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The Nutcracker

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Ballets by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
List of all compositions

The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky's adaptation of the story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E. T. A. Hoffmann was commissioned by the director of the Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1891. The original production was staged by Marius Petipa on 18 December 1892, premiering on a double-bill with a now semi-forgotten Tchaikovsky opera, Iolanta.

The plot of Hoffmann's original story is much more complex than that of the ballet, in which events had to be considerably simplified; Hoffmann's tale contains a long flashback story within its plot entitled The Tale of the Hard Nut, explaining how and why the Prince was turned into the Nutcracker. In Hoffmann's original version, the heroine Marie's adventures with the toys and with the Nutcracker are not a dream, and the Nutcracker does not turn into a Prince after his battle with the Mouse King, but at the end of the story - after Marie tells the now inanimate Nutcracker that she would love him even if he remained ugly forever. A year and a day after she declares this, the Prince returns to Marie and asks her to marry him. She accepts, and goes back to reign with him in the Doll Kingdom.

In Western countries, The Nutcracker has become perhaps the most popular of all ballets, performed primarily during the Christmas season. In the United States, especially since the 1960s, it has transcended its origins as a mere ballet or piece of classical music, becoming a part of American tradition almost as much as the telecasts of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Countless cities across the U.S. now stage the ballet at Christmas time, and new telecasts, video versions and interpretations of the ballet now appear even more often than before. There are several versions of the ballet now on DVD that have never been telecast in the U.S.[1] Its music, especially the music of the suite derived from the ballet, has become familiar to millions all over the world. And because of the ballet's fame, Hoffmann's original story on which it is based has also become well known, and has been made into an animated feature film several times.

Tchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet before the ballet's December 1892 premiere, 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.[2] The suite became instantly popular (according to Men of Music "every number had to be repeated"),[3] but the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City.[4]

Among other things, the score of The Nutcracker 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 (premiered 1891). Although well-known in The Nutcracker as the featured solo instrument in the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Act II, it is employed elsewhere in the same act.

History

(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

Composition history

Tchaikovsky himself was less satisfied with The Nutcracker than with The Sleeping Beauty, his previous ballet. (In the film Fantasia, commentator Deems Taylor observes, very accurately, that he "really detested" the score.) Tchaikovsky accepted the commission from Ivan Vsevolozhsky but did not particularly want to write the ballet [5] (though he did write to a friend while composing it: "I am daily becoming more and more attuned to my task"). [citation needed]

While composing the music for the ballet, 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 of the second act, which traditionally is danced just after 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.[6]

Performance history

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

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. The ballet 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 original production of The Nutcracker was conducted by Riccardo Drigo, with Antoinetta Dell-Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, and Timofei Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer. The children's roles, unlike many later productions, were performed by real children rather than adults (Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz), students of Imperial Ballet School of St. Petersburg. Alas, the first performance of The Nutcracker was not deemed a success.[7]

In other countries

An abridged version of the ballet was first performed outside Russia in Budapest (Royal Opera House) in 1927, with choreography by Ede Brada.[8] The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934,[7] staged by Nicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. Another abridged version of the ballet, performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, was staged in New York City in 1940 by Alexandra Fedorova (not to be confused with the university teacher of the same name) - again, after Petipa's version.[7] 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.[7] The New York City Ballet gave its first annual performance of George Balanchine's staging of The Nutcracker in 1954.[7] The tradition of performing the complete "Nutcracker" at Christmas eventually spread to the rest of the United States.

Roles

Note: The two lists of characters below are derived from the score (see reprint of Soviet ed.: Peter Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker: a ballet in two acts. For piano solo. Op. 71. Melville, N.Y.: Belwin Mills Publ. Corp., [n.d.], p. 4). Productions of the ballet vary in their fidelity to this assignment of rôles.

Characters (translated from Russian preliminaries of the Soviet ed.)

  • President Stahlbaum [Silberhaus]
  • His wife
  • Their children:
    • Clara [Marie] [Masha] [Maria] ("Клара [Мари]" in the score)
    • Fritz [Misha]
  • Marianna, the President's niece
  • Councilor Drosselmeyer, Godfather of Clara and Fritz
  • Nutcracker (who eventually turns into a Prince)
  • Sugar Plum Fairy, sovereign of sweets
  • Prince Koklyush [Orgeat]
  • Major-domo
  • Harlequin
  • Aunt Milli [Montgomery]
  • Soldiers
  • Columbine
  • Mama Gigogne [Mother Ginger]
  • Mouse King
  • Relatives, guests, people in costume, children, servants, mice, dolls, hares, toys, soldiers, gnomes, snowflakes, fairies, sweets, pastries, sweetmeats, moors, pages, princesses, retinues, buffoons, shepherdesses, flowers, etc.

The following more detailed, and somewhat different, extrapolation of the characters (in order of appearance) is drawn from an examination of the stage directions in the score (Soviet ed., where they are printed in the original French with added Russian translation in editorial footnotes):

Synopsis

The story varies from production to production. Below is a synopsis based on the original 1892 libretto by Marius Petipa. The names of the characters also vary. In the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story, the young heroine is called Marie Stahlbaum and Clara (Klärchen) is the name of her doll.[9] Petipa based his libretto on an adaptation of Hoffmann's book by French author Alexandre Dumas père in which her name is Marie Silberhaus.[10]

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

Scene 1: The Silberhaus Home

It is Christmas Eve at the house of Herr and Frau Silberhaus and their children. 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 younger children are sent for; among them are Clara, the Silberhaus' young daughter, and her brother Fritz. The children stand in awe of the tree, sparkling with candles and decorations.

The festivities begin. A march is played on the piano. Presents are given out to the children. Suddenly, as the owl-topped clock strikes nine, a mysterious figure enters the room. It is Herr Drosselmeyer, a local councilman and Clara and Fritz' godfather. He is also a talented toymaker who has brought with him gifts for the children, including four lifelike dolls -- a Harlequin and Columbine, and a vivandierre and soldier -- who dance to the delight of all. Herr Silberhaus has the precious dolls put away for safekeeping.

Clara and Fritz are sad to see the dolls taken away, but Herr Drosselmeyer has yet another toy for them: a wooden nutcracker carved in the shape of a little man, used for cracking hazelnuts. The children are delighted. Clara immediately takes a liking to it. Fritz, however, tries to use the nutcracker to crack a walnut (too large and hard for the nutcracker's wooden jaw) and inadvertently breaks it. Clara is heartbroken.

Clara takes the wounded toy to her doll's bed, lulling it to sleep. The boys interrupt with their toy trumpets and horns. Herr and Frau Silberhaus announce it is time to finish off the evening with a traditional Grandfather dance. After the dance, the guests depart, and the children are sent off to bed.

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 her Godfather Drosselmeyer perched atop the clock in place of the owl. Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and Clara realizes she is shrinking as the Christmas tree seems to grow to dizzying heights. 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 men, 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.

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

Scene 2: A Pine Forest

The mice retreat and the Nutcracker is transformed into a handsome Prince. He leads Clara into the moonlit night to a pine forest in which the snowflakes dance around them.

Act II

Scene 1: The Palace of Sweets (Confiturembourg)

Clara and the Prince travel in a nutshell boat pulled by dolphins to the beautiful palace of sweets in Confiturembourg, ruled by the Suger Plum Fairy in the Prince's place until his return. The Prince recounts for the Sugar Plum Fairy 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 perform an intricate hoop dance; Danish Marzipan Shepherdesses perform on their flute; Mere Gigogne has her children emerge from under her enormous skirt to dance; a string of beautiful candy flowers perform a waltz. To conclude the night, the Suger Plum Fairy and her Cavalier perform a Pas de Deux.

A final waltz is performed by all the sweets after which Clara and the Prince are crowned rulers of Confiturembourg forever and are shown the riches of their kingdom domed with an enormous beehive. [11]

Instrumentation

The Music

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

The music in Tchaikovsky's ballet is some of the composer's most popular. 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 famous Waltz 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) 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 "Entrée des parents", and "Tempo di Grossvater" in Act I.

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. 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." Everyone was enchanted.

Suites derived from this ballet became very popular on the concert stage. The composer himself extracted a suite of eight pieces from the ballet, but that authoritative move has not prevented later hands from arranging other selections and sequences of numbers. Eventually one of these ended up in Disney's Fantasia. In any case, The Nutcracker Suite should not be mistaken for the complete ballet.

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. During this transition, the mother of Marie (as she is called in this version) appears in the living room and throws a blanket over the girl, who has crept downstairs and fallen asleep on the sofa; then Drosselmeyer appears, repairs the Nutcracker, and binds the jaw with a handkerchief. In addition, the Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy is moved from near the end of Act II to near the beginning of the second act, just after the Sugar Plum Fairy makes her first appearance. To help the musical transition, the tarantella that comes before the dance is also cut. In the 1993 film version of the Balanchine version, just as in the telecast of Baryshnikov's staging, the Miniature Overture is cut in half, and the opening credits are seen as the overture is heard. The film's final credits feature a reprise of the Waltz of the Flowers.
  • Rudolf Nureyev's 1963 version for the Royal Ballet changes the order of some of the musical numbers, repeating the music of the "mice attack" and the departure of the guests at the end, and omitting the Final Waltz and Apotheosis which normally conclude the ballet.
  • A made-for-TV filmed color German-American production of The Nutcracker was first telecast in the United States as a Christmas season special by CBS in December 1965. Choreographed by Kurt Jacob, it featured a largely German, but still international cast made up from several companies, including Edward Villella, Patricia McBride and Melissa Hayden from the New York City Ballet. First televised in Germany in 1964, this production aired on CBS annually between 1965 and 1968, and then was withdrawn from American network television. Videotaped "wraparound" host segments in English, made in the style of those that CBS manufactured for their 1960's telecasts of MGM's The Wizard of Oz, featured Eddie Albert (at that time starring in the CBS long-running hit Green Acres), who also narrated the story offscreen. These segments were added to the program for its showings in the U.S. New opening credits were also added in English.[12] Famed German dancer Harald Kreutzberg appeared (in what was probably his last rôle) in the dual rôles of Drosselmeyer and the Snow King (though in one listing, Drosselmeyer has been re-christened Uncle Alex Hoffman — presumably a reference to E.T.A. Hoffmann, who wrote the original tale).[13] This production cut the ballet down to a one-act version lasting slightly less than an hour, and drastically re-ordered all the dances, even to the point of altering the storyline (instead of defeating the Mouse King, who does not even appear in this production, Clara and the Nutcracker must now journey to the Castle of the Sugar Plum Fairy, where the Fairy will wave her wand and turn the Nutcracker back into a Prince). Villella does not wear a Nutcracker mask at all in this production; he is seen throughout as a normal-looking man, and the only way that one can tell that he has been transformed from a nutcracker into a prince is by his change in costume. The two bluebirds from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty appeared to perform the Dance of the Reed Flutes rather than Sleeping Beauty 's Bluebird Pas de Deux. And curiously enough, the famous March is not heard during the actual ballet, but only during the new opening credits and hosting sequence devised by CBS. The March comes to a sudden halt as host Eddie Albert cracks a nut with a nutcracker that he has beside him on a table.[14]
  • In Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theatre version, nearly all of the original Tchaikovsky score is used, with slight edits, but the order of the divertissement numbers in Act II (the section of the ballet with the least plot) is changed, and the Arabian Dance had to be completely omitted in the television version in order to bring the program in at 90 minutes (counting the three commercial breaks which were included in the production's CBS telecasts). The Miniature Overture, during which the opening credits are seen in the TV version, is cut in half, as is the Final Waltz, which is danced near the end and again heard during the closing credits. Drosselmeyer appears right after the opening credits, in a prologue which shows him conjuring up the puppets for the puppet show, the dancing toys that he will bring to the Christmas Party, and the Nutcracker that he will give to Clara. The music normally used for his entrance during the party is here used as scoring for the puppet show. Baryshnikov also turned the Adagio from the Pas de Deux into a dance for Clara and the Nutcracker/Prince rather than one for the Sugar Plum Fairy and Prince Kolkyush, moving it to the end of the Pas de deux rather than having it danced at the beginning as is traditionally done in ballet, and creating an emotional climax by having it performed just before the concluding Final Waltz and Apotheosis.
  • In The Nutcracker: a Fantasy on Ice, a television adaptation for ice skating from 1983 starring Dorothy Hamill and Robin Cousins, narrated by Lorne Greene, and telecast on HBO, Tchaikovsky's score underwent not only reordering, but also insertion of music from his other ballets and also of music from Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov's Caucasian Sketches. Drosselmeyer did not appear at all in this version. Some years later, Ms. Hamill and then-husband Kenneth Forsythe produced a more complete ice ballet version for the stage, which was broadcast (in somewhat abridged form) in 1990 on NBC's Sportsworld, co-narrated by Hamill herself and Merlin Olsen. This version featured Nathan Birch as the Prince, J. Scott Driscoll as the Nutcracker, and Tim Murphy as Drosselmeyer.
  • In the Royal Ballet's 1985 version, Tchaikovsky's score is used and the original order of the dances is not changed at all, but the Mother Ginger dance is omitted. Wright also created a prologue featuring Drosselmeyer, performed during the Miniature Overture. In it, Drosselmeyer is seen grieving in his workshop over the spell that has turned his beloved nephew into a Nutcracker, and preparing to take his presents to the Christmas Party. This version was re-staged with some of the same dancers taking different rôles, as well as with new dancers, in 2001. In the 2001 version, Alina Cojocaru danced the rôle of Clara, a rôle danced in 1985 by Julie Rose. Anthony Dowell, who had danced the Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier in 1985, danced the rôle of Drosselmeyer in the 2001 version, telecast by PBS. A new film version of this production's latest revival was shown in hi-def movie theatres in late 2009. In the film, Iohna Loots was Clara, Ricardo Cervera was the Nutcracker and Drosselmeyer's nephew, and Gary Avis was Drosselmeyer.
  • Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker adds a duet from Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades that is heard during the Christmas party sequence. In addition, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is placed very early in the second act, rather than its traditional place toward the end, and is danced by the dream Clara. The tarantella, danced by the Nutcracker/Prince, is also placed very early in the second act, rather than near the end, and the ending of the Waltz of the Snowflakes is slightly changed in the 1986 film adaptation of this version.[15] The Final Waltz and Apotheosis are also switched around; the Apotheosis is placed first. As in the Baryshnikov version, the Adagio from the Pas de deux is placed very near the end, and becomes the emotional climax of the production.
  • The Kirov Ballet's 1994 revival of the Vainonen version, starring Larissa Lezhnina and Viktor Baranov, omits Mother Ginger and the Clowns altogether, and cuts the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, already short to begin with, in half, but otherwise presents the score complete, and the dances in their original order.
  • Another ice skating version, 1994's Nutcracker on Ice, starring Oksana Baiul as Clara and Victor Petrenko as Drosselmeyer, was originally telecast on NBC, and is now shown on several cable stations. It was also condensed to slightly less than an hour, radically altering and compressing both the music and the storyline.
  • Still another one-hour ice skating version, also called Nutcracker on Ice, was staged on television in 1995, starring Peggy Fleming as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Nicole Bobek as Clara, and Todd Eldredge as the Nutcracker.
  • And yet another version of Nutcracker on Ice, this one starring Tai Babilonia as Clara and Randy Gardner as the Nutcracker/ Prince, was released straight-to-video in 1998, appearing on DVD in 2007.
  • Maurice Béjart's controversial version throws in folk songs and other tunes totally unrelated to Tchaikovsky's original score; however, the Tchaikovsky music is also used.
  • Patrice Bart's Berlin Ballet version adds an unidentified piece not from the score of The Nutcracker, and reprises the Journey Through the Snow movement at the beginning of the second act, as Marie is reunited with her mother. It also cuts the Final Waltz in half.
  • Another edition of Nutcracker on Ice, also only an hour in length, was made in 1996 and was telecast in some areas in December 2009. Debi Thomas appears as the Snow Queen, Calla Urbanski is Clara, Rocky Marval is the Nutcracker/ Prince, and Rudy Galindo is Drosselmeyer.[16] Music from other works by Tchaikovsky is added, and many of the divertissement dances are cut.
  • The 2008 San Francisco Ballet production makes a few slight edits in the music, rearranges the order of a few of the dances in the Act II divertissement, and uses a fragment of the Pas de deux music to cover the moment when the child Clara is replaced by the "adult" Clara.

Nearly all of the CD and LP recordings of the complete ballet present Tchaikovsky's score exactly as he originally conceived it. Those which do present it somewhat re-arranged are taken from the soundtracks of films (such as the Maurice Sendak Nutcracker) or television versions such as the Baryshnikov one.

There are also several transcriptions of the Nutcracker Suite available on CD, including a noted one played by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.

Structure

(Numbers given according to the piano score from the Soviet collected edition of the composer's works, as reprinted Melville, New York: Belwin Mills [n.d.], in English where possible, with explanations added here in square brackets).

Act One
Miniature Overture
Tableau I
No.1 Scene of decorating and lighting the Christmas tree
No.2 March
No.3 Little Gallop [of the children] and entry of the parents
No.4 Scene dansante [Drosselmeyer's arrival and distribution of presents]
No.5 Scene and Grandfather Dance
No.6 Scene [Departure of the guests]
No.7 Scene [the battle]
Tableau II
No.8 Scene [usually entitled either Journey Through the Snow or A Pine Forest in Winter] [usually performed as a Pas de deux between Clara and the Prince, but sometimes by the Snow King and the Snow Queen]
No.9 Waltz of the Snowflakes
Act Two
Tableau III
No.10 Scene [Introduction]
No.11 Scene [Arrival of Clara and the Prince]
No.12 Divertissement
a. Chocolate (Spanish dance)
b. Coffee (Arabian dance)
c. Tea (Chinese dance)
d. Trepak (Russian Dance)
e. Dance of the "Mirlitons" [also known as "Dance of the Reed-Flutes", "Dance of the Shepherdesses", and "Marzipan"]
f. Mother Ginger and the clowns [also known as "Mother Ginger and her children" or "polichinelles" or "peppermints"]
No.13 Waltz of the Flowers [featuring a female soloist "Dew Drop" in Balanchine's production]
No.14 Pas de Deux: Adagio (Sugar-Plum Fairy and her Cavalier) [sometimes performed by Clara and the Prince]
Variation I (for the male dancer) Tarantella [sometimes performed by the Prince] [sometimes performed by Clara]
Variation II (for the female dancer) [Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy] [sometimes performed by Clara]
Coda [sometimes performed by the Prince and Clara]
No.15 Final Waltz [sometimes performed with Clara and the Prince joining in] and Apotheosis

Concert excerpts and arrangements

Tchaikovsky: Suite from the ballet The Nutcracker

The suite derived and abridged from the ballet became more popular for a time than the ballet itself, mainly because the complete ballet was not performed in the U.S. until 1944. The outline below represents the selection and sequence of the Nutcracker Suite culled by the composer.

I. Miniature Overture
II. Danses caractéristiques
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 Tchaikovsky’s Flower Waltz, for solo piano

The Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky’s 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

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
e. Russian Trepak
f. China Dance
g. Andante

Subsequent Productions

20th century

Vasily Vainonen — 1934

In 1934, Russian choreographer Vasily Vainonen staged his complete version of the ballet in the U.S.S.R., in which Clara is called Masha, and is played by an adult dancer. It uses the original plot, and follows standard nineteenth-century tradition in having all the children at the Christmas party played by adult women, although contemporary photos reveal that the original 1892 Nutcracker did use children in the cast. Unlike the original production, Vainonen omitted the Sugar Plum Fairy altogether and made Masha's story a romantic awakening. In his version, as in Baryshnikov's, it is the Nutcracker / Prince himself who rules over the Kingdom of Sweets. Drosselmeyer's rôle also became more prominent. In this version, the ballet was presented in three acts rather than two, and Masha's adventures with the Nutcracker/ Prince are all a dream. The Vainonen production was revived in 1954 and probably was as influential in Europe as the Balanchine production was in the U.S. [neutrality is disputed]

In 1992 a special Vainonen staging in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg commemorated the 100th anniversary of the ballet's premiere. In 1994, with sets and costumes first used in its 1954 revival, the Vainonen version was staged again in the Mariinsky Theatre. This 1994 staging with the Kirov Ballet, starring Larissa Lezhnina as Masha, Victor Baranov as the Nutcracker / Prince, and Piotr Russanov as Drosselmeyer, is very slightly cut from the original, and is available on DVD (104 mins) with 5.1 surround sound.

Willam Christensen — 1944

Main article: The Nutcracker (Willam Christensen)

It was not until December 24, 1944, that the first complete production in the U.S., also using the original plot, took place, performed by the San Francisco Ballet, and choreographed by Willam Christensen, who danced the role of the Cavalier.[17] Gisella Caccialanza, the wife of Lew Christensen, danced the rôle of the Sugar Plum Fairy.[18] The staging was a huge success, and one critic wrote: "We can't understand why a vehicle of such fantastic beauty and originality could be produced in Europe in 1892 with signal success [a factually erroneous claim] and never be produced in its entirety in this country until 1944. Perhaps choreographers will make up for lost time from now on." [17] The company was the first in the U.S. to make the ballet an annual tradition, and for ten years, the only company in the United States performing the complete ballet. The company performs it annually to this day, though not necessarily with Christensen's choreography (see the section on Helgi Tomasson below.) The stage success of the Christensen version marked the first step in making productions of The Nutcracker annual Christmas season traditions all over the world - a phenomenon that did not really come to flower until the late 1960s.

George Balanchine — 1954

Main article: The Nutcracker (Balanchine)

In 1954 George Balanchine followed in Christensen's footsteps by choreographing and premiering his now-famous New York City Ballet version, adhering closely to the original plot. Balanchine's Nutcracker has since been staged in New York every year and performed live on television twice - although its first television edition, telecast by CBS in 1957 on the TV anthology Seven Lively Arts, was severely abridged.[19] This marked the first telecast not only of the Balanchine version but of any staging of the ballet. CBS's Playhouse 90 broadcast a more complete (but still abridged) version of the Balanchine Nutcracker, narrated by actress June Lockhart, who was then starring as the mother in CBS's Lassie, in 1958; it was the first Nutcracker broadcast in color.[20] There were only four commercial breaks.[21] This television production starred Diana Adams as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Debbie Paine as Clara, and Robert Maiorano as the Nutcracker/ Prince.[22]

The complete Balanchine version was eventually made into a poorly received full-length feature film by Electra Entertainment and Regency Enterprises. It was distributed and released by Warner Brothers in 1993, and starred Macaulay Culkin in his only screen ballet rôle, as the Nutcracker, the Prince, and Drosselmeyer's nephew. The film was directed by Emile Ardolino, with narration spoken by Kevin Kline. From the billing in this film, the Prince and the nephew would seem to be two different characters, though that may not have been what the filmmakers intended. Director Ardolino died of AIDS only a few days before the film's release. The other rôles in the film were played by members of the New York City Ballet, including Darci Kistler as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Damian Woetzel as the Fairy's Cavalier, Jessica Lynn Cohen as Marie (a.k.a. Clara), and Wendy Whelan as Coffee in the Arabian Dance.[23] (93 mins.)

In Balanchine's version, the roles of Clara (here called Marie) and the Nutcracker / Prince are danced by children, and so their dances are choreographed to be less difficult than the ones performed by the adults. Marie does not dance at all in the second act of this version. The Prince's dancing in Act II is limited to the pantomime that he performs "describing" his defeat of the Mouse King. Instead, Marie and the Prince sit out nearly all of Act II watching other dancers perform for them, and unlike most other versions, neither one of them takes part in the ballet's Final Waltz.

Because Marie and the Nutcracker / Prince are played by children in the Balanchine Nutcracker, no romantic interest between them is even implied. Jennifer Fisher, in her book Nutcracker Nation states that because they are children, "they don't end up married and living happily ever after".[24] However, the 1958 Playhouse 90 telecast of the Balanchine Nutcracker, which changed Marie's name back to Clara and stated that the Prince was Drosselmeyer's nephew, had narrator June Lockhart saying at the end that "From that day on, Drosselmeyer's nephew is Clara's Prince and Clara is his Princess, and I need not tell you that they lived happily ever after."[21] And oddly enough, throughout Act II of the 1993 film of Balanchine's version, Marie does wear a veil that resembles a bridal veil.

The Balanchine version uses perhaps more children than any other version. The rôles of Clara and the Nutcracker/ Prince are performed by adults in many other versions, and in these productions of the ballet, there is usually at least a hint of budding romance between Clara and the Prince.

The Journey Through the Snow sequence, traditionally danced by Clara and the Nutcracker immediately after his transformation into a Prince, is not danced at all in the Balanchine version, although the music is played. Instead, Marie faints and falls on the bed after the battle, and the Nutcracker exits. Marie's bed moves by itself across the stage as the music plays, and at its climax, the Nutcracker reappears and through the use of a stage effect, turns into a Prince. He awakens Marie, places on her head the crown that he took from the dead Mouse King, and they exit.

(In the 1993 film of Balanchine's Nutcracker, the bed flies through the air rather than simply moving across the stage.[25] This is achieved by special effects created by Industrial Light & Magic.)

Rudolf Nureyev — 1963

In 1963, Rudolf Nureyev created his own version of Tchaikovsky's work with the Royal Ballet, in which he starred with Merle Park as Clara. Nureyev, curiously enough, played the rôles of Drosselmeyer and the Nutcracker Prince, but Wayne Sleep actually portrayed the Nutcracker. Some critics considered this a Freudian touch, taking it to mean that it is not the Nutcracker who turns into a Prince, but Drosselmeyer. However, this is not necessarily obvious to viewers of the DVD of this production.[26]

Nureyev, like Vainonen before him and Baryshnikov after him, omitted the Sugar Plum Fairy and gave all of her dances to Clara, and he himself performs the dances usually performed by Prince Koklyush, the Sugar Plum Fairy's partner. However, neither the Prince nor Clara participate in the dances performed for them by the people of the Kingdom of Sweets. In this version, Clara dreams the fantasy sequences.

Nureyev also omits the Mother Ginger and her Clowns dance.

In the Nureyev Nutcracker, the female dancing "doll" that Drosselmeyer presumably brings to the Christmas Party is simply Clara wearing a mask. (No reason is given for this.) When the mask is rudely pulled off by one of the guests, Clara runs off in a fit of tears, but is comforted by both her mother and Drosselmeyer, who then gives her the Nutcracker.

When Clara and the Prince arrive at the Kingdom of Sweets, she is menaced by strange creatures in disguise who are really her own relatives (no reason is given for this). Clara is asked by the Prince to remove their masks; when she does, she is relieved and embraces her relatives.

Clara, in this version, falls asleep in a chair and dreams the fantasy sequences while the Christmas party is still going on. She awakens at the end of the party, somewhat shaken to realize that she was only dreaming. But she embraces the toy Nutcracker in her arms and begins to tend to it the way that one would tend to a doll.

The production was videotaped for British television in 1968 and is available on DVD (100 mins). Nureyev re-staged it for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1988, and that production was also issued on DVD, but is currently out of print. Laurent Hillaire and Elisabeth Maurin starred in this first Paris Opera version. In 2008, this production was staged again by the Paris Opera Ballet, this time with Myriam Ould-Braham as Clara and Jeremie Belingard as both Drosselmeyer and the Prince.[27] This revival of it, unlike Nureyev's 1963 staging, omits the Arabian Dance and positions the Russian Dance (Trepak) in place of it, and includes some changes from the 1963 production in the staging and costume design. In the original 1963 staging of this production, Clara wears what looks like a plain child's dress throughout most of the production, up until the Grand pas de deux. In this revival, she wears a different dress at the Christmas party, and a nightgown throughout the rest of Act I and most of Act II. In the 1963 staging of Nureyev's production, she and the Prince are seen to go backstage during the divertissements, while in this revival of the production, they are very visible onstage throughout the second act. (It is during the Waltz of the Flowers that Clara goes backstage to change into her more formal "Princess" gown and headpiece, but up to then, in the new revival, she and the Prince have constantly been onstage sitting and watching the dances.)

As in the latest revival of the Peter Wright version, (see below) the relationship between Clara and the Prince is made more outwardly romantic in the new revival of the Nureyev production; she lightly kisses the Prince in gratitude right after the Spanish Dance when she sees that it is her relatives (the ones who were wearing the menacing masks) who perform it and all the other divertissements. Again the Mother Ginger dance is completely omitted.

There is so far, no word of a DVD version of this latest revival of the Nureyev version, although most of it can currently be seen on the internet.

Lew Christensen — 1964

In 1965, on New Year's Day, ABC-TV telecast a one-hour abridgement of choreographer Lew Christensen's 1964 version created for the San Francisco Ballet (the choreographer was one of Willam Christensen's brothers). Cynthia Gregory danced the rôle of the Sugar Plum Fairy and dancer Terry Orr was the Snow King.[28] This version has never been repeated on television, was never made available on VHS, and is, as of 2010, still unavailable on DVD.

Yuri Grigorovich — 1966

In 1966, Yuri Grigorovich created his own version of The Nutcracker for the Bolshoi Ballet - a traditional one which follows the usual storyline of the work, with only a very slight variation. Unlike Balanchine, Grigorovich omitted the pantomime that the Prince performs "describing" his defeat of the Mouse King at the beginning of Act II. The first Bolshoi version on video, recorded in 1978 but not released until nine years later in the U.S. on VHS (86 mins)- and ultimately on DVD - starred the husband-and-wife team of Ekaterina Maximova as Maria (a.k.a. Clara) and Vladimir Vasiliev as the Nutcracker / Prince. The revival of this production was released on VHS in 1989, and stars Natalya Arkhipova as Maria and Irek Mukhamedov as the Nutcracker / Prince. It is now available on DVD, and has been telecast in the U.S. as part of Ovation TV's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers". [29]

In this version, the story of Maria and the Prince is again enacted as a romance, but only a dream one. Towards the end of the dream, one of the courtiers puts a bridal veil on Maria during the Final Waltz, signifying that she is to marry the Prince, as in Hoffmann's original story,[30] but suddenly, as the Apotheosis begins, she is once again at home in her nightgown and robe; at first apprehensive that the dream has disappeared, and fearing that she has lost her Prince, she suddenly realizes that she still has her Nutcracker, runs over to the toy, and hugs it.

Maria's parents, who are usually very much in evidence during the early part of the Christmas party, are hardly even seen in this version.

As in the Vainonen version, Maria performs the Sugar Plum Fairy's dances, and the Nutcracker / Prince all of Koklyush's. This has apparently become a tradition in Russia.

In this version, all of the toys take part in the Journey Through the Snow sequence, rather than being offstage while Maria and the Prince perform the dance. And, as in the Vainonen version, much of the company also dances along with Maria and the Prince as they perform the Adagio in the Act II Pas de Deux.

In this production, the Mouse King is not killed in the first act, but in the second. He and his army are merely routed in Act I, and they turn up again in Act II, at the point in which the Prince usually performs the pantomime that describes the Mouse King's defeat. At the Kingdom of Sweets, the Mouse King challenges him to another duel; the two then disappear for a few minutes through a trap door in the floor as Maria looks on, horrified. She is greatly relieved when the Prince emerges again with the dead Mouse King's crown in his hand.

Mikhail Baryshnikov — 1976

For many years, the Balanchine Nutcracker was the most popular and influential version in the U.S., but its popularity could be said to have been seriously challenged by the highly acclaimed American Ballet Theatre version choreographed by and starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, which premiered in 1976 at the Kennedy Center,[31] was re-staged for television, first telecast by CBS as a Christmas season special with limited commercial interruption in 1977, re-broadcast by CBS several times, then afterwards many times by PBS, and is now a TV holiday classic.[32] In 1997, a slightly edited version of it was telecast on the A&E Network, as part of their Breakfast with the Arts program.[33] It is one of the few nationally televised versions of the ballet to have become a long-running tradition on television. (Most nationally televised productions of the ballet have been repeated only a few times, soon to be replaced by another production by another ballet company.)

Although the television version of the Baryshnikov Nutcracker was narrated by the offscreen voice of Norman Rose,[34] there was no actual host for the production, except in the Breakfast with the Arts telecast. Later editions, including the most recent DVD version, have removed much of the narration without cutting any of the actual production.

Baryshnikov uses the basic original plot, but like Vainonen and Nureyev, he omits the rôles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Prince Koklyush, and gives their dances to Clara and the Nutcracker / Prince. However, in the Baryshnikov version (as in Vainonen's), they not only perform the entire pas de deux usually danced by the Fairy and Koklyush, but also take part in the Waltz of the Flowers and the Final Waltz. In addition, although the Mother Ginger and her Clowns music is heard, we never see Mother Ginger herself, only four court jesters who perform the dance.

Some of the choreography in the Baryshnikov Nutcracker is influenced by Vainonen's for his 1934 production, although Baryshnikov's version is performed in the traditional two acts instead of three, and Baryshnikov actually uses Vainonen's choreography for the Snowflake Waltz, giving him onscreen credit. The puppet show sequence is also closely based on Vainonen.[35]

As in the Vainonen version, one of the three dancing dolls that Drosselmeyer brings to the Christmas party is a Moor.

The choreography for the Chinese Dance is similar, but not exactly alike, in both the Baryshnikov and Vainonen versions. However, most of the choreography in this version is completely Baryshnikov's, including that for the Act II Pas de Deux adagio.

In Baryshnikov's version, contrary to what is often written,[32][36][37] it is not Clara's brother Fritz who breaks the Nutcracker, but an unnamed drunken guest at the Christmas party who is trying to make the toy "grow" to life-size. He is last seen in "human" form tipsily leaving with the other guests, but eventually becomes the Mouse King in Clara's dream. Fritz is not portrayed as obnoxious or spoiled at all in this production.

Clara, the Nutcracker / Prince, and Fritz are all played by adult dancers in the Baryshnikov Nutcracker, but contrary to what is sometimes written, there are actual children and teenagers in it. However, they appear only during the Christmas party scene (they are played by students of the National Ballet School of Canada).

The ending of the ballet in the Baryshnikov version is more melancholy than in the original 1892 production and in many other versions. Drosselmeyer appears during the adagio of the Pas de Deux and breaks into the dance, apparently trying to coax Clara back into reality, while she prefers to stay with the Nutcracker / Prince, with whom she is now deeply in love. At the end of the Adagio, she breaks away from Drosselmeyer and goes whirling back into the Prince's arms. Drosselmeyer apparently gives up and it would seem as if the Prince has triumphed, as he and Clara joyously join the others in the Final Waltz. But during the Apotheosis, the entire Royal Court, as well as the Mouse King, who makes a ghostly final appearance, begin to drift away, moving as if they were only mechanical dolls, and Clara searches frantically for her Nutcracker / Prince, who is suddenly nowhere to be found. Suddenly the palatial surroundings are gone and Clara and Drosselmeyer are left alone onstage; she, holding out her hands in supplication, and he, folding his arms, elaborately ignoring her, and walking away. Clara finds herself back in her own home; she walks to the window and gazes wistfully out at the falling snow.[38]

The stage version of this production originally starred Baryshnikov, Marianna Tcherkassky as Clara, and Alexander Minz as Drosselmeyer.[31] However, for the TV version the rôle of Clara went to Gelsey Kirkland,[34] and it is Kirkland, not Tcherkassky, who has been widely seen in this production of the ballet. Because it is one of her few rôles captured on video, Clara is one of Gelsey Kirkland's most widely seen dance performances, and for many, her best remembered.

Except for Tcherkassky, the rest of the cast of this production also appeared in it on television. The television version was not a live performance of the ballet, but a special presentation shot on videotape in a TV studio, with no studio audience, in Toronto, Canada. This permitted far greater freedom of camera movement and more use of different camera angles.

The Baryshnikov Nutcracker has since become both the most popular television version of the work [39] and a bestselling videocassette and DVD version of the ballet.[39][40] It usually outsells not only every other video version of The Nutcracker, including the 1993 film of Balanchine's version, but every other ballet video as well. It is still telecast annually on some PBS stations. In 2004, it was re-mastered and reissued on DVD (78 mins) with a markedly improved visual image showing far greater detail and more vivid colors than the rather faded ones of the videocassette version, as well as both 2.0 and 5.1 stereo surround sound that, if not present-day state-of-the-art, was/is far better than its original 1977 monaural audio. It is only one of two versions of the ballet to have been nominated for Emmys [41] - the other was Mark Morris's intentionally exaggerated and satirical take on the ballet, The Hard Nut, telecast on PBS in 1992.[42] Seven Lively Arts, the anthology program on which The Nutcracker was first televised, did win an Emmy for Best New Program of 1957, so one could say that the ballet was included in that win, although the award itself did not specifically say so.[43]

Years later, Alessandra Ferri danced the rôle of Clara in a stage revival of Baryshnikov's production.

Tandy Beal & Company — 1982

American choreographer, director, and circus maestra Tandy Beal first choreographed a new version of The Nutcracker in 1982. At the time, "Dance Magazine" referred to it as the first contemporary version of the ballet. Beal's adaptation, called "Mixed Nutz: The Nutcracker Re-Mixed", combines dance and circus artistry—all performed to original and seasonal songs as well as Tchaikovsky's music sung a cappella by Bay Area vocal ensemble SoVoSó (Soul...Voice...Song)

Pacific Northwest Ballet and Maurice Sendak — 1983

Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker, first staged in 1983, and filmed for movie theatres in 1986 under that title (the more familiar poster title is Nutcracker: The Motion Picture), features sets and costumes by Maurice Sendak. It is revived annually onstage in Seattle, Washington. The film version was released nationwide on Thanksgiving Day, in 1986.[44] In the original production and the film, Clara was played by two dancers, the girlish Vanessa Sharp during the Christmas party and the Battle with the Mice, and the adult Patricia Barker throughout the rest of the film - until Clara awakens suddenly from her dream. The Nutcracker and the Nutcracker Prince were also played by two dancers in the film - Jacob Rice before the toy's transformation into a Prince, and Wade Walthall throughout the rest of the film. As in the Baryshnikov, Vainonen, Grigorovich, and Nureyev versions, there is no Sugar Plum Fairy; Clara performs all her dances, and the Nutcracker / Prince all of Kolkyush's. Actress Julie Harris's voice is heard offscreen as Clara in later life, recalling the events of the story.[45]

It should be noted that this version tries to be truer to E. T. A. Hoffmann's original story, complete with its darker aspects and a second act with more context and flavor, although much of that flavor comes from the imaginations of Sendak and choreographer Kent Stowell, rather than from the actual Hoffmann story. The relationship between Clara and the Nutcracker Prince becomes a blossoming romance in this version of the ballet, as in the Baryshnikov one. But unlike the original Hoffmann tale or other stagings of the ballet, the Kingdom of Sweets here becomes a harem, and although Clara gently kisses Drosselmeyer on the cheek after he repairs her Nutcracker during the Christmas party, she seems frightened of him; he comes across as a more ominous figure than usual. The Pasha in the harem, complete with eyepatch, bears an extremely strong resemblance to Drosselmeyer, and in the film version of the Pacific Northwest Ballet production, is apparently more sinister than in the stage one [46] - there is a strong implication in the movie that he would like to compete with the Prince for Clara's affections.[15] The rivalry between them is very pronounced; at one point, the Prince and the Pasha openly glare at each other in a hostile way. Later, Clara smiles at the Pasha, and the Prince, who notices, is seen to have a quizzical look on his face, as if unsure of the Pasha's intentions.

The Mouse King is not killed in this version, or if he is, it happens offscreen. In the film version of the production, special effects impossible to duplicate onstage are used to show his defeat. When Clara throws her slipper at him, there is a minor explosion and the Mouse King shrinks to the size of a regular mouse (at this point in the film, we see a real mouse, not a puppet, stop-motion doll, or ballet dancer). His cape and crown fall off and he goes scurrying away into what seems like an entrance to a cavern-like area, chased by the Nutcracker. Offscreen, the Nutcracker turns into a Prince. When Clara enters the cavern looking for the Nutcracker, she finds herself in a landscape resembling a beautiful frozen forest, and magically grown to adult size. The Prince is now waiting for her; she realizes that he was once the Nutcracker, and they dance together.

In the stage version of this production, the boat on which Clara and the Prince journey to the Land of Sweets returns at the height of the celebration, but Clara does not wish to leave, so the Pasha sends the boat away without her, something that does not happen in the film version. Onstage, at the end, the Pasha is literally revealed to be Drosselmeyer in disguise, when Clara, in a burst of curiosity, pulls off his eyepatch. She is deeply disturbed by the revelation.[46][47] The ending of the film version of this production is completely different, and much more sinister. As Clara and her Prince slowly swirl around wrapped in each other's arms while the Apotheosis plays, the Pasha, by a motion of his hand, magically levitates them higher and higher into the air as the other dancers wave goodbye; suddenly, the Pasha points his finger at the couple, which magically causes them to let go of each other. They suddenly begin to freefall in terror, and the Prince again becomes a nutcracker. Just as both are about to hit the ground and presumably be seriously injured or killed, the young girl Clara is jolted awake from her dream; she is still in her own bed. The curtain falls.[15]

In the film version, as if to end on a more upbeat note (no pun intended), we then see the dancers at the harem, ultimately joined, oddly enough by Clara, the Prince, and the Pasha himself, all performing the ballet's Final Waltz, over which appear the film's end credits. (Patricia Barker dances Clara in the closing credits.) [15]

As in Baryshnikov's version, Mother Ginger herself never appears. The Dance of the Clowns is here turned into a dance for children.

As of 2009, this production is still not on DVD.

Peter Wright — 1985 and 1990

In 1985, dancer-choreographer Peter Wright created a new production heavily based on the 1892 Ivanov original. The Mother Ginger and her Clowns dance, however, was omitted from this production. It was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where it is periodically revived, and it was first shown on television by A&E, with actress Joan Fontaine serving as host.[48] Notable for its elaborate set designs recalling a typical nineteenth-century stage work, the production was revived in 2001, videotaped with a mostly new cast, and again presented on television (this time by PBS, on Great Performances.). This second edition was hosted by Julie Andrews.[49]

These first two versions of the Wright production are available on DVD (99 mins. and 115 mins., respectively).

In 2008, again with a new cast, the production was streamed live to movie theatres in England, and was reportedly presented as a high-definition film in selected theatres throughout the U.S. during the 2009 Christmas season.[50] However, it seems to have been filmed in two versions, one with Alexandra Ansanelli as the Sugar Plum Fairy, [51] and one with Miyako Yoshida in the role [52]- the third DVD in which she performs it. The Yoshida version, not the Ansanelli one, has been issued on a DVD.

Beginning with the 2001 revival, Wright began to incorporate changes into his 1985 staging. The 2001 revival has a somewhat different ending. In the original 1985 version, Drosselmeyer sends Clara and Hans-Peter (his nephew) off on a sleigh after the festivities to an unspecified destination and then, alone, returns to his workshop to find Hans-Peter asleep there - and the spell broken. Their reunion is joyous. But there is no mention or hint afterwards of whether or not Hans-Peter and Clara end up together.

In the 2001 revival, Clara, seemingly having dreamt it all, awakens in front of the tall clock in the Stahlbaums' home, but without her Nutcracker. Apprehensive, she runs out into the snow in her nightgown, when she accidentally meets Hans-Peter, who, under the spell broken by Clara, was the actual toy. Apparently not recognizing her at first, he kindly drapes a cloak over the shivering Clara and asks her directions to Drosselmeyer's workshop; she tells him, and just before he leaves, a look of faint recognition comes over him. Once he is gone and she is about to re-enter her house, Clara suddenly gasps and smiles with delight as she realizes that she is still wearing the locket that the Sugar Plum Fairy has given her- the events of the previous night were real, and the young man whom she presumably just encountered is really the same person whom she had already met and fallen in love with in her "dream", and who was once an enchanted Nutcracker. At the same time, Hans-Peter enters Drosselmeyer's workshop, Drosselmeyer realizes that the spell has finally been broken, and he and Hans-Peter embrace. [53] Wright re-used this revised ending in the 2008 revival of this production.

An inconsistency in the plot development of this production is that Drosselmeyer, in the "dream" sequence, seems to clearly be aware that his nephew has been changed back from a nutcracker into a human, but is genuinely surprised and overjoyed when Hans-Peter shows up restored to his real self at the workshop in the final scene.

In the 1985 version of the Wright production, Drosselmeyer still seems quite mysterious and eerie (he never smiles at all), but in the 2001 and 2008 revivals of it, he has not only shed his eyepatch, but has been transformed into more of a kindly grandfather-like character.

In the 2001 and 2008 stagings (but not in the 1985 one) Clara and Hans-Peter, prompted by Drosselmeyer himself, take even more of an active part in the dances at the Sugar Plum Fairy's castle than in Baryshnikov's staging; they participate in all the divertissements except for the Arabian Dance, and they also take part in the Waltz of the Flowers. Presumably Wright arranged this so that the couple would not have to merely sit out most of Act II watching other people dance. In Act I the couple also dances in the Snowflake Waltz.

The romantic element between Clara and Hans-Peter is more pronounced in the 2008 filming of the Wright version than in earlier stagings of it.[54] (In the 1985 production, it is so understated that the couple comes across as simply good friends.) Though their relationship remains innocent, it is more affectionate than usual in the 2008 version, which can currently be seen on the internet.[55] The couple shares a kiss several times (they don't in the earlier Royal Ballet versions, although in the 1985 version, before even noticing that his appearance has been completely changed, Clara kisses Hans-Peter's forehead with relief when he begins to revive after the Battle with the Mice). And in the 2008 revival, Hans-Peter sits with his arms around Clara during the festivities at the Sugar Plum Fairy's castle (again, he doesn't in the two earlier Peter Wright - Royal Ballet versions).[53] This might have been done because the earlier productions, especially the 1985 one, did not get across the idea that there was supposed to be just as strong an emotional bond between Clara and Hans-Peter as between Hans-Peter and his uncle Drosselmeyer.[56] One critic commented about the 2008 revival of this Royal Ballet production, "So tender and delirious is the puppy love between Clara and her Nutcracker Prince that it would take a heart of stone not to melt in its presence".[54]

The 2008 revival is scheduled to be released on DVD in the UK in the summer of 2010,[57], and in the U.S. in late October of 2010.[58]

Wright also staged another version in 1990 for the Birmingham Royal Ballet, starring Irek Mukhamedov and Sandra Madgwick. In this version, Clara is a ballet student, her mother is a former ballerina,[59] and once again, her adventures with the Nutcracker / Prince are all a dream.[60] This version is also on DVD.

Mark Morris — 1991

Main article: The Hard Nut

In 1990, Mark Morris began work on The Hard Nut, his version of The Nutcracker, taking inspiration from the horror-comic artist Charles Burns. The art of Charles Burns is personal and deeply instilled with archetypal concepts of guilt, childhood, adolescent sexuality, and poignant, nostalgic portrayals of post-war America.

He enlisted a team of collaborators to create a world not unlike that of Burns’ world, where stories take comic book clichés and rearrange them into disturbing yet funny patterns.

Morris turned to Adrianne Lobel to create sets that would take Hoffmann's tale out of the traditional German setting and into Burns’ graphic, black and white view of things. With these immense sets and scrims, lighting designer James F. Ingalls created a dark world within retro 1960s suburbia and costume designer Martin Pakledinaz created costumes that helped bring to life Burns’ world, described as being "at the juncture of fiction and memory, of cheap thrills and horror." The last of 10 pieces Mark Morris created during his time as Director of Dance at the National Opera House of Belgium, the piece was his most ambitious work to date.

The Hard Nut premiered on January 12, 1991 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, just short of the 100th anniversary of the creation of Tchaikovsky's classic score. Audiences found it a shocking but exhilarating version of Tchaikovsky's ballet, its impact still felt year after year.[citation needed] [neutrality is disputed] It was chosen the favorite by viewer votes in 2007, 2008, and 2009 in Ovation TV's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".[61] Shortly after the premiere, MMDG returned to the United States, having finished their three-year residency at the Monnaie. But the Monnaie seemed the most fitting stage to film the production [why?] so the company returned six months later with film crew in hand for encore performances in Belgium's national opera house that were made available on VHS and Laserdisc. The Hard Nut was released on DVD in 2007.

Graeme Murphy — 1992

Graeme Murphy's version, entitled "Nutcracker: The Story of Clara", was created in 1992 for the Australian Ballet, released on video in 1994, and released on DVD in 2008. It retains Tchaikovsky's music, but throws out nearly all of the original story. In this version, set in the 1950s, Clara is an aging Australian ballerina who recalls her past life in flashback.[62]

Pär Isberg — 1997

Pär Isberg's version for the Royal Swedish Ballet, staged in 1997, uses most of Tchaikovsky's music, but bears little resemblance to the original ballet, although there still is a Mouse King. In this version, it is a charcoal burner who becomes a handsome Prince, and a housemaid falls in love with him and becomes his Princess. Instead of simply Clara visiting the Kingdom of Sweets, it is two children, Lotta and her brother Petter, who do so. (Some of the new libretto is inspired by Elsa Beskow's children's book "Peter and Lotta's Christmas".) [63][64]

This version is available on DVD only in Great Britain.

Patrice Bart — 1999

Patrice Bart's version, available on DVD, created for the Berlin Staatsoper, and premiered there in 1999, reworks the story almost completely to have Clara (here called Marie) kidnapped by revolutionaries to the music of the mice attack. She is then adopted by the Stahlbaums, who, in most productions, are her real parents. There, she is snubbed and mistreated, and Drosselmeyer becomes her only friend. The Nutcracker himself hardly appears as a character before his transformation into a prince. At the Christmas party, Drosselmeyer himself performs the third of the dances usually performed by one of the life-sized dolls that he brings to the party in most versions of the ballet. When he brandishes a sword during the dance, Marie becomes quite uneasy, as if the memory of her kidnapping were being triggered by the experience. There are no mice in this version; instead the toys are attacked by what seem to be those same revolutionaries, who again try to carry Marie off, and the Nutcracker does not fight with them. Marie throws, not her shoe, but the actual Nutcracker at them, whereupon they disappear, the Nutcracker becomes life-size, and immediately turns into a prince. The music of the actual battle, having been played already during the kidnapping scene earlier in the ballet, is then omitted and the slow music that accompanies Marie's first dance with the Prince is heard. Drosselmeyer is made into a young man in this version, and he apparently serves at a sort of father figure-psychologist who helps Marie remember and overcome her long-buried memories of the trauma she endured by being kidnapped. This he does by bringing in the revolutionaries again, enabling Marie to drive them off by throwing her toy Nutcracker at them.[30]

In the second act, to the same music that accompanies Marie's first duet with the Prince after the Nutcracker's transformation, Marie is joyously reunited with her real mother. Drosselmeyer and Marie's mother, it seems, are paired off as potential romantic partners, and at the same time, Marie and the Nutcracker / Prince are also romantically paired off. As in the Baryshnikov and Pacific Northwest Ballet productions, there are no Sugar Plum Fairy or Prince Koklyush; their dances are again performed by Marie and the Nutcracker / Prince. As in the Pacific Northwest Ballet production, the Dance of the Clowns is performed by children, and again, there is no Mother Ginger. The finale is unclear about Marie and the Prince's fate, but her mother blesses their apparently forthcoming marriage, after which Drosselmeyer suddenly produces another nutcracker, which emits a strange light from its eyes. Most of the dancers suddenly begin moving like mechanical dolls, and through a cloud of smoke, Marie is seen to be seemingly flying off happily with the Prince, Mary Poppins-like, airborne on a giant umbrella.

Anatoli Emilianov - ca. 1997

Anatoli Emilianov has staged a version for the Moscow Ballet called The Great Russian Nutcracker, in which the second act is set in the "Land of Peace and Harmony". As in the Vainonen version, Clara performs all of the dances usually performed by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

21st century

Maurice Béjart — 2000

Maurice Béjart's extremely controversial 2000 version, available on DVD (103 mins), throws out the original story altogether, creating all-new characters and including a Freudian mother fixation as the main point of the self-indulgent [neutrality is disputed] story. Here the main character is named Bim, and is intended to supposedly be an autobiographical child figure representing Béjart himself. There are no Drosselmeyer, no Clara, no Sugar Plum Fairy, and no Nutcracker in this production, and Mephisto and Felix the Cat appear as characters. A piece of stagecraft seen throughout the production resembles a woman's naked torso, and her uterus is visible. Some critics excoriated this version.[65]

Mikhail Chemiakin and Kirill Simonov — 2001

Mikhail Chemiakin's production for the Mariinsky Ballet, staged in 2001, but not yet shown on television, was taped in 2007 and released on DVD in 2008, both on Blu-ray and regular format; however, the regular format version rapidly went out-of-print. (88 mins.). The production stresses the grotesque even more than the Maurice Sendak version. Like the Béjart version, though not in such an extreme way, it is not really intended for children at all. The DVD stars Russian ballerina Irina Golub as Clara (called Masha in this version), but onstage, she and Natalya Sologub alternated in the rôle.

Although the production was conceived and largely created by Chemiakin at the request of conductor Valery Gergiev, it was choreographed by Kirill Simonov. The choreography in this production does not resemble that in any earlier version of the ballet. The ballet's original storyline is still followed, but only in a very basic way; it is full of touches which do not appear in any other Nutcracker, and there is a morbid twist at the end. Gergiev himself has stated that he feels that The Nutcracker (which, like many, he incorrectly terms The Nutcracker Suite), is one of the most tragic scores that Tchaikovsky ever composed.[66]

The Chemiakin Nutcracker has proved highly controversial.[67] Critic George Jackson disliked this version intensely, calling it "The Gargoyle Nutcracker" and gave it a withering review, inexplicably terming Masha a "brat" and a "mini-slut", and seemingly overlooking the fact that in this version, Masha is kind to her obnoxious brother Fritz even after he has tried to mistreat the Nutcracker, and, out of pity, she even tends to the wounded mice after their battle with the toys. Other reviewers, and Chemiakin himself, have stressed that Masha is definitely not intended to come across as a brat, although her brother Fritz is. (Even Drosselmeyer hates Fritz in this version.)[68]

The website HDVD Arts gave the production an even more sardonic review, oozing with flippant sarcasm, calling the decor ugly, and concentrating on aspects of the staging that perhaps depended more on the outlook of the reviewer than on what happens in the actual production.[69] Masha does not "flash her crotch directly" at the Nutcracker, as the reviewer states, but some of her dance moves during the Journey Through the Snow piece, which she performs as a solo rather than with the Nutcracker Prince, may be considered unusual. The same critic commented that Masha "dances lasciviously in the Pas de Deux".[69] It could be argued convincingly that she does not, but it is true that the romance between the Prince and Masha is much more sharply drawn in this version of the ballet than in most others.

On the other hand, Stephen Smoliar, in his blog "The Rehearsal Studio", published a favorable review of the production entitled "The Eclectic Nutcracker", in which he said "Never before have I found such an erotically charged Pas de Deux (in any ballet)", stating that it represents the moment when Masha and the Nutcracker Prince consummate their relationship [70], and he complimented Irina Golub for dancing it so passionately, though Smoliar mistakenly calls Masha Marie, which is the name given to Clara in the Balanchine version of the ballet. He also praised choreographer Simonov, and stated that "never before has this eroticism [in the ballet] seemed so relevant".[71]

In the Chemiakin "Nutcracker", Masha is more obviously shown to be in love with the Prince, and a look of what could be called sexual yearning is seen in her eyes at one point during the Adagio. The couple also rushes into each other's arms at one point during the Adagio and kisses tenderly as the music plays, something rarely seen in a Nutcracker production before this one, and from that point in this version, the dancing in the Adagio becomes more intense, as if the couple's passion were increasing, and this slow section ends with Masha and the Prince running offstage hand-in-hand, as if looking for a chance to be alone together in order to, indeed, consummate their relationship privately. However, they return a moment later to dance the two variations and the Coda in the Pas de Deux, and during this Coda, they embrace and look at each other lovingly as the rest of the Court streams back in for the forthcoming wedding celebration.

According to Chemiakin in his book Staging the Nutcracker, it is the kiss between Masha and the Nutcracker which transforms him into a Prince, and the transformation is supposed to take place after the Waltz of the Flowers. It may have been planned that way, but in the actual staging, as seen on the DVD, this seems not to be the case, since the dancer playing the Prince (Leonid Sarafanov) has his nutcracker mask removed early in the waltz, during its harp cadenza. The kiss seems simply a declaration of Masha and the Prince's love for each other.[72]

Chemiakin has also stated that he envisions Masha as a lonely girl, snubbed even by her parents, who feels "suddenly flaming love" for the Nutcracker, when, as a toy, he offers her friendship.[73]

In the Chemiakin version, all the events in the story really do take place; it is no dream. There is no Christmas Tree that grows, and the first few moments take place in the busy kitchen of the Stahlbaum home, rather than a brightly decorated living room of the nineteenth century. Masha's father Herr Stahlbaum, rather than being a dignified, kindly figure, is a clown-like lecher who is forever chasing one of the kitchen maids. Most of the adults at the Christmas Party (including Masha's own parents) are rather drunk by the end of the festivities (the guests leave the party via the Stahlbaum's wine cellar, which is not shown in any other production). The rodents (in this case rats, rather than mice), are seen to be skulking around already in the ballet's opening scene. Unlike the traditional version, the Nutcracker, who is played as life-sized throughout, instead of being a toy that one can hold in their hands, is not broken by Fritz, only twisted into an awkward position; he behaves as if he were alive almost from the very beginning of the ballet, and, as in E.T.A. Hoffmann's original tale, does not turn into a Prince immediately after he defeats the Rat King.

Masha is also plagued by disturbing visions in the production. During the Grossvater Tanz at the Christmas party, she suddenly hallucinates that the adults have become rodent-like creatures, and is terrified by the sight. The rats are not even clearly seen to be rats in the production, just strange-looking malevolent creatures.

The Dance of the Reed Flutes is performed by three bumblebees in this production.

The Sugar Plum Fairy does appear in this version, but her rôle is little more than a walk-on. Masha performs all of the Fairy's dances and the Nutcracker Prince all of Kolkyush's, much as Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov did in their 1977 version.

Although Masha seems to behave as a typical child in the early scenes, once the battle with the rats is over, she assumes a more adult-like demeanor and seems to become a girl in her late teens or early twenties.

The Nutcracker is given four sisters in this production, and they welcome Masha warmly when she and the Nutcracker arrive in the Palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Unlike the Nutcracker, they do not seem to be under any form of enchantment. It is one of the sisters who performs the task of removing the Nutcracker's "face" (actually the mask that the dancer portraying the rôle wears), thus revealing that he is really a Prince. The sisters were included in Petipa's original outline for the ballet's libretto, but are now usually not included in productions of it.

Drosselmeyer appears to somehow be in league with the rats in this production; they are always hovering around him, and during the battle between the rats and the toys, Drosselmeyer even consults with a new character, the Rat Cardinal; they are both searching through what appears to be a giant cookbook. On the other hand, Drosselmeyer saves the lives of Masha and the Nutcracker during the Waltz of the Snowflakes, which is given a very sinister quality here - the chorus is made up of the ghosts of children who have perished in the snow, and Masha and the Nutcracker nearly suffer the same fate when the dancing snowflakes become a snowstorm.

The second act takes place not in the Kingdom of Sweets, but in another kitchen, the Kitchen of Sweets. The rats are there, preparing what appears to be a grand feast, a foreshadowing of the finale's surprise revelation. The final moments are quite shocking in this version, even ghoulish. The Prince has asked Masha to marry him, she has accepted, and they have happily joined in the Final Waltz. The scene changes as the Apotheosis begins: we see Drosselmeyer walking with a stagger and clutching at his chest, as if suffering a heart attack. The stage is dark, except for a light streaming from a grille, behind which a wave of activity seems to be going on. Drosselmeyer painfully tries to see through it, but cannot. At a wave of Drosselmeyer's hand, the curtain rises, revealing what is behind the grille. It is a giant wedding cake, so tall it almost reaches the ceiling. Surrounding it, in statue-like poses, are all the characters who appeared in Act II. Atop the cake stand a miniaturized bride and groom - Masha and her Prince. They have been turned into sweets, the price they have paid for marrying. (Only Masha and the Prince are represented by actual statues in this scene; the other characters are played by the flesh-and-blood dancers in statue-like poses. No reason is given for this.) The implication seems to be that the rats have prepared the cake and the sweets for their own benefit, and as they nibble on the bottom of the cake, drawing nearer and nearer to the top the audience senses that they will eventually eat all, including the newlyweds.[74] Although Drosselmeyer has presumably been in league with the rats, and hardly shows any admirable qualities in this version, he seems to be conscience-stricken and horrified at Masha's ultimate fate.

Russian dance critic Nina Alovert also commented disparagingly of the production, saying that it was "full of uncaring human beings and rats who eat people", and that "The one good person [in the ballet] (meaning Masha) is turned into a sugar-coated doll".[75]

Helgi Tomasson — 2004

In December 2004, the San Francisco Ballet premiered a new production choreographed by Helgi Tomasson, which was issued on DVD (132 mins, half an hour of which is supplemental material) and first telecast on PBS during the 2008 Christmas season. The basic storyline of the ballet is followed, but the new production takes several liberties with the original scenario: the ballet is now set in 1915 San Francisco rather than Germany, and the frightening aspects of Drosselmeyer's character are erased, turning him into a purely benevolent toy maker and magician.

In this production, the Nutcracker first "comes to life" at the Christmas party, before Clara's dream even begins. Rather than the Soldier or the Moor (or a bear, as in some versions) being the third of Drosselmeyer's life-size dancing dolls, it is the Nutcracker who performs the dance. After his dance ends, he is put back into the box, and Drosselmeyer then produces the normal-size, inanimate Nutcracker, which he gives to Clara. (The Nutcracker in this scene is traditionally danced by a separate dancer than the one who performs the Nutcracker Prince.) In this version, during the battle with the mice, rather than throwing her slipper at him, Clara arranges with the help of the toy soldiers to get the Mouse King's tail caught in a huge mousetrap, thus enabling the Nutcracker to fatally stab him.

The second act takes place not in the Land of Sweets, but in a Crystal Palace reminiscent of one Clara would have seen at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, and the dances are a parade of nations akin to exhibitions at the Fair. Drosselmeyer is very much present in this version, watching the divertissements in the Palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy along with Clara. The Sugar Plum Fairy's rôle is considerably shortened in this version; her only extended dance sequence is in the Waltz of the Flowers. She also takes part in the Final Waltz.

One of the most notable changes is that, as the festivities draw to a close, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Uncle Drosselmeyer grant Clara (Elizabeth Powell) her greatest Christmas wish and transform her into a beautiful woman (Maria Kochetkova) to dance in the arms of her Prince (Davit Karapetyan). Thus in this production, the final Grand Pas de Deux is danced not by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her escort but by the Nutcracker Prince and Clara, who has been magically transformed into an adult ballerina specifically for this purpose. There is less of a hint of an actual romantic attraction between Clara and the Prince in this version; they seem to be just good friends. The Prince is played by an adult dancer, while Clara appears to be a young girl of about thirteen, except in the Grand Pas de Deux.

The fantasy sequences are all a dream in this version; at the end, on Christmas morn, the young Clara awakens with the nutcracker in her arms, happy and contented to have had the dream.

The telecast of this production was hosted by Olympic skater Kristi Yamaguchi.[76]

Youri Vamos — 2007

Hungarian choreographer Youri Vamos has created The Nutcracker: A Christmas Story, a version of Tchaikovsky's ballet, released on DVD in 2007, which combines Hoffmann's story with elements from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, to the point of including Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Mrs. Cratchit, and the Spirit of Christmas as characters.[77]

Alexei Ratmansky — 2010

American Ballet Theatre announced that artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky will choreograph a new production of The Nutcracker for the company, scheduled to premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday, December 23, 2010, with principal dancers Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg.

Cabaret Red Light — 2010

Cabaret Red Light has created a new burlesque-and-ballet version of The Nutcracker with original score by Rolf Lakaemper and Peter Gaffney, and choreography by Christine Fisler. Directed by Anna Frangiosa and Gaffney, the new production draws on material from the original short story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," aiming to restore scenes, characters and other elements not included in Alexandre Dumas' French adaptation of the holiday classic, and presenting a version that is generally truer to the spirit and uncanny nature of Hoffmann's work. Using a variety of media - shadow puppets, kinetic sculptures, experimental music and narrative dance - Cabaret Red Light's NUTCRACKER revolves around the figure of Marie and her Godfather Drosselmeyer's efforts to warn her about the false promises and counterfeit values that mark the transition into adult life. The new production is scheduled to premiere on December 16 at Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.

Sound effects

The 1986 film of the Maurice Sendak version and the 1993 film of the Balanchine version both feature amplified sound effects that normally would not be heard in a production of the ballet. These consist mostly of sword clashes, mouse squeaks and eerie sounds during the battle between the toys and the mice.

Early TV versions vs. later ones

Productions of The Nutcracker telecast pre-1977 are mostly very abridged (except for a 1958 British version with Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes, as well as the 1968 Nureyev version). Most early TV versions of the ballet are rarely if ever seen today. The only staging of the Balanchine Nutcracker telecast in the U.S. over the past thirty years is the 1993 film version made for movie theatres; the Playhouse 90 version, from 1958, has not been seen on television since its original telecast, and neither has the abridged version telecast the previous year on the anthology Seven Lively Arts. These two early television productions have not been released on DVD as yet.

After its third rebroadcast in 1968, the Kurt Jacob version first telecast on U.S. TV in December 1965 disappeared from American TV screens; however, on November 17, 2009, it was officially released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection, an on-demand DVD service.[78] As mentioned earlier, the 1965 ABC-TV production has not been seen since its first and only telecast. The Rudolf Nureyev version , videotaped in 1968, has never been telecast in the United States.

In the U.S., the most often seen pre-1985 TV production of the ballet is the 1977 Baryshnikov version.

An excerpt of the Margot Fonteyn version has been shown in the U.S. as part of a biography of the famous ballerina, but the complete production has not, nor is it available on DVD. It is one of the few Nutcracker s in black-and-white.

Popular versions of the suite have been around since the 1950s, and some of these have been especially adapted for children who have not been widely exposed to the ballet or to classical music. Others are jazz arrangements of the music.

Nutcracker Suite for Children

In the late 1940s, Milton Cross, announcer for the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts between 1931 and 1975, narrated a three-record 78 RPM (and considerably altered) version of the story entitled The Nutcracker Suite for Children, with piano accompaniment. It was released by Musicraft Records.[79]

Jazz versions

In 1960, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn arranged their own adaptation of The Nutcracker Suite for the Duke Ellington Orchestra featuring the "Overture", "Toot Toot Tootsie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Flutes)", "Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)", "Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)", the "Entr'acte", "The Volga Vouty (Russian Trepak)", "Chinoiserie (Chinese Tea)", "Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)", and "Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Coffee)". The suite is arranged for the traditional five saxophones (two alto, two tenor, one baritone), four trumpets, a small three trombone section, drums, piano and bass, with second alto doubling on clarinet, bamboo flute, both tenors doubling on clarinet, baritone doubling on bass clarinet, and first trumpet doubling on tambourine. The arrangement has been played by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra side-by-side with the New York Philharmonic performing the respective original movements. The New York Youth Symphony's resident jazz ensemble Jazz Band Classic has performed the Ellington version alongside the original with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall on November 22, 2009. In 1999, the arrangement was expanded to fit Donald Byrd's adaptation of The Nutcracker with modern choreography and themes revolving around an African-American family in Harlem, and an aged Clara's experience through the Civil Rights movement. David Berger composed, arranged, performed, and recorded expansions from Ellington and Strayhorn's suite to mesh with the modern ballet.

Shorty Rogers recorded his own version of the suite called The Swingin' Nutcracker for RCA Victor just weeks before Ellington recorded his in 1960. It features an all star West Coast band including the likes of Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bill Holman, Richie Kamuca, Harold Land, Jimmy Giuffre, Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino, Lou Levy, and Mel Lewis.

In 2001, another jazz version appeared on television, this one entitled The Swinging Nutcracker.

Another one, using the Ellington-Strayhorn jazz arrangement of the score, and entitled Nutcracker Sweeties, appeared on cable television in 2006, and is available on DVD. It sets the ballet in the United States during the 1940s, and all of the dances, except for the last two, which he actually sees, are visualized by a World War II soldier on leave roaming the streets of New York in a rented car and listening to the jazz arrangement, which is being broadcast over the radio. The choreography is by David Bintley, and the work is performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

A variation of The Nutcracker is performed in the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. During a scene in a speakeasy, "The Nuttycracker Suite" is played. It features jazz versions of the famous dances within The Nutcracker, especially the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Lyrics

A narrated adaptation of the Nutcracker Suite was released on LP as "Captain Kangaroo Introduces You To The Nutcracker Suite" (Captain Kangaroo being played by Bob Keeshan). It is believed that this was produced some time in the 1960s although a copyright date is not available. This work is remarkable for the lyrics that were created as an integral part of the narration.[80] In 1947 Harry Simeone made an arrangement for chorus and orchestra of five movements of the Suite for Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, with lyrics by Jay Johnson, Frank Cunkle, Simeone, Daisy Bernier and Fred Waring. The numbers were the Overture, Dance of the Sugar Plums, Trepak, Dance of the Toy Flutes, and Waltz of the Flowers. A recording was made later in the year.

Musical comedy version

During the Christmas season of 1961, ABC presented a musical special on television entitled The Enchanted Nutcracker. It starred Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence, with child actress Linda Canby as Clara, and featured a script by Samuel and Bella Spewack, who had written the libretto for Kiss Me, Kate. The show, advertised as a "free adaptation" of The Nutcracker, was choreographed by Carol Haney. Information on this program is currently scant, and it is not known whether it even still exists, so it is not clear how much of Tchaikovsky's music was used, but the story was still about a nutcracker who comes to life and takes a little girl to the Kingdom of Sweets. The Nutcracker was portrayed, not by a dancer, but by French actor Pierre Olaf, who also played a new character named Dr. Gombault. Patrick Adiarte, who had played Prince Chulalongkorn in the 1956 film The King and I, also played a Prince in The Enchanted Nutcracker, though clearly, the Nutcracker and the Prince were two entirely different characters in this version. The rôles that Goulet and Lawrence played were also created especially for this adaptation.[81] This television production was shown once and then fell into complete obscurity, never even being rerun on ABC-TV.

Matthew Bourne version

In 1992, choreographer Matthew Bourne staged his own controversial and intentionally satirical version as part of a double-bill (with Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta) which was assembled by Opera North to celebrate the centenary of both works.[82] This version was performed in various locations in Britain and, in 2003, telecast on the Bravo channel, entitled Nutcracker!. It was later released on DVD. It faithfully retains all of the Tchaikovsky music except for "Mother Ginger and her Clowns", but scales down the size of the orchestra, resets the first act mostly in a Dickensian-type orphanage, invents some completely new characters, and introduces much sexual innuendo. As in the 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz, several of the characters have counterparts in the fantasy sequences. The Nutcracker himself resembles the ventriloquist dummy Jerry Mahoney after coming to life, and turns into, not a Prince, but a shirtless stud wearing only overalls, who displays a leer on his face after encountering Clara, and suggestively dances with her. Princess Sugar, the Sugar Plum Fairy, is made into a calculating, slutty woman who steals Clara's stud away from her and marries him, before Clara awakens in the orphanage to, in reality, find him hiding under the covers of her bed, ready to whisk her away for a happily-ever-after ending.[83]

The Secret of the Nutcracker

The Secret of the Nutcracker, a 2007 Canadian made-for-television film which uses some of the ballet characters as well as Tchaikovsky's music, has never been telecast in the U.S., but has been released on DVD.[84] This version, a dramatic film which uses a new plot, features Brian Cox as Drosselmeyer. This "retelling" is set during World War II, and makes Clara's father a prisoner of war. Nazis also feature in this adaptation.

Pop versions

In 1962 a novelty boogie piano arrangement of the "Marche", entitled "Nut Rocker", was a #1 single in the UK, and #21 in the USA. Credited to B. Bumble and the Stingers, it was produced by Kim Fowley and featured studio musicians Al Hazan (piano), Earl Palmer (drums), Tommy Tedesco (guitar) and Red Callender (bass). "Nut Rocker" has subsequently been covered by many others including The Shadows, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Ventures, and the Dropkick Murphys. The Ventures' own instrumental rock cover of "Nut Rocker", known as "Nutty", is commonly connected to the NHL team, the Boston Bruins, from being used as the theme for the Bruins' telecast games for over two decades, from the late 1960s. In 2004, The Invincible Czars arranged, recorded, and now annually perform the entire suite for rock band.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra's first album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, includes an instrumental piece entitled "A Mad Russian's Christmas", which is a rock version of music from The Nutcracker.

On the other end of the scale is the humorous Spike Jones version released in December 1945 and again in 1971 as part of the long play record Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics, one of the rare comedic pop records to be issued on the prestigious RCA Red Seal label.

In 2008 a progressive metal / instrumental rock version of The Nutcracker Suite was released by Christmas at the Devil's House. It includes Overture, March, Sugar Plum Fairy, Russian, Chinese, Arabian, Reed-Flutes, and Waltz of the Flowers.

In 2009, Pet Shop Boys used a melody from the Nutcracker Suite for their track "All Over the World", taken from their album Yes.

Animated versions

There have been several animated versions of the original story, but none can really be actually considered an animated version of the ballet itself. All of these invent characters that appear neither in the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story nor in the ballet.

  • Selections from the Nutcracker Suite were heard in the 1940 Disney animation film Fantasia. In this film, the music from The Nutcracker is accompanied by dancing fairies, mushrooms and fish, among others and, as Deems Taylor mentions, the Nutcracker itself is nowhere in sight. As mentioned before, this suite should not be mistaken for the entire Nutcracker. The suite used is a slightly altered version of the Nutcracker Suite selected by the composer [see The Suite in this article]. As animated in Fantasia, it does not make use of a Christmas setting at all, although snow and ice are shown near the end of it. This version omits the Overture and the Marche, and the remaining dances are reordered (Note: The accompanying animation is provided in parentheses):
1. Danses caractéristiques
a. Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy (Dew Fairies)
b. Chinese Dance (Chinese Mushrooms)
c. Reed-Flutes (Blossoms)
d. Arabian Dance (Goldfish)
e. Russian Dance (Thistles and Orchids)
2. Waltz of the Flowers (Frost Fairies & Snow Fairies)
  • Schelkunchik is a 1973 Russian animated short based on the story with no dialogue, and features Tchaikovsky's music, not only from The Nutcracker, but also from Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. In this version the heroine is not Clara, the daughter of a distinguished Town Council President, but a lonely chambermaid who works in a large house. When she kisses the Nutcracker, he comes to life, but is ashamed of his appearance. He must fight the Mouse King in order to break the spell placed upon him and become a Prince again. Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov featured this version in his PBS television series Stories from My Childhood. The U.S. telecast added narration by Shirley MacLaine.
  • In 1990, another animated version, The Nutcracker Prince, starring the voices of Kiefer Sutherland, Megan Follows, and Peter O'Toole, among others, was released. This one also used Tchaikovsky's music, but was actually a straightforward full-length animated cartoon, not a ballet film. The plot follows E.T.A. Hoffmann's original storyline in having the Nutcracker actually be Drosselmeyer's nephew (Hans in this version), and having Clara meet him again at the end (he does not seem to remember her (though the way he looks at her seems to indicate otherwise), but she recognizes him and instead of saying "Hello, Hans", says "Hello...Nutcracker"). The film does not specify whether or not they marry, or even become engaged, but it gives an indication that there might be romance in the future for the couple. The fantasy elements really do occur in this film version, as in Hoffmann's story. New characters (one of them voiced by Peter O'Toole) are added to the plot.
  • The Jetlag Productions animation studio produced its own version of the story in 1994 entitled, simply "The Nutcracker". The animated adaptation used some of Tchaikovsky's compositions as well as some original melodies and songs.
  • In 1999, a comedy version entitled The Nuttiest Nutcracker became the first computer-animated film released straight to video. An example of the skewed tone that this version took may be inferred from the fact that Phyllis Diller provided the voice of an obese Sugar Plum Fairy. Some of Tchaikovsky's music was used.
  • Barbie in the Nutcracker uses generous chunks of Tchaikovsky's music, and is a direct-to-video digitally animated version of the story with, of course, Barbie the doll, released in 2001. (However, Barbie appears not as Clara, but as herself. Clara, though, looks exactly like Barbie, and is still the main character, and her story is told as a story-within-a-film). The film significantly alters the storyline of the Hoffmann tale, adding all sorts of perils not found in the original story, or the ballet. There is even a Stone Monster, sent by the Mouse King, that chases Clara and the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer is not Clara's godfather but her grandfather, and is depicted as being notably grumpy. It is not Drosselmeyer who gives Clara the Nutcracker, but her aunt, and in this version, Clara is an orphan raised by her grandfather. The Nutcracker, rather than becoming a Prince after his victory in battle, must travel to the Sugar Plum Princess's castle in order for the spell to be broken; defeating the Mouse King is not enough. At the end, Clara turns out to be the Sugar Plum Princess, and her kiss breaks the spell that had been placed on the Nutcracker. Real New York City Ballet dancers were used in the production and rotoscoped in order to properly capture ballet movements - the Trepak, the Adagio from the pas de deux, and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy are performed much as they would be in a live production of The Nutcracker. Peter Martins served as choreographer. In this version, the Prince asks Clara to stay on as his Queen, even telling her "I love you". But Clara is dreaming, and therefore must awaken. However, the couple is reunited in reality when Clara's aunt brings "the son of a friend" over to visit for Christmas. In this version, the Mouse King does not die until near the end. The film also features touches of (sometimes deliberately anachronistic) humor: after the battle with the mice, the Nutcracker, who has not yet regained his form as a Prince, says to Clara, "Thank you for saving my life, and for your superior nursing skills". During the early part of her adventures, Clara maintains a skeptical attitude, even saying "This is crazy" at one point.
  • Princess Tutu, an anime that uses elements from many ballets as both music and as part of the storyline, uses the music from The Nutcracker in many places throughout its run, including using an arranged version of the overture as the theme for the main character. Both the first and last episodes feature The Nutcracker as their 'theme', and one of the main characters is named Drosselmeyer.
  • In 2004, Argus International in Moscow produced an animated version of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", though it has a different tale to tell. The US version was released in 2005 and it features the voices of Leslie Nielsen as the Mouse King, Robert Hays as the mouse Squeak, Fred Willard as the mouse Bubble, and Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) as the voice of Herr Drosselmeyer.
  • A 2007 straight-to-video animated film, Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale, features, of course, the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry, and incorporates elements of the ballet, including some of Tchaikovsky's music, into the film. However, it uses a very different storyline. As in Fantasia, none of the actual characters in the ballet appear, including the Nutcracker himself.
  • The Wonder Pets on Nick Jr. includes a Christmas themed episode called "Save the Nutcracker", featuring the Nutcracker and Mouse King from the original ballet, as well as much of the music.
  • A forthcoming episode of the PBS Kids series Super Why! features the Mouse King as a central character.

Satirical versions

  • One satirical version involves a group of presumably gay boys constructing a show involving the "nut cracker". The stage version involves a chorus of singing parts and various out-of-character renditions of "fairies" and "dancing flowers"[85]
  • In 2008, the Slutcracker made its debut at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA. The ballet, a satirical burlesque version of the classic, produced, choreographed and directed by Vanessa White (A.K.A. Sugar Dish) featured Boston-area actors, burlesque and can-can dancers, drag kings, hoopers, ballerinas, acrobats, and bellydancers. The plot recasts Clara as an adult, the "slutcracker" as an adult toy, and the rat king antagonist as her jealous boyfriend. Because of the show's sell-out popularity it has been booked at the same venue for extended performances in 2009.[86][87]

Upcoming films

A feature-length variation on the tale set in 1920s Vienna, Nutcracker: The Untold Story, featuring John Turturro as the Mouse King, Elle Fanning as Mary (rather than Clara; Mary is her name in the original story) and Nathan Lane as a new character, Uncle Albert, was originally scheduled to be released during the Christmas holiday season of 2009. It reportedly began showing in European countries as early as February 2009, but as of early 2010, has not been given a full-scale U.S. release yet. The film is written and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.[88]

Director Robert Zemeckis is said to be preparing a new "action-adventure"-oriented version of the Hoffmann tale for New Line Cinema.[89][90]

Commercials

A humorous adaptation of "The Dance of the Reed Flutes" was used in a 1975 television commercial for "Cadbury's Fruit and Nut" chocolate bars by the Birmingham UK -based chocolate manufacturer Cadbury. The commercial was voiced by writer and television personality Frank Muir and first line of the ditty was "Everyone's a Fruit and Nut case". In addition, the "Marche" was used as the jingle for "Smurf Berry Crunch" cereal in the early 1980s.

In 2009, IHOP began producing a series of humorous commercials featuring two digitally animated nutcrackers having conversations. The music used is the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

A new GMC Sierra commercial features a GMC Sierra truck, nicknamed the Nutcracker in the advertisement, plowing through snow, and heard as background music is the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. It is played by celeste, as in the ballet, but with a whacking timpani accompaniment added to emphasize the vehicle's power.

Selected Discography

Many recordings have been made since 1909 of the Nutcracker Suite, which made its initial appearance on disc that year in what is now historically considered the first record album.[91] But it was not until the LP album was developed that recordings of the complete ballet began to be made. Because of the ballet's approximate hour and a half length, it fit very comfortably onto two LPs. Most CD recordings take up two discs, often with fillers because the ballet runs for between 80 to 90 minutes. An exception is the 81-minute 1998 Valery Gergiev recording on the Philips Classics label that fit onto one CD because of Gergiev's somewhat faster tempos.

  • 1954, the year in which the Balanchine version of the ballet was first staged, was also the year that the first complete recording - in mono sound - appeared on Mercury Records. It was performed by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Doráti. Dorati later re-recorded the complete ballet in stereo, with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1962 for Mercury and with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1975 for Philips Classics. Some have hailed the 1975 recording as the finest ever made of the complete ballet.[92] It also is faithful to the score in employing a boys choir in the Waltz of the Snowflakes. Many other recordings use an adult or mixed choir.

And with the advent of the stereo LP coinciding with the growing popularity of the complete ballet, many other complete recordings of it have been made over the last 35 years. Notable conductors who have done so include Maurice Abravanel, André Previn, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Richard Bonynge, Semyon Bychkov, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

  • The soundtrack of the 1977 Baryshnikov television production, featuring the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn, was issued in stereo on a CBS Masterworks 2 LP-set, but it has not appeared on CD. (The 78-minute soundtrack would today fit quite easily onto one CD.) The LP soundtrack recording was, for a time, the only stereo version of the Baryshnikov Nutcracker available, since the show was originally telecast only in mono, and it was not until recently that it began to be telecast with stereo sound. The sound portion of the DVD is also in stereo.
  • In addition to the high definition Royal Ballet film version playing in selected theatres in 2009, two major theatrical film versions of the actual ballet have so far been made and released to great fanfare, and each of these two was given its own soundtrack album respectively. (No soundtrack album has ever been made of the Peter Wright Royal Ballet version.)

a) The first theatrical film adaptation, made in 1986, is of the Pacific Northwest Ballet version, and was conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. The music is played in this production by the London Symphony Orchestra. It has yet to make its appearance on DVD.

b) The second film adaptation was a 1993 color film of the New York City Ballet version, titled George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. As mentioned previously, this motion picture used Macaulay Culkin's name for marquee value, although he does dance a (very) few steps. David Zinman conducted the New York City Ballet Orchestra.

Battle of the Nutcrackers

In 2008, Ovation TV held their annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers" viewing contest, giving their audience a choice of which Nutcracker to choose as the best. Out of six television and/or film versions of the ballet, The Hard Nut was chosen as the favorite for the second year in a row, with the Macaulay Culkin - George Balanchine 1993 film voted on as one of the least liked.[93] The Pacific Northwest Ballet version, designed by Maurice Sendak was second choice, with the openly sexual and dysfunctional Maurice Bejart version of 2000 coming in third. (Strangely enough, the Baryshnikov version was not among the candidates, though as of 2008, it remains a huge bestseller on DVD.)

In Ovation's 2009 Battle of the Nutcrackers, "The Hard Nut" was chosen the viewer's favorite for the 3rd year.

Samples

Variation of the Sugar-plum Fairy
Problems playing this file? See media help.

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