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The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King as adapted by Alexandre Dumas. It was commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres, following the success of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, and choreographed by Marius Petipa, who gave the composer detailed instructions for the tempo and length of each musical number.
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About The Nutcracker
When Petipa fell ill in August 1892, his assistant Lev Ivanov completed the choreography. Petipa's adaptation added the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the ballet's score includes the widely performed "Waltz of the Flowers" and "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," the latter notable for its early use of the celesta. The ballet premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on December 18, 1892, on a double bill with Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta.
The original production was not considered a success, and the ballet only achieved its enduring worldwide popularity after choreographer George Balanchine staged a new production for New York City Ballet in 1954, which established the annual holiday-season staging tradition now followed by ballet companies internationally.
Companies around the world continue to mount seasonal productions of The Nutcracker each winter, typically featuring the ballet's original two-act structure, Tchaikovsky's complete score, and choreography descended from or referencing Petipa and Ivanov's original staging.