Since the late 1960s,The Nutcracker has been danced by many ballet companies, especially in North America.[1] Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of the ballet.[2][3] Its score has been used in several film adaptations of Hoffmann's story.
Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of thecelesta, an instrument the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic balladThe Voyevoda (1891).
After the success ofThe Sleeping Beauty in 1890,Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of theImperial Theatres, commissioned Tchaikovsky to compose a double-bill program featuring both an opera and a ballet. The opera would beIolanta. For the ballet, Tchaikovsky would again join forces with Marius Petipa, with whom he had collaborated onThe Sleeping Beauty. The material Vsevolozhsky chose was an adaptation ofE. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", byAlexandre Dumas called "The Story of a Nutcracker".[4] The plot of Hoffmann's story (and Dumas's adaptation) was greatly simplified for the two-act ballet. Hoffmann's tale contains a longflashback story within its main plot titled "The Tale of the Hard Nut", which explains how the Prince was turned into the Nutcracker. This had to be excised for the ballet.[5]
Petipa gave Tchaikovsky extremely detailed instructions for the composition of each number, down to thetempo and number ofbars.[4] The completion of the work was interrupted for a short time when Tchaikovsky visited the United States for twenty-five days to conduct concerts for the opening ofCarnegie Hall.[6] Tchaikovsky composed parts ofThe Nutcracker inRouen, France.[7]
(Left to right) Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz, in the original production ofThe Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, 1892) Varvara Nikitina as the Sugar Plum Fairy andPavel Gerdt as the Cavalier, in a later performance in the original run ofThe Nutcracker, 1892
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 theImperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[8] Although the libretto was byMarius 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 performance was conducted by Italian composerRiccardo Drigo, withAntonietta Dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy,Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara,Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, andTimofey Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer. Unlike in many later productions, the children's roles were performed by real children – students of theImperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg, with Belinskaya as Clara, and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz – rather than adults.
The first performance ofThe Nutcracker was not deemed a success.[9] The reaction to the dancers themselves was ambivalent. Although some critics praised Dell'Era on herpointework as the Sugar Plum Fairy (she allegedly received five curtain-calls), one critic called her "corpulent" and "podgy". Olga Preobrajenskaya as the Columbine doll was panned by one critic as "completely insipid" and praised as "charming" by another.[10]
Alexandre Benois described the choreography of the battle scene as confusing: "One can not understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards and forwards – quite amateurish."[10]
The libretto was criticized as "lopsided"[11] and for not being faithful to the Hoffmann tale. Much of the criticism focused on the featuring of children so prominently in the ballet,[12] and many bemoaned the fact that the ballerina did not dance until theGrand Pas de Deux near the end of the second act (which did not occur until nearly midnight during the program).[11] Some found the transition between the mundane world of the first scene and the fantasy world of the second act too abrupt.[4] Reception was better for Tchaikovsky's score. Some critics called it "astonishingly rich in detailed inspiration" and "from beginning to end, beautiful, melodious, original, and characteristic".[13] But this also was not unanimous, as some critics found the party scene "ponderous" and theGrand Pas de Deux "insipid".[14]
In 1919, choreographerAlexander Gorsky staged a production which eliminated the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier and gave their dances to Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, who were played by adults instead of children. This was the first production to do so. An abridged version of the ballet was first performed outside Russia in Budapest (Royal Opera House) in 1927, with choreography by Ede Brada.[15][unreliable source?] In 1934, choreographerVasili Vainonen staged a version of the work that addressed many of the criticisms of the original 1892 production by casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, as Gorsky had. The Vainonen version influenced several later productions.[4]
The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934,[9] staged byNicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. Annual performances of the ballet have been staged there since 1952.[16] Another abridged version of the ballet, performed by theBallet Russe de Monte Carlo, was staged in New York City in 1940,[17]Alexandra Fedorova – again, after Petipa's version.[9] The ballet's first complete United States performance was on 24 December 1944 by theSan Francisco Ballet, staged by its artistic director,Willam Christensen, and starring Gisella Caccialanza as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Jocelyn Vollmar as the Snow Queen.[18][9] After the enormous success of this production, San Francisco Ballet has presentedNutcracker every Christmas Eve and throughout the winter season, debuting new productions in 1944, 1954, 1967, and 2004. The original Christensen version continues inSalt Lake City, where Christensen relocated in 1948. It has been performed every year since 1963 by the Christensen-foundedBallet West.[19]
TheNew York City Ballet gave its first annual performance ofGeorge Balanchine's reworked staging ofThe Nutcracker in 1954.[9] The performance ofMaria Tallchief in the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy helped elevate the work from obscurity into an annual Christmas classic and the industry's most reliable box-office draw. Critic Walter Terry remarked that "Maria Tallchief, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, is herself a creature of magic, dancing the seemingly impossible with effortless beauty of movement, electrifying us with her brilliance, enchanting us with her radiance of being. Does she have any equals anywhere, inside or outside of fairyland? While watching her inThe Nutcracker, one is tempted to doubt it."[20]
Below is a synopsis based on the original 1892 libretto by Marius Petipa. The story varies from production to production, though most follow the basic outline. The names of the characters also vary. In the original Hoffmann story, the young heroine is called Marie Stahlbaum and Clara (Klärchen) is her doll's name. In the adaptation by Dumas on which Petipa based his libretto, her name is Marie Silberhaus.[5] In still other productions, such as Balanchine's, Clara is Marie Stahlbaum rather than Clara Silberhaus.
Konstantin Ivanov's original sketch for the set ofThe Nutcracker (1892)
InNuremberg, Germany on Christmas Eve in the 1820s, a family and their friends gather in the parlor to decorate the Christmas tree in preparation for the party. Once the tree is finished, the children are summoned.
When the party begins,[22] presents are given out to the children. When the owl-topped grandfather clock strikes eight, a mysterious figure enters the room. It is Drosselmeyer—a councilman, magician, and Clara's godfather. He is also a talented toymaker who has brought with him gifts for the children, including four lifelike dolls who dance to the delight of all.[23] He then has them put away for safekeeping.
Clara and her brother Fritz are sad to see the dolls being taken away, but Drosselmeyer has yet another toy for them: a woodennutcracker doll, which the other children ignore. Clara immediately takes a liking to it, but Fritz accidentally breaks it. Clara is heartbroken, but Drosselmeyer fixes the nutcracker, much to everyone's relief.
During the night, after everyone else has gone to bed, Clara returns to the parlor to check on the nutcracker. As she reaches the small bed, the clock strikes midnight and she looks up to see Drosselmeyer perched atop it. Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and the Christmas tree begins to grow to dizzying heights. The nutcracker also grows to life size. Clara finds herself in the midst of a battle between an army of gingerbread soldiers and the mice, led by their king.
The nutcracker appears to lead the gingerbread men, who are joined by tin soldiers, and by dolls who serve as doctors to carry away the wounded. As the seven-headed Mouse King advances on the still-wounded nutcracker, Clara throws her slipper at him, distracting him long enough for the nutcracker to stab him.[24]
Scene 2: A Pine Forest
The mice retreat and the nutcracker is transformed into a human prince.[25] He leads Clara through the moonlit night to a pine forest in which the snowflakes dance around them, beckoning them on to his kingdom as the first act ends.[26][27]
Ivan Vsevolozhsky's original costume designs for Mother Gigogne and her Polichinelle children, 1892
Clara and the Prince travel to the beautiful Land of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Prince's place until his return. He recounts for her how he had been saved from the Mouse King by Clara and transformed back into himself.In honor of the young heroine, a celebration of sweets from around the world is produced: chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia,[28][29] tea from China,[30] and candy canes from Russia[31] all dance for their amusement; Marzipan shepherdesses perform on their flutes;[32] Mother Ginger has her children, thePolichinelles, emerge from under her enormous hoop skirt to dance; a string of beautiful flowers performs a waltz.[33][34] To conclude the night, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier perform a dance.[35][36]
A final waltz is performed by all the sweets, after which the Sugar Plum Fairy ushers Clara and the Prince down from their throne. He bows to her, she kisses Clara goodbye, and leads them to a reindeer-drawn sleigh. It takes off as they wave goodbye to all the subjects who wave back.
In the original libretto, the ballet's apotheosis "represents a large beehive with flying bees, closely guarding their riches".[37] Just likeSwan Lake, there have been various alternative endings created in productions subsequent to the original.
The Nutcracker is one of the composer's most popular compositions. The music belongs to theRomantic 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 theChristmas season.[38])
Tchaikovsky is said to have argued with a friend who wagered that the composer could not write a melody based on a one-octave scale 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 theGrand pas de deux, which, in the ballet, nearly always immediately follows the "Waltz of the Flowers". A story is also told that Tchaikovsky's sister Alexandra (9 January 1842 — 9 April 1891[39]) 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.[40] However, it is more naturally perceived as a dreams-come-true theme because of another celebrated scale use, the ascending one in theBarcarolle fromThe Seasons.[41]
Tchaikovsky was less satisfied withThe Nutcracker than withThe Sleeping Beauty. (In the filmFantasia, commentatorDeems Taylor observes that he "really detested" the score.) Tchaikovsky accepted the commission from Vsevolozhsky but did not particularly want to write the ballet[42] (though he did write to a friend while composing it, "I am daily becoming more and more attuned to my task").[43]
Titles of all of the numbers listed here come from Marius Petipa's original scenario as well as the original libretto and programs of the first production of 1892. All libretti and programs of works performed on the stages of the Imperial Theatres were titled in French, which was the official language of the Imperial Court, as well as the language from which balletic terminology is derived.
Casse-Noisette.Ballet-féerie in two acts and three tableaux with apotheosis.
Act I
Petite ouverture
Scène: Une fête de Noël
Marche et petit galop des enfants
Danse des incroyables et merveilleuses
Entrée de Drosselmeyer
Danses des poupées mécaniques—
Le Soldat et la vivandière
Arlequin et Colombine(originally composed for a She-devil and a He-devil)
List of acts, scenes (tableaux) and musical numbers, along withtempo indications. Numbers are given according to the original Russian and French titles of the first edition score (1892), the piano reduction score bySergei Taneyev (1892), both published byP. Jurgenson in Moscow, and the Soviet collected edition of the composer's works, as reprinted Melville, New York: Belwin Mills [n.d.][44]
Scene
No.
English title
French title
Russian title
Tempo indication
Notes
Listen
Act I
Miniature Overture
Ouverture miniature
Увертюра
Allegro giusto
Tableau I
1
Scene (The Christmas Tree)
Scène (L'arbre de Noël)
Сцена (Сцена украшения и зажигания ёлки)
Allegro non troppo – Più moderato – Allegro vivace
scene of decorating and lighting the Christmas tree
2
March (also March of the Toy Soldiers)
Marche
Марш
Tempo di marcia viva
3
Children's Gallop and Dance of the Parents
Petit galop des enfants et Entrée des parents
Детский галоп и вход (танец) родителей
Presto – Andante – Allegro
4
Dance Scene (Arrival of Drosselmeyer)
Scène dansante
Сцена с танцами
Andantino – Allegro vivo – Andantino sostenuto – Più andante – Allegro molto vivace – Tempo di Valse – Presto
Drosselmeyer's arrival and distribution of presents
Tchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet before the ballet's December 1892 première, formingThe 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 Saint Petersburg branch of the Musical Society.[46] The suite became instantly popular, with almost every number encored at its premiere,[47] while the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after theGeorge Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City.[48] The suite became very popular on the concert stage, and was excerpted inDisney'sFantasia, omitting the two movements prior to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.[49] The outline below represents the selection and sequence of theNutcracker Suite made by the composer:
Miniature Overture (B-Flat Major)
Characteristic Dances
March (G Major)
Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy (E Minor)[ending altered from ballet version]
TheParaphrase on Tchaikovsky's Flower Waltz is a successful piano arrangement from one of the movements fromThe Nutcracker by the pianist and composerPercy Grainger.
Pletnev: Concert suite fromThe Nutcracker, for solo piano
In 1942,Freddy Martin and his orchestra recordedThe Nutcracker Suite for Dance Orchestra on a set of 4 10-inch 78-RPM records issued byRCA Victor. An arrangement of the suite that lay between dance music and jazz.[50]
In 1947,Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians recorded "The Nutcracker Suite" on a two-partDecca Records 12-inch 78 RPM record with one part on each side as Decca DU 90022,[51] packaged in a picture sleeve. This version had custom lyrics written for Waring's chorus by, among others, Waring himself. The arrangements were byHarry Simeone.
In 1960,Duke Ellington andBilly Strayhorn composed jazz interpretations of pieces from Tchaikovsky's score, recorded and released on LP asThe Nutcracker Suite.[53] In 1999, this suite was supplemented with additional arrangements from the score by David Berger forThe Harlem Nutcracker, a production of the ballet by choreographerDonald Byrd (born 1949) set during theHarlem Renaissance.[54]
In 1962, American poet and humoristOgden Nash wrote verses inspired by the ballet,[55] and these verses have sometimes been performed in concert versions of theNutcracker Suite. It has been recorded withPeter Ustinov reciting the verses, and the music is unchanged from the original.[56]
On the other end of the scale is the comedic version bySpike Jones and his City Slickers released by RCA Victor in December 1945 as "Spike Jones presents for the Kiddies: The Nutcracker Suite (With Apologies to Tchaikovsky)", featuring humorous lyrics by Foster Carling and additional music by Joe "Country" Washburne. An abridged and resequenced version of this recording was issued in 1971 on the LP albumSpike Jones is Murdering the Classics, one of the rare comedic pop records to be issued on the prestigiousRCA Red Seal label.
International choreographerVal Caniparoli has created several versions of The Nutcracker ballet forLouisville Ballet,Cincinnati Ballet,Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Grand Rapids Ballet.[57] While his ballets remain classically rooted, he has contemporarized them with changes such as making Marie an adult instead of a child, or having Drosselmeir emerges through the clock face during the overture making "him more humorous and mischievous."[58] Caniparoli has been influenced by his simultaneous career as a dancer, having joined San Francisco Ballet in 1971 and performing as Drosselmeir and other various Nutcracker roles ever since that time.[59]
TheDisco Biscuits, a trance-fusion jam band from Philadelphia, have performed "Waltz of the Flowers" and "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" on multiple occasions.
TheLos Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) recorded the Suite arranged for four acoustic guitars on their CD recordingDances from Renaissance to Nutcracker (1992, Delos).
The Shirim Klezmer Orchestra released aklezmer version, titled "Klezmer Nutcracker", in 1998 on the Newport label. The album became the basis for a December 2008 production byEllen Kushner, titledThe Klezmer Nutcracker and stagedoff-Broadway in New York City.[60]
In 2002,The Constructus Corporation used the melody ofSugar Plum Fairy for their track "Choose Your Own Adventure".
In 2009,Pet Shop Boys used a melody from "March" for their track "All Over the World", taken from their albumYes.
In 2012, jazz pianistEyran Katsenelenbogen released his renditions ofDance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,Dance of the Reed Flutes,Russian Dance andWaltz of the Flowers from theNutcracker Suite.
In 2014,Pentatonix released an a cappella arrangement of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" on the holiday albumThat's Christmas to Me and received a Grammy Award on 16 February 2016 for best arrangement.
In 2016,Jennifer Thomas included an instrumental version of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" on her albumWinter Symphony.
In 2018,Pentatonix released an a cappella arrangement of "Waltz of the Flowers" on the holiday albumChristmas Is Here!.
In 2019,Madonna sampled a portion on her song "Dark Ballet" from herMadame X album.[62]
In 2019,Mariah Carey released a normal and an a cappella version of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" entitled the "Sugar Plum Fairy Introlude" to open and close her 25th Deluxe Anniversary Edition ofMerry Christmas.[63]
In 2020,Coone made a hardstyle cover version titled "The Nutcracker".[64]
The Nutcracker made its initial appearance on disc in 1909 in an abridged performance on theOdeon label. Historically, this 4-disc set is considered to be the first record album.[65] The recording was conducted byHerman Finck and featured the London Palace Orchestra.[66] It was not until after the modernLP record appeared in 1948 that recordings of the complete ballet began to be made. Because of the ballet's approximate ninety minute length when performed without intermission, applause, or interpolated numbers, the music requires two LPs. MostCD issues of the music take up two discs, often with fillers. An exception is the 81-minute 1998Philips recording byValery Gergiev that fits onto one CD because of Gergiev's somewhat brisker tempi.
In 1954, the first complete recording of the ballet was released on two LPs byMercury Records. The cover design was by George Maas with illustrations by Dorothy Maas.[67] The music was performed by theMinneapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted byAntal Doráti. Doráti later re-recorded the complete ballet in stereo, with theLondon Symphony Orchestra in 1962 for Mercury and with the AmsterdamConcertgebouw Orchestra in 1975 forPhilips Classics. According to Mercury Records, the 1962 recording was made on 35mm magnetic film rather than audio tape, and used albumcover art identical to that of the 1954 recording.[68][69] Doráti is the only conductor so far to have made three different recordings of the complete ballet. Some critics have cited the 1975 recording as the finest ever made of the complete ballet.[70] It is also faithful to the score in employing a boys' choir in theWaltz of the Snowflakes. Many other recordings use an adult or mixed choir.
The first complete stereoNutcracker with a Russian conductor and a Russian orchestra appeared in 1960, whenGennady Rozhdestvensky's recording with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, was issued first in the Soviet Union on theMelodiya label, then imported to the U.S. byColumbia Masterworks. It was also Columbia Masterworks' first completeNutcracker.[71]
The soundtrack of the 1977 television production with Mikhail Baryshnikov andGelsey Kirkland, featuring theNational Philharmonic Orchestra conducted byKenneth Schermerhorn, was issued in stereo on a Columbia Masterworks 2 LP-set, but has not appeared on CD. The LP soundtrack recording was, for a time, the only stereo version of the BaryshnikovNutcracker available, since the performance was originally telecast in monophonic sound. The DVD of the performance is in stereo.
There have been two major theatrical film versions of the ballet, and both have corresponding soundtrack albums.
The first theatrical film adaptation, made in 1985, is of thePacific Northwest Ballet version, and was conducted by SirCharles Mackerras. The music is played in this production by theLondon Symphony Orchestra. The film was directed byCarroll Ballard, who had never before directed a ballet film (and has not done so since). Patricia Barker played Clara in the fantasy sequences, and Vanessa Sharp played her in the Christmas party scene. Wade Walthall was the Nutcracker Prince.
The second film adaptation was a 1993 film of the New York City Ballet version, titledGeorge Balanchine's The Nutcracker, withDavid Zinman conducting the New York City Ballet Orchestra. The director wasEmile Ardolino, who had won the Emmy, Obie, and Academy Awards for filming dance, and was to die of AIDS later that year. Principal dancers included the Balanchine museDarci Kistler, who played the Sugar Plum Fairy,Heather Watts,Damian Woetzel, andKyra Nichols. Two well-known actors also took part:Macaulay Culkin appeared as the Nutcracker/Prince, andKevin Kline served as the offscreen narrator. The soundtrack features the interpolated number fromThe Sleeping Beauty that Balanchine used in the production, and the music is heard on the album in the order that it appears in the film, not in the order that it appears in the original ballet.[74]
Ormandy, Reiner and Fiedler never recorded a complete version of the ballet; however, Kunzel's album of excerpts runs 73 minutes, containing more than two-thirds of the music. ConductorNeeme Järvi has recorded act 2 of the ballet complete, along with excerpts fromSwan Lake. The music is played by theRoyal Scottish National Orchestra.[77]
In the United States, commentary emerged in the 2010s about the Chinese and Arabian characteristic dances. In a 2014 article titled "Sorry, 'The Nutcracker' Is Racist", writerAlice Robb panned the typical choreography of the Chinese dance as white people wearing "harem pants and a straw hat, eyes painted to look slanted" and "wearing chopsticks in their black wigs"; the Arabian dance, she said, has a woman who "slinks around the stage in a belly shirt, bells attached to her ankles".[78] Similarly, dance professor Jennifer Fisher at theUniversity of California, Irvine, complained in 2018 about the use in the Chinese dance of "bobbing, subservient 'kowtow' steps,Fu Manchu mustaches, and, especially, the often-used saffron-tinged makeup, widely known as 'yellowface.'"[79]In 2013,Dance Magazine printed the opinions of three directors: Ronald Alexander of Steps on Broadway andThe Harlem School of the Arts said the characters in some of the dances were "borderline caricatures, if not downright demeaning", and that some productions had made changes to improve this; Stoner Winslett of theRichmond Ballet saidThe Nutcracker was not racist and that her productions had a "diverse cast"; andDonald Byrd of Spectrum Dance Theater saw the ballet as Eurocentric and not racist.[80] Some people who have performed in productions of the ballet do not see a problem because they are continuing what is viewed as "a tradition".[78] According toGeorge Balanchine, the Arabian dance was a sensuous belly dance intended for the fathers, not the children.[81]
Among the attempts to change the dances in the United States wereAustin McCormick making the Arabian dance into apole dance, andSan Francisco Ballet andVirginia Ballet Company & School changing the Chinese dance to adragon dance.[78]Georgina Pazcoguin of theNew York City Ballet and former dancer Phil Chan started the "Final Bow for Yellowface" movement and created a web site which explained the history of the practices and suggested changes. One of their points was that only the Chinese dance made dancers look like an ethnic group other than the one they belonged to. The New York City Ballet went on to dropgeisha wigs and makeup and change some dance moves. Some other ballet companies followed.[79]
The Nutcracker's "Arabian" dance is in fact an embellished, exotified version of a traditionalGeorgian lullaby, with no genuine connection to the Arab culture.[82]Alastair Macaulay ofThe New York Times defended Tchaikovsky, saying he "never intended his Chinese and Arabian music to be ethnographically correct".[83] He said, "their extraordinary color and energy are far from condescending, and they make the world of 'The Nutcracker' larger."[83] To change anything is to "unbalanceThe Nutcracker" with music the author did not write. If there were stereotypes, Tchaikovsky also used them in representing his own country of Russia.[83]
The 2015 Canadian television filmThe Curse of Clara: A Holiday Tale, based on an autobiographical short story by onetime Canadian ballet student Vickie Fagan, centres on a young ballet student preparing to dance the role of Clara in a production ofThe Nutcracker.[84]
There have been several recorded children's adaptations of the E. T. A. Hoffmann story (the basis for the ballet) using Tchaikovsky's music, some quite faithful, some not. One that was not was a version titledThe Nutcracker Suite for Children, narrated by Metropolitan Opera announcerMilton Cross, which used a two-piano arrangement of the music. It was released as a 78-RPM album set in the 1940s. A later version, titledThe Nutcracker Suite, starredDenise Bryer and a full cast, was released in the 1960s on LP and made use of Tchaikovsky's music in the original orchestral arrangements. It was quite faithful to Hoffmann's storyThe Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which the ballet is based, even to the point of including the section in which Clara cuts her arm on the glass toy cabinet, and also mentioning that she married the Prince at the end. It also included a less gruesome version of "The Tale of the Hard Nut", the tale-within-a-tale in Hoffmann's story. It was released as part of theTale Spinners for Children series.[85]
Spike Jones produced a 78 rpm record set "Spike Jones presents for the kiddies The Nutcracker Suite (with Apologies to Tchaikovsky)" in 1944. It includes the tracks: "The Little Girl's Dream", "Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "The Fairy Ball", "The Mysterious Room", "Back to the Fairy Ball" and "End of the Little Girl's Dream". This is all done in typical Spike Jones style, with the addition of choruses and some swing music. The entire recording is available at archive.com[86]
In 2009,Pulitzer Prize–winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman wrote a series of articles forThe Washington Post criticizing the primacy ofThe Nutcracker in the American repertory for stunting the creative evolution of ballet in the United States:[87][88][89]
That warm and welcoming veneer of domestic bliss inThe Nutcracker gives the appearance that all is just plummy in the ballet world. But ballet is beset by serious ailments that threaten its future in this country... companies are so cautious in their programming that they have effectively reduced an art form to a rotation of over-roasted chestnuts that no one can justifiably croon about... The tyranny ofThe Nutcracker is emblematic of how dull and risk-averse American ballet has become. There were moments throughout the 20th century when ballet was brave. When it threw bold punches at its own conventions. First among these was theBallets Russes period, when ballet—ballet—lassoed the avant-garde art movement and, with works such asMichel Fokine's fashionably sexyScheherazade (1910) andLéonide Massine'sCubist-inspiredParade (1917), made world capitals sit up and take notice. Afraid of scandal? Not these free-thinkers;Vaslav Nijinsky's rough-hewn, aggressiveRite of Spring famously put Paris in an uproar in 1913... Where are this century's provocations? Has ballet become so entwined with its "Nutcracker" image, so fearfully wedded to unthreatening offerings, that it has forgotten how eye-opening and ultimately nourishing creative destruction can be?[88]
In 2010,Alastair Macaulay, dance critic forThe New York Times (who had previously taken Kaufman to task for her criticism ofThe Nutcracker[90]) beganThe Nutcracker Chronicles, a series of blog articles documenting his travels across the United States to see different productions of the ballet.[91]
Act I ofThe Nutcracker ends with snow falling and snowflakes dancing. YetThe Nutcracker is now seasonal entertainment even in parts of America where snow seldom falls: Hawaii, the California coast, Florida. Over the last 70 years this ballet—conceived in the Old World—has become an American institution. Its amalgam of children, parents, toys, a Christmas tree, snow, sweets and Tchaikovsky's astounding score is integral to the season of good will that runs from Thanksgiving to New Year... I am a European who lives in America, and I never saw anyNutcracker until I was 21. Since then I've seen it many times. The importance of this ballet to America has become a phenomenon that surely says as much about this country as it does about this work of art. So this year I'm running aNutcracker marathon: taking in as many different American productions as I can reasonably manage in November and December, from coast to coast (more than 20, if all goes well). America is a country I'm still discovering; letThe Nutcracker be part of my research.[92]
In 2014, Ellen O'Connell, who trained with the Royal Ballet in London, wrote, inSalon (website), on the darker side ofThe Nutcracker story. In E. T. A. Hoffmann's original story, theNutcracker and Mouse King, Marie's (Clara's), journey becomes a fevered delirium that transports her to a land where she sees sparkling Christmas Forests and Marzipan Castles, but in a world populated with dolls.[93] Hoffmann's tales were so bizarre,Sigmund Freud wrote about them inThe Uncanny.[94][95]
E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 fairy tale, on which the ballet is based, is troubling: Marie, a young girl, falls in love with a nutcracker doll, whom she only sees come alive when she falls asleep. ...Marie falls, ostensibly in a fevered dream, into a glass cabinet, cutting her arm badly. She hears stories of trickery, deceit, a rodent mother avenging her children's death, and a character who must never fall asleep (but of course does, with disastrous consequences). While she heals from her wound, the mouse king brainwashes her in her sleep. Her family forbids her from speaking of her "dreams" anymore, but when she vows to love even an ugly nutcracker, he comes alive and she marries him.
^Tchaikovsky, P. (2004).The Nutcracker: Complete Score, Dover Publications.
^ab"Ballet and Food".art-eda.ru (in Russian). Artoteka of Food. 21 November 2018. Retrieved4 December 2020.Russian trepak "Candy Cane" and dance of sugar shepherds "Danish Marzipan"
"Russian Seasons in Monaco".rusmonaco.fr (in Russian). Monaco and Cote D'Azur (printed Russian-language newspaper and magazine in Monaco and France). Retrieved4 December 2020.
^Alexeyev, Alexander (5 August 2019)."Баян для Мадонны. Чайковский в новом альбоме Madame X" [Bayan [also a slang word for anything related to media content: videos, pictures, news, and an old post as fresh news] for Madonna. Tchaikovsky on the newMadame X album] (in Russian).Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Archived fromthe original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved6 December 2020.
^Lewis Segal.‘Nutcracker’ standard has 1,001 versions,Los Angeles Times: 10 December 2006 "...don’t look for its sources in the Middle East. Tchaikovsky took a Georgian lullaby for the Arabian Dance...It’s a Georgian melody, not Arabian..."
^abcMacaulay, Alastair (6 September 2012)."Stereotypes in Toeshoes".The New York Times. Retrieved13 February 2020.
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