The Nutcracker - Royal Classical Ballet

"The Nutcracker" - the story:
"Marie is eagerly awaiting Christmas Eve. Among her many gifts, the old and mysterious Uncle Drosselmeier gives her a mechanical dancing figure and a nutcracker that captures her childlike imagination above all else. Overjoyed, she falls asleep with the nutcracker in her arms beneath the Christmas tree. A strange dream begins. Uncle Drosselmeier makes the tree grow endlessly, and the nutcracker comes to life..."

The story takes the audience into an enchanted realm where goodness and beauty reign - a place adults find themselves wanting to return to just as much as children. Spectacular sets and costumes, a fairy-tale plot, music and dance all come together in this richly romantic work, turning the ballet evening into a genuine celebration.

The libretto of "The Nutcracker" is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". This was new territory for the composer - the discovery of the world through children on the threshold of adolescence - drawing on ideas from the symphonic world and resulting in a lyrical, philosophical poem. Though modest in scale by conventional standards (just two acts) and originally conceived as a puppet ballet for children, "The Nutcracker" became, through the depth and richness of its content and its innovative form, a forerunner of many developments in Russian ballet theatre at the start of the 20th century.

The story goes that Modest Tchaikovsky adapted E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" - which had gained worldwide fame in the final years of the 19th century - as a parlour game for his sister's children. His brother, the composer Pyotr Ilyich, is said to have been present at this family gathering. He then told the choreographer of "Sleeping Beauty", Marius Petipa, about it. And so the ballet came to be...