48 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 first performance was at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on 18 December. It was not considered a success at the time.

At which theatre was the ballet first performed?

It sits in Saint Petersburg. The premiere took place four days before Christmas in 1892.

Which choreographer took over when Marius Petipa fell ill?

He had been Petipa's assistant for seven years. Petipa had begun the choreography in August 1892.

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

His 1844 story retold a German tale from 1816. The Russians worked from the French version, not the original.

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

He was a lawyer, composer and writer of unsettling fantasy. The original story is far darker than the ballet.

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?

He gives the children a clockwork castle with mechanical people inside. The ballet keeps the mystery and drops the day job.

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

He comes up through the floorboards. Ballet versions vary the count, and some give him only one.

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

It is a long story-within-a-story across three chapters. Only a few productions have ever staged 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 that instrument, and when?

He was a Parisian harmonium builder. Tchaikovsky heard one and immediately wanted it for his ballet.

How does the keyboard instrument behind that dance make its sound?

Wooden resonators sit under the plates. The result sounds like a music box played by an orchestra.

Which 20th-century composer put that instrument in the title of a 1936 work?

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is the piece. Mahler had used the instrument in his sixth symphony before that.

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

The suite of national dances also includes chocolate from Spain and candy canes from Russia. The swans belong to a different Tchaikovsky ballet altogether.

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

Marzipan shepherdesses get their own number too.

When was the Nutcracker Suite first performed?

The composer conducted it himself at a Musical Society assembly. The concert suite was a hit long before the ballet was.

How was the first performance of the ballet received?

The concert suite drawn from the score had already gone down far better. Its reputation as a Christmas fixture came much later, and from America.

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

He made it for New York City Ballet. Companies across the country copied the idea within a decade.

Roughly what share of major American ballet companies' annual ticket revenue comes from this one ballet?

It is the reason so many companies can afford the rest of their season. Every December the same production pays for the year.

Where was Tchaikovsky born in 1840?

It is a small town in what was then Vyatka Governorate. He died in Saint Petersburg at 53.

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?

The odd one out is by Adolphe Adam. The other three are the backbone of the classical repertoire.

Who was Nadezhda von Meck?

She supported him financially for thirteen years. The two exchanged hundreds of letters but agreed never to meet.

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

It commemorates the Russian defence against Napoleon. It has nothing to do with any of his ballets.

Where are decorative nutcracker dolls originally from?

The region is called the Erzgebirge, and the town of Seiffen is its centre. They date from the late 17th century.

Who did the traditional German dolls depict, and why?

Showing the ruling class cracking nuts with their teeth was the joke. The figures were carved by woodworkers in mining villages.

How did the dolls become popular in America?

Troops stationed in Germany bought them as souvenirs. The ballet's American success did the rest.

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

It sits in Saxony, in the mountains near the Czech border. The town still makes them today.

Which Tchaikovsky work did that instrument appear in before the famous ballet?

It was a symphonic ballad premiered in November 1891. The instrument was barely five years old at the time.

Which symphony by Gustav Mahler uses that instrument?

It appears in the first, second and fourth movements. Bartók went further and put the instrument in a title.

Where did Tchaikovsky study composition?

He was in its very first class. Anton Rubinstein taught him instrumentation and composition.

Who taught Tchaikovsky harmony and counterpoint?

Rubinstein handled instrumentation and composition instead. The conservatory had only just opened.

Where was Tchaikovsky buried?

It is part of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg. Several other Russian composers lie there too.

Which country does the tea dance represent in Act II?

Coffee stands for Arabia and chocolate for Spain. Modern productions frequently rework these numbers.

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

The number is often called the Trepak. It is one of the most athletic pieces in the whole ballet.

What title did that French writer give his 1844 version?

Its director had reworked the staging. Every December since, the production has paid a large part of the company's bills.

Which flower-themed number closes the Act II divertissement?

It follows the parade of sweets from Spain, Arabia, China and Russia. Marzipan shepherdesses get a number of their own beforehand.

The ballet premiered in 1892 as a double bill with which opera, the composer's last?

Imperial Theatres director Ivan Vsevolozhsky commissioned both halves of the evening; Riccardo Drigo conducted the premiere.

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

The 25-day trip in 1891 came as Petipa was feeding him instructions for every number, down to the tempo and the exact count of bars.

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

Critic Walter Terry called the Osage ballerina 'a creature of magic', and the production became the industry's most reliable box-office draw.

In which German city is the Stahlbaum family's Christmas Eve party set?

The original libretto places the story in the 1820s; Clara's name varies by production, becoming Marie or, in Russian stagings, Masha.

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

The distraction lets the nutcracker stab the Mouse King; the mice retreat and the toy is transformed into a human prince.

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

Most later productions ignore it; one common alternative ends with Clara waking beside her nutcracker and dancing in memory of the dream.

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

The tune has no genuine Arab connection at all, one reason the Act II national dances have drawn accusations of ethnic stereotyping.

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

The $90 million Elle Fanning film abandoned the ballet and most of the story and became the year's biggest box-office bomb.

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

Nutcracker: The Motion Picture drew on the Where the Wild Things Are author's designs for the company's stage production.

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.