ROYAL CLASSICAL BALLET - DER NUSSKNACKER

In the organizer's words:

"Marie is in joyful anticipation of Christmas Eve. Among many other gifts, she receives from the old, mysterious Uncle Drosselmeier, in addition to a dancing, mechanical figure, a nutcracker, which particularly appeals to Marie's childlike imagination. Delighted, she falls asleep under the Christmas tree with the nutcracker in her arms. She has a strange dream. Uncle Drosselmeier makes the Christmas tree grow to infinity, the Nutcracker comes to life..."

The story takes the audience to the magic kingdom, where the good and the beautiful reign and where even as an adult you always want to return. The fascinating splendor of the set and costumes, the fairy-tale plot, the music and dance complete the vital work full of romance and make the ballet evening a real feast.

The libretto of "The Nutcracker" is based on the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E. T. A. Hoffmann. This theme, new for the composer, the discovery of the world by children on the threshold of adolescence, borrowed ideas from the symphonic world and resulted in a lyrical-philosophical poem. The "Nutcracker", not exactly extensive according to usual categories (only two acts), conceived as a puppet ballet for children, became a harbinger for many phenomena of Russian ballet theater at the beginning of the 20th century due to the significance and richness of its content as well as its new form.

The story of its origin is told that Modest Tchaikovsky arranged the fairy tale of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", by the German poet E.T.A. Hoffmann, which became famous all over the world just in the last years of the 19th century, into a nursery play for his sister's children. The composing brother Peter Ilyich might have been present at this family idyll. He reported about it to his "Sleeping Beauty" choreographer Marius Petipa. Thus the plan was born to make a ballet out of this "Nutcracker" story.