entirely in her imagination. A single ballerina danced the roles of Masha, Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy.Back at the Maryinsky, Fyodor Lopukhov produced a controversial Nutcracker in 1928. He divided the action into twenty-two episodes, gave the dancers text to speak from the Hoffmann story and used them to move the constructivist inspired panels that made up the set. At the beginning of the grand pas de deux the ballerina and her partner began by turning cartwheels.In 1934 Vainonen's Kirov (Maryinsky) production returned to the more traditional classical base but added more psychological references. Nureyev and Baryshnikov both grew up on this version of The Nutcracker. Nureyev used Vainonen's choreography for the prince's variation in Act 2 in his production and Baryshnikov the choreography for the Snow Scene in his. Nureyev also had Drosselmeyer turn into the Nutcracker Prince and used children only in the party. Baryshnikov delves deeper psychologically and the grand pas de deux becomes a pas de trois involving Drosselmeyer who is drawing Clara back to reality.

Before the West saw a full Nutcracker they were treated to some odd extracts. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes presented a two act version of Swan Lake (1910) in which Nijinski danced a solo as Prince Siegfried to the music of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Ten years later, same company, same music, but this time used for the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty. This also included the Danse Arabe and Danse Chinoise from The Nutcracker in the last act. Anna Pavlova toured the world with Snowflakes, choreographed by Ivan Clustine to music including Nutcracker's snow scene. This is seemingly the first occasion in which a pas de deux was danced to this music. Of course, it has since then been emulated.In England, the first Nutcracker was mounted by Sergeyev for the Vic-Wells Ballet, a predecessor of the Royal Ballet, in 1934. Sergeyev had left Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and mounted this version based on Stepanov notation scores of the Maryinsky production that he had brought with him. His untraditional contribution to this version was to cast the actress Elsa Lanchester in the Arabian dance. He had seen her perform Ariel in The Tempest and decided that he must have the "Dramateek lady." Margot Fonteyn made her stage debut in this staging of The Nutcracker, April 21, 1934. She danced as a snowflake.In 1951 Sir Frederick Ashton premiered a one act version of The Nutcracker which countered critics of earlier productions who found the first act story uninteresting. He dispensed with the story altogether and made a plotless dance fantasy.When the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo staged a one act version in New York, the prince and Marie grew up to adults who danced the grand pas de deux in Act 2. At one performance in Hollywood, future President Reagan's daughter Maureen played the role of Clara.

The first full length production of The Nutcracker mounted in North America was by William Christensen for San Francisco Opera Ballet in 1944. Mr. Christensen had extensive discussions with both Danilova and Balanchine before setting about this project as he himself had never seen the full ballet.A decade later, in creating the first full length ballet for the New York City Ballet, Balanchine asserted The Nutcracker's hold over the American public. Balanchine had danced in The Nutcracker at the Maryinsky Theater in a variety of roles ranging from child prince to Mouse King and Trepak. Balanchine did not use a Snow Queen but introduced a secondary ballerina role in the Dewdrop. He also changed the structure of the grand pas de deux by having the Sugar Plum Fairy perform her variation at the beginning of the second act, omitting the cavalier's variation, thus leaving only the adagio and coda sections for later. In 1958 the pas de deux became a pas de cinq, the ballerina being partnered by 4 men from the preceding divertissements. With New York City Ballet's move to Lincoln Center in 1964, new sets were commissioned to fill the larger stage. The pas de deux was reinstated and the Arabian variation changed from one for a man to one for a woman. Balanchine's choreography is probably the most emulated around the world today.

Osvalso Riofrancas' production for Pennsylvania Ballet had Drosselmeyer exist only in Clara's imagination. Nureyev's staging developed Drosselmeyer's character to turn into the prince and dance with Clara in the grand pas de deux. Peter Darrell for the Scottish ballet had Drosselmeyer as a real magician whose accomplices turn into the Snow Queen, Sugar Plum Fairy and Nutcracker Prince. The chorus that sings in the snow scene was brought on stage as carolers. Never one to leave things as they are, Roland Petit made his Drosselmeyer a debonair young man who tap dances. The snowflakes become skaters and Petit brings the chorus on stage, but dressed as Salvation Army members. He also added into the score a trio composed by E.T.A. Hoffmann.John Cranko's Drosselmeyer was an eccentric old aunt and he moved the party from its Christmas setting to the more universal celebration of Clara's birthday.

John Neumeier danced in Cranko's Nutcracker and was greatly influenced by it. He began to stage a fairly conventional telling of the ballet within an existing set, but as time went by he discarded more and more of the original. Neumeier felt it important to return to the roots - the music - and start afresh. He liked Cranko's idea of setting the events within the theme of a birthday party; in this case it is twelve year old Maria's birthday. Her older sister, Louise, is a ballet dancer and Drosselmeyer is the ballet master of the local theater. Maria's older brother is a military cadet and his captain is the object of Maria's love. However, he is attracted to Louise. Maria returns to the living room not for her Nutcracker, but her pointe shoes; she falls asleep and dreams of being taken by Drosselmeyer to rehearsal. There she learns what it takes to dance and eventually partners with the Captain. They dance to Tchaikovsky's seldom used divertissement for Cinderella from The Sleeping Beauty. This version debuted in Frankfurt October 21, 1971.

Mark Morris, in his The Hard Nut turned to cartoonist Charles Burns to help create a new context for his production. His first act takes place in a sixties style living room with a cast of outlandish characters. Both the maid and the mother are men en travesti. In keeping with the era, the dolls are a robot and Barbie. The snow scene masterfully creates a whirlwind of snow without the use of plastic snow falling from overhead. Instead the dancers, both male and female, throw handfuls of it into the air as they dance. The second act opens with an abridged telling of the original Hoffmann subplot concerning Princess Pirlipat and the nephew of Drosselmeyer who may save her from her disfigurement by cracking the ‘Hard Nut’. However in doing so he becomes a nutcracker and can only be returned to himself by the unconditional love of Marie. It is quite a complex story that many have tried to insert to some degree or another. Mr. Morris uses the score exactly as it was written, however his personal inventiveness leaves plenty of surprises and ingenious references to more standard choreographic versions.Modern choreographer, Tandy Beal, in her production in Santa Cruz, California sticks with a traditional plot but interpolates the divertissements in a variety of non dance forms including Juggling, Roller Skating and Gymnastics. In Bismark, North Dakota there is a version of The Nutcracker using eighty life size puppets. It should be no surprise that the all male Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo should have produced their own humorous version of The Nutcracker.

Confused about the name of the heroine of our tale? Marie in the original tale of Hoffmann has been called Clara, Masha, Marya and Louise, who was actually Marie's older sister!

 

Nutcracker's menagerie of mice has been added to by many choreographers. Lew Christensen had a dancing brown bear, a licorice bull, lambs and later a dragon. James Kudelka's Russian bears roller skate and he has a wonderful divertissement for a horse. Kent Stowell has a peacock and a Chinese tiger in his production. At La Scala in 1938 Clara and the Nutcracker Prince wrap themselves in white fur coats and continue on their journey in a sleigh pulled by white polar bears. Polar bears also show up as escorts in Peter Darrell's Nutcracker. Transportation is always varied, Benois provided a self propelled nut, Balanchine's Clara rides around in her brass bed in act one and a reindeer drawn sleigh at the end of act two, Grigorovich has the two adventurers in a toy boat which swings upwards to the tree tops as Drosselmeyer floats down under a big black umbrella. Also descending was the Sugar Plum Fairy in a filigree basket suspended by balloons in Celia Franca's production for the National Ballet of Canada.Though the original story is set in Nuremburg, at La Scala in 1956 the inspiration for the decor was Imperial Russia and the jewelry designs of Carl Fabergé. John McFall was also drawn to Russia, as was James Kudelka for the National Ballet of Canada, where the first act takes place outdoors in a barn. Some U.S. productions have moved the setting to the New World, including Cincinnati Ballet's Nutcracker, which is set it in its home town, and the San Jose production that takes place in New England. New for 1996 was Donald Byrd’s Harlem Nutcracker, set in today’s Harlem, with steps back in history. It featured the Duke Ellington’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s music with additional music by David Berger.Maurice Sendak created seven settings for his Pacific Northwest Ballet production including a seraglio. Ben Stevenson's 1976 production for Ballet International made the Stahlbaums a more down to earth, rustic family, and Mother Ginger became a dance for the English characters Punch and Judy.

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A Selection of Notable Nutcracker Ballets

THE ORIGINAL

December 17, 1892. Maryinsky Theater, St. Petersburg
The Imperial Russian Ballet
Choreography - Lev Ivanov
Scenario - Petipa/Ivanov, after Dumas père, after E.T.A. Hoffmann
Scenery - M.I. Botcharov with K. Ivanov
Costumes - I.A. Vsevolojsky with Pommarev
Principal dancers - Antonietta dell'Era and Pavel Gerdt

 

THE FIRST OUTSIDE RUSSIA

January 30, 1934. Sadler's Wells Theatre, London
The Vic-Wells Ballet
Choreography - after Ivanov, staged by Nicholas Sergeyev
Scenery - Hedley Briggs
Principal dancers - Alicia Markova and Stanly Judson
 
 
THE FIRST IN THE UNITED STATES
(A condensed one act version)
October 17, 1940. 51st Street Theater, New York.
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Choreography - after Ivanov, staged by Alexandra Fedorova
Scenery and Costumes - Alexandre Benois
Principal dancers - Alicia Markova and André Eglevsky
 

THE FIRST FULL LENGTH PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES

December 29, 1944. War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
San Francisco Ballet
Choreography - William Christensen
Scenery - Antonio Sotomayer
Costumes - Russell Hartley
Principal dancers - Gisella Caccialanza and William Christensen
 

THE ONE WE ALL KNOW

February 2, 1954. City Center, New York
New York City Ballet
Choreography - George Balanchine
Scenery - Horace Armistead
Costumes - Karinska
Principal dancers - Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes

 

Other Notable Productions

Ivan Clustine, Snowflakes, Pavlova’s Company, 1915

Alexander Gorsky, Bolshoi Ballet, 1919

Fyodor Lopukhov, Kirov Ballet, 1929

Nicholas Sergueyev, Vic-Wells Ballet 1934

Vassily Vainonen, Kirov Ballet, 1934

Boris Romanov, Ballets de Monte Carlo, 1936

Jean-Jacques Etchevery, Paris Opera Comique, 1937

Margarita Froman, La Scala, 1938

Nicholas Beriozoff, London Festival Ballet, 1950

Frederick Ashton, Sadler's Wells Ballet, 1951

Lew Christensen, San Francisco Ballet, 1954

Alfred Rodrigues, La Scala, 1956

David Lichine, London Festival Ballet 1957

Walter Gore, London Ballet, 1957

Celia Franca, National Ballet of Canada, 1964

Fernand Nault, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, 1964

Ruth Page, Chicago Opera Ballet, 1965

John Cranko, Stuttgart Ballet, 1966

Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet,1966

Rudolf Nureyev, Royal Swedish Ballet, 1967

Nicholas Beriozoff, Zurich Ballet,1969

John Neumeier, Frankfurt Ballet, 1971

Flemming Flindt, Royal Danish Ballet, 1971

Peter Darrell, Scottish Ballet, 1973

Mikhail Baryshnikov, American Ballet Theatre, 1976

Ronald Hynd, London Festival Ballet 1976

Roland Petit, Les Ballets de Marseille, 1976

Ben Stevenson, Ballet International, 1976

Peter Anastos, Les Ballets Trokadero de Monte Carlo, 1976

Dennis Nahat, Cleveland Ballet, 1979

Tandy Beal, Santa Cruz, 1982

Rosella Hightower/Karole Armitage, Paris Opera Ballet, 1982

Kent Stowell, Pacific Northwest Ballet, 1983

Peter Wright, Royal Ballet, 1984

Bruce Marks/Bruce Wells, Boston Ballet, 1985

Peter Schaufuss, London Festival Ballet, 1986

Robert Joffrey/George Verdak/ Gerald Arpino, Joffrey Ballet, 1987

Mark Morris, The Hard Nut, Mark Morris Dance Group, 1991

Graeme Murphy, Australian Ballet, 1992

Kevin McKenzie, American Ballet Theatre, 1993

Pilobolus/Moses Pendelton, Ballet du Rhin, 1993

James Kudelka, National Ballet of Canada, 1995

David Nixon, BalletMet Columbus, 1995

Donald Byrd, Harlem Nutcracker, Donald Byrd/The Group, 1996

David Bintley, The Nutcracker Sweeties, Birmingham Royal Ballet, 1996

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The Nutcracker in Columbus

The history of The Nutcracker in Columbus reinforces the world view that art never stands still.The city's first full production of The Nutcracker, with choreography by Bud Kerwin, was mounted by The Columbus Civic Ballet, using scenery formally created by Benois for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. It opened at the newly 'saved' Ohio Theatre December 27, 1969 for two performances.In 1972 the company, by then called Columbus Ballet, revised the staging with new choreography by Tatiana Akinfieva-Smith. The same production was presented by the newly founded Ballet Metropolitan on December 28, 1974, with the accompaniment of The Columbus Symphony Orchestra. This version was presented, with some costume updating and replacement of the scenery, in 1977.In 1978 Ballet Metropolitan became a professional company and presented all new choreography for The Nutcracker by then Artistic Director Wayne Soulant.In 1983, thanks to strong community support (led by Lazarus, Wendy's and Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease), funding was secured to produce a new Nutcracker with costumes and scenery designed by Campbell Baird. That year 31,000 people attended the 13 performances that began December 15, 1983.1986 saw the arrival of John McFall as Artistic Director of BalletMet and in December 1987 he premiered his choreography for The Nutcracker using the designs from the 1983 production.To celebrate the centennial of the original production in St. Petersburg, BalletMet presented a brand new version of the ballet set, untraditionally, in Russia. John McFall provided the new choreography, Peter Horne the set design and Judanna Lynn the costumes. Major underwriting was given by Nationwide Insurance.With the arrival of David Nixon in 1995 The Nutcracker, once again, received a new lease on life. Using the existing production, Mr. Nixon sought to expand the narrative and to continue the story into the second act. Each successive year the ballet is revisited, refined and strengthened.Whatever version of The Nutcracker that Columbus audiences have been treated to, there has been a dedicated team of artists behind the scenes striving to produce the very best for our patrons. Even as the ballet comes to life conversations are being held to discuss improvements for the following year.

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The Music

Many believe that The Nutcracker ballet would have disappeared from the stage were it not for Tchaikovsky's wonderful music. Such was not the case at the 1892 opening of the ballet where the critics heaped more disdain on the music than the choreography. To put this in perspective though, in its first season The Nutcracker received 18 performances - three more than The Sleeping Beauty and ten more than Paquita received.When approached to compose Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky had long held an interest in composing for the ballet. Despite its brilliance, Swan Lake was poorly received and Tchaikovsky retreated from the ballet for ten years. It was then that he was approached by Vsevolojsky to create the score for The Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky was enchanted by the scenario and so set to work with enthusiasm. Again he produced a masterful score that was not enthusiastically received. One can imagine, therefore, his lack of enthusiasm when The Nutcracker project was presented to him.

Petipa's notes to Tchaikovsky left little room for interpretation. For example:"An empty stage. The moon lights up the dining room through the window. (This phrase is underlined twice and under it Petipa has written "NO".) 8 bars of mysterious and delicate music. Clara, in her nightdress, quickly returns to look at her darling Nutcracker once again. 8 bars, still more mysterious music for her entrance. Something frightens her. 2 bars. She trembles, she goes up to the Nutcracker's bed from where, it seems, a fantastic light is flickering. 8 bars of fantastic and still more mysterious music. The clock strikes midnight. Pause in the music. A short tremolo... 5 bars to hear the scratching of the mice and 4 bars for their squeaking... After the squeaking, 8 bars of accelerating music ending in a chord."The music debuted as The Nutcracker Suite, eight sections of the complete ballet at a performance of the Russian Musical Society in St. Petersburg in March 19, 1892. It was so successful that five sections had to be repeated. The program included the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. The reaction to the full ballet was less universally flattering. While some supported his work, many took Tchaikovsky to task for being too symphonic, tedious and wrongly conceived for dancing. As Tchaikovsky died in 1893 he never knew what a big success his work would achieve.

In The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky draws many of his melodies from existing music. For instance the Grossvatertanz that ends the party scene is a traditional tune that, due to its shifting meters, was used to encourage people to leave a party. Schumann also used this melody in his Papillons. The final children's dance earlier in the party is the French nursery song ‘Bon Voyage, Cher Dumollet’. The Arabian dance is based on a Georgian lullaby, the Trepak borrows from several well known Russian folk dances and Mother Ginger is a reworking of the French folk song, ‘Girofle, Girofla’ which is about a little boy with three birdhouses for swallows.Despite the foregoing, there is a wealth of invention and pure musical craft in the score. The miniature overture (as Tchaikovsky describes it) is notable in that the lower strings are not used at all. The theme is suspended high, giving a magical and airy feel. This is in dramatic contrast to the overture to Iolanthe, that premiered the same evening, which is all darkness and depth.Tchaikovsky incorporates many children's instruments into the score including a rattle, cuckoo, quail, toy trumpet and miniature drum. He had purchased many of these instruments in Paris, the city where he also discovered the celeste, (a bell like sounding instrument played with a keyboard) that he showcased in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. During the period of composition of The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky received an invitation to conduct at the opening of the Andrew Carnegie Music Hall in New York. He traveled by way of Paris, and there discovered Victor Mustel's invention, the celeste, which he decided to use in his score for The Nutcracker. He guarded this secret discovery hoping that he could beat out his rivals, Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov, for its initial presentation to the Russian public. "I expect that this new instrument will produce a colossal sensation." he wrote to his publisher Jurgenson.

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Other Events of 1892 Year of The Nutcracker Premiere

Published:

 

Born:

Died:

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Children Dancing

What production of The Nutcracker would be complete without a cast of children. Whereas we may think that the integration of children into ballet is a relatively new idea, it was actually more common in previous centuries. The great companies of Europe and Russia regularly used young students in the corps de ballet and as 'supers'. They were regarded as cute and cheap and, furthermore, the pleasure of performing on stage gave them incentive to work at their lessons. Many became stars before they were adolescents. The famous Fanny Elssler is depicted in a watercolor at the tender age of 12, a professional posed en pointe. Marie Salle made her debut in London at age 9, dancing with her brother in a Harlequin pas de deux.In Vienna, two complete companies of ballet children were established. The Horschelt's Kinderballet founded in 1815 lasted six years and helped to train several stars-to-be. Its sudden demise came about as a result of a scandal involving several of the girls and a local prince of ill repute.Perhaps more famous were the Viennese Children, or Danseuses Viennoises, organized in the early 1840s by Frau Josephine Weiss. She started with some twenty young girls, mostly from poor families; parents were paid a percentage of the receipts. With success the group expanded and by January 1845, 36 girls, aged five to twelve, appeared at the great Paris Opera. The critics and public alike were enchanted, not just for their charm but their astonishing precision. "Not one of those microscopic feet is a thousandth of a second behind," wrote Theophile Gautier. The audiences were always full, they cheered and showered bonbons onto the stage from the balconies. This success was repeated on subsequent tours to London, Canada and the United States from 1845 to 1848.The nineteenth century perception that a taint of immorality was attached to the profession of dance led to much public anxiety regarding these dancing children. In Paris, the Austrian Embassy complained that the children were not being taken regularly to Mass, the Minister of the Interior threatened to bar them from the Tuileries as they had not yet taken their first Communion and visas for England were endlessly delayed on the grounds that the children would be corrupted by English Protestantism. One New York paper alleged that the children drank beer, and worse. However it seems the Frau Weiss' girls were without stain, in the words of one New York newspaper "... one or two of the older ones committed matrimony," but nothing worse. After their return to Europe in 1848 the company seems to have disappeared from view, presumably as a result of falling box office revenue, the novelty having worn off.The premiere performance of The Nutcracker in St. Petersburg featured children in the first act but the audience deemed them to be irritating and detracted from the dance spectacle.In this century, the famous 'Baby Ballerinas' of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Baronova, Toumanova and Riabouchinska were hired by Balanchine in 1932 at the tender ages of 13, 14 & 15. Toumanova actually came to prominence as a child prodigy at age 8 dancing in L'Eventail de Jeanne in Paris.

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Children who have danced Clara (or Marya) in BalletMet’s The Nutcracker

1974 Lucy Wolfe
1975 Tracy Lenert
1976 Suzanne Ginter, Darielle Kamer
1977 Missy Grimsley, Shannon Timperman
1978 Marie Pfeuffer
1979 Margaret Beynen, Barbara Streiftau
1980 Jenine Larrabee, MaeLing Tom
1981 Jennifer Croce, Julie Hammond
1982 Abigail Schwarzwalder, Lisa Gunsorek
1983 Laura Hunter, Marika Wendelken
1984 Susan Joos
1985 Mikaela Ross, Sonia Welker
1986 Jodi Ahnmark, Danielle Short, Sara Wookey
1987 Melissa Downey, Nicole Clendenen
1988 Melissa Downey, Jodi Ahnmark, Johanna Woodward
1989 Johanna Woodward, Alayna VanDervort
1990 Alayna VanDervort, Johanna Woodward, Mariah Leutz
1991 Jordan Robinson, Emily Gotschall
1992 Jordan Robinson, Emily Gotschall
1993 Jordan Robinson, Emily Gotschall
1994 Heather Dodderer, Bronwynn Hopton, Carissa Lawson
1995 Emily Gotschall, Shaun Boyle

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Wooden Nutcrackers

In checking most encyclopedias I was amazed to find that the entry under 'Nutcracker' refers to two species of bird in the crow family. The Eurasian nutcracker and the smaller Clark's nutcracker, but never the wooden doll so symbolic today of the holiday season. Although a popular item, the history of wooden nutcrackers is somewhat veiled in mystery. Stories about enchanted nutcrackers appear in folk tales of Bohemia and Poland but it seems that the carved object originated in the Saxony region of Germany about 250 years ago. At that time the coal mines were becoming depleted and so the local mineworkers turned to other ways to make a living. Carving household objects out of wood became the regional speciality. There are records of wooden nutcrackers in 1650 in Berchtesgaden and 1735 in Sonneberg, but it is not known if either were in the form of a figure. The first noted nutcracker in the form we know today was the c.1750 product of Erzgebirge, Germany. Originally nutcrackers were fashioned after authoritarian figures such as soldiers, policemen and church leaders but later the cast of characters came to include villagers such as bakers, hunters etc.Legend holds that a wealthy farmer sponsored a contest for the best product to crack open his crop of nuts. The winner of the contest, a puppeteer, was awarded a workshop for future generations to continue producing these nutcrackers. It has been said that the seasonal popularity of nutcrackers is based on the fact that gilded nuts were a popular tree decoration and that something equally decorative was needed to open the nuts to enjoy their contents. The success of Tchaikovsky's ballet can not be written off as a reason for the popularity of nutcrackers.To this day, the most collectible nutcrackers originate in Germany. The production of them for export was a major industry under communist rule and now, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, one family has returned to the former East Germany to reopen a factory there.

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Bibliography

Balanchine's Complete Stories of the Great Ballets by George Balanchine and Francis Mason.

Baryshnikov's Nutcracker. Story of the ballet written by Norma Klein, with pictures from the stage production.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet. A complete reference guide.

The Nutcracker by Barbara Newman. A very complete history of the ballet, the music and its evolution.

The Nutcracker by Ellen Switzer.

The Nutcracker Ballet by Jack Anderson. A history of the ballet and a review of its evolution. 150 pictures.

The Nutcracker and the King of Mice by E.T.A. Hoffmann. This is where it all began.

The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet by Deborah Hautzig.

The Nutcracker (The official Bolshoi Book of) by Yuri Grigorovich and Alexander Demidov. - t.f.h. Publications

 

Videography

Baryshnikov's The Nutcracker- American Ballet Theatre 1977. Choreography Mikhail Baryshnikov. Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gelsey Kirkland. MGM/UA M10017 78 minutes.

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker - New York City Ballet 1993. Choreography George Balanchine. Macauley Culkin, Darci Kistler, Damien Woetzel. WHV 13000 93 minutes.

The Hard Nut - A contemporary twist on the story set in 1960s America. Mark Morris Dance Group 1991. Choreographed by Mark Morris. ELE 40175-3. 90 minutes.

The Nutcracker - The Bolshoi Ballet 1978. Maximova and Vasiliev. KUL 1201. 100 minutes

The Nutcracker - The Bolshoi Ballet 1989. Irek Mukhamedov, Nathalya Arkhipova. CVC 100 DG. 102 minutes.

Nutcracker, The Motion Picture - Pacific Northwest Ballet 1986. Choreography Kent Stowell. Designed by Maurice Sendak.NHV N033103. 82 minutes.

The Nutcracker - The Royal Ballet. Lesley Collier and Anthony Dowell. KUL 1429. 120 minutes

The Nutcracker - The Birmingham Royal Ballet 1995. Choreography Peter Wright. Yoshida Miyako and Irek Mukhamedov. HOMENUT090. 98 minutes.

The Nutcracker - The Kirov Ballet.Phil 440070273-3. 95 minutes.

The Nutcracker Fantasy - Animated film 1979 narrated by Michele Lee. MW 60329. 82 minutes.

The Nutcracker Fantasy on Ice - Dorothy Hamill.VE 3001. 85 minutes.

The Nutcracker Prince - Animated film 1990. Voices of Kieffer Sutherland, Phyllis Diller and Peter O'Toole. MUL 191902V. 74 minutes.

Fantasia - The famous Walt Disney film that includes animated interpretations of six excerpts from Tchaikovsky's score.

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