The Nutcracker

The story of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King was written by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Alexandre Dumas' adaptation of the story was set to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and has become the most popular ballet performed around Christmas time. It is appealing to children and adults alike and has been a standard yearly feature of theatres in many cities.

History of piece

Tchaikovsky composed the ballet ("Щелкунчик" in Russian) in 1891–1892, but he was unsatisfied with it and considered it to be one of his less successful pieces.

Related Topics:
1891 - 1892

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Suites derived from this ballet (although the sequence and included movements can somewhat differ they are all called The Nutcracker Suite, amongst which the short suite Tchaikovsky had produced himself) became very popular on the concert stage, eventually one of these ended up in Disney's Fantasia.

Related Topics:
Suite - Disney - Fantasia

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Because the original ballet is quite long, many modern dance performances make several omissions (adding to the confusion over the suites).

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