45 Fun Facts About The Nutcracker

Who composed the music for The Nutcracker?

It was his third and last ballet. He also wrote Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.

In which year did the ballet premiere?

The Nutcracker premiered on 18 December 1892 in Saint Petersburg, sharing a double bill with a one-act opera by the same composer.

At which theatre was the ballet first performed?

The Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg staged the first performance; it was the home of the tsar's Imperial Ballet, whose ballet master Marius Petipa devised the scenario.

Which choreographer took over when Marius Petipa fell ill?

Lev Ivanov, Petipa's second ballet master since 1885, completed the choreography after Petipa fell ill during rehearsals.

The ballet's plot comes from an 1844 French adaptation by which writer?

Alexandre Dumas published his lighter French retelling in 1844, and Petipa's libretto followed the Dumas version rather than the German original.

Who wrote the 1816 German tale the ballet ultimately derives from?

E. T. A. Hoffmann, a jurist who also composed, published Nussknacker und Mausekönig in 1816, a far darker tale than the ballet it inspired.

What is the heroine called in the original German tale?

Ballet productions usually rename her. Her godfather gives the family a clockwork castle in both versions.

What are Drosselmeier's occupations in the original tale?

Judge, clockmaker and inventor describes Drosselmeier in the tale: a senior court councillor who builds clockwork toys, including the mechanical castle he gives the children.

How many heads does the Mouse King have in the original tale?

Seven heads, each with its own crown, sit on the Mouse King in the 1816 tale; many ballet stagings reduce him to a single head.

Which section of the original tale is usually cut from ballet adaptations?

The Fairytale of the Hard Nut is a three-chapter story-within-a-story explaining the Nutcracker's curse; Mark Morris's The Hard Nut is a rare staging that includes it.

Which instrument gives the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy its famous sound?

Tchaikovsky had already used it in a symphonic ballad the year before. It had only been invented in 1886.

Who invented the bell-toned keyboard heard in the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance, and when?

Auguste Mustel in 1886 patented the instrument in Paris, where his family built harmoniums; Tchaikovsky heard it there in 1891 and ordered one through his publisher.

How does the keyboard heard in the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance produce its sound?

Hammers strike metal plates suspended over wooden resonator boxes, so the tone is softer and sweeter than a glockenspiel's exposed bars.

Which composer named the Sugar Plum Fairy's keyboard instrument in a 1936 work's title?

Béla Bartók wrote the 1936 work on a commission from Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra; its slow movement pairs the instrument with piano and harp.

Which of these dances is NOT part of the Act II divertissement?

The Dance of the Swans comes from Swan Lake, not this ballet; the Act II divertissement runs through sweets and flowers, from Arabian coffee to the reed flutes.

In the Act II divertissement, which country does the chocolate dance represent?

Spain is the chocolate dance's country, a bolero-like number with trumpet and castanets, because chocolate reached Europe through Spanish colonies in the Americas.

When was the Nutcracker Suite first performed?

March 1892, before the ballet reached the stage, the composer conducted the suite at a Musical Society concert in Saint Petersburg, where several numbers were encored.

How was the first performance of the ballet received?

It was not deemed a success at the premiere: critics found the first act's children tiresome and the Sugar Plum Fairy's dancer, Antonietta Dell'Era, unattractive.

Whose 1954 staging turned the ballet into an American Christmas institution?

George Balanchine staged his version for New York City Ballet in 1954, drawing on boyhood memories of dancing in the Saint Petersburg production; it became an annual fixture.

How many numbers make up the concert suite Tchaikovsky drew from the ballet?

Eight numbers make up the suite: a miniature overture, the march, the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance, four character dances and one waltz.

Where was Tchaikovsky born in 1840?

Votkinsk, a small ironworks town in Vyatka Governorate (now Udmurtia), was his birthplace; his father managed the state metalworks there.

What is Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 usually attributed to?

He died in Saint Petersburg aged 53, days after conducting his sixth symphony. Rumours of suicide have circulated ever since.

Which of these is NOT one of Tchaikovsky's three ballets?

Giselle is by Adolphe Adam and premiered in Paris in 1841; the other three are Tchaikovsky's complete output of full-length ballets.

Who was Nadezhda von Meck?

A railway magnate's widow who was his patron, she paid him an allowance of 6,000 roubles a year from 1877 to 1890; they corresponded for years but by agreement never met.

Which orchestral piece with cannon fire is among Tchaikovsky's best-known works?

The 1812 Overture, written in 1880, commemorates the repulse of Napoleon's invasion and calls for cannon shots and church bells in its finale.

Which German mountain region is the traditional home of carved nutcracker dolls?

The Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains along Saxony's border with Bohemia, turned to wooden toy-carving as its silver and tin mining declined.

Who did traditional German nutcracker dolls depict, and why?

Kings and soldiers, as political satire: Saxon village carvers made figures of authority do the humble work of cracking nuts, a quiet joke at the ruling class's expense.

How did the dolls become popular in America?

Soldiers brought them home after the Second World War from postings in Germany, and the ballet's rise as an American Christmas fixture in the 1950s cemented the craze.

In which town did the first mass production of nutcracker dolls begin in 1872?

Seiffen, a village in the Saxon mountains near the Bohemian border, is where Wilhelm Füchtner began commercial nutcracker production in 1872, earning the name father of the nutcracker.

Which Tchaikovsky work used the Sugar Plum Fairy's bell-toned keyboard before the ballet did?

The Voyevoda, a symphonic ballad premiered in Moscow in November 1891, was his first score to use the new keyboard; he tore up the manuscript after the concert.

Where did Tchaikovsky study composition?

The Saint Petersburg Conservatory opened in 1862 with Tchaikovsky among its first students; he graduated in 1865 and then moved to Moscow to teach.

Who taught Tchaikovsky harmony and counterpoint?

Nikolai Zaremba taught him harmony and counterpoint from 1861, first in the Musical Society's classes and then at the newly opened conservatory, while Anton Rubinstein took composition.

Where was Tchaikovsky buried?

Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg holds his grave, near those of Mussorgsky, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Which country does the tea dance represent in Act II?

China is the tea dance's country: a brisk minute-long number for flutes and piccolo over a staccato bassoon ostinato.

What do the candy canes represent in the Act II suite?

Russia is the country: the candy canes of Balanchine's staging dance the Trepak, a fast folk dance in 2/4 that the score labels Danse russe.

The ballet premiered on a double bill with which opera, the composer's last?

Iolanta, a one-act opera about a blind princess, shared the bill; Ivan Vsevolozhsky commissioned both halves and Riccardo Drigo conducted the premiere.

Work on the score paused while the composer sailed to America to open which concert venue?

Carnegie Hall, then simply the Music Hall, opened in May 1891 with Tchaikovsky conducting his own works at the inaugural concerts; he was in America about 25 days.

Whose Sugar Plum Fairy in the 1954 New York City Ballet staging made the ballet a Christmas fixture?

Maria Tallchief, the Osage-born ballerina who was the company's first prima ballerina, danced the Sugar Plum Fairy at the 1954 premiere.

Who breaks Clara's nutcracker at the Christmas Eve party?

Fritz, Clara's brother, snatches the nutcracker and breaks it; Drosselmeyer binds the jaw with a handkerchief before the children go to bed.

What does Clara throw at the Mouse King to save the wounded nutcracker?

Her slipper, flung at the Mouse King, distracts him long enough for the Nutcracker to stab him; the mice retreat and the toy becomes a prince.

The original libretto's closing tableau, or apotheosis, depicted what?

A large beehive with flying bees guarding their riches was the libretto's final tableau; later productions ended instead with a departing sleigh or Clara waking from her dream.

The 'Arabian' coffee dance is really an embellished lullaby from which country?

Georgia supplied the tune: a Georgian lullaby passed on to Tchaikovsky by the composer Ippolitov-Ivanov, who had collected folk songs while living in Tbilisi.

Which lyricist put words to the ballet's music for the 2010 flop The Nutcracker in 3D?

Tim Rice, the Evita and Lion King lyricist, set words to Tchaikovsky's themes for Andrei Konchalovsky's film, which grossed a fraction of its roughly $90 million budget.

Which children's illustrator collaborated with Pacific Northwest Ballet on the 1986 film version?

Maurice Sendak designed the 1983 Pacific Northwest Ballet production with Kent Stowell, and Carroll Ballard's 1986 film Nutcracker: The Motion Picture used those designs.

Whose 1919 staging first handed the Sugar Plum Fairy's dances to Clara and the Prince?

Gorsky also cast adults in the children's roles; Vainonen's 1934 version adopted the same fixes and influenced many later productions.