The Nutcracker was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between 1891-1892 and premiered on December 18, 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The story is about a young girl named Clara (sometimes credited as Marie) who is given a toy nutcracker by her godfather named, Uncle Drosselmeyer, at her parents Christmas Ever party. Her brother Fritz get jealous and breaks the nutcracker. After the party, Clara goes downstairs to see it and hears mice. Suddenly, her toys and nutcracker come to life and begin to fight against the mice and specifically the mouse king. Clara helps the nutcracker defeat the mouse king, and he turns into a prince and takes her into the Land of the Sugar Plum fairy. There, the people of the land perform for Clara and the Nutcracker.
The music is just impeccable throughout the entire show. You really can't hear a song from it without recognizing it. I enjoy most of the songs played in the ballet, but my favorite has to be the Pas de Deux performed by the Nutcracker and the Sugar Plum Fairy at the end of the show. The music is just so moving, and when I saw the ballet last Christmas, I was literally enthralled by it. I could not take my eyes off of both dancers. It was absolutely beautiful.
I've embedded several of the songs I like so that you all my enjoy it also.
i love the nutcracker! i wanted to go this year but noone else wanted to..if only you were in boston.
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