List of productions of The Nutcracker
Encyclopedia
Although the original 1892 production was not a success, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker
began to slowly enjoy worldwide popularity after Balanchine first staged his production of it in 1954. As of now, it may be the most popular ballet in the world.
In Russia, choreographer Alexander Gorsky staged a new version of the work in 1919 that addressed many of the criticisms of the original 1892 production by casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, rather than children as they had been originally written.
The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934, staged by Nicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. An abridged version of the ballet, performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
, was staged in New York City
in 1940 by Alexandra Fedorova - again, after Petipa's version.
The ballet's first complete United States performance was on 24 December 1944, by the San Francisco Ballet
, staged by its artistic director Willam Christensen
. The New York City Ballet
gave its first annual performance of George Balanchine's staging of The Nutcracker in 1954. The tradition of performing the complete ballet at Christmas eventually spread to the rest of the United States. Since Vasili Vainonen
and Balanchine's productions, many other choreographers have made their own versions. Some institute the changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen respectively while others, like Balanchine, utilize the original libretto. Some notable productions include those by Rudolf Nureyev
for the Royal Ballet, Yuri Grigorovich for the Bolshoi Ballet
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
for the American Ballet Theatre
, and Peter Wright for the Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet
. In recent years, revisionist productions, including those by Mark Morris
, Matthew Bourne
, and Mikhail Chemiakin have appeared, which depart radically from both the original 1892 libretto and Gorsky's revival.
In addition to annual live stagings of the work, many productions have also been televised and released on home video. The ballet has also brought attention to the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
, which is now the source material for various animated and live action films. Tchaikovsky's music, especially The Nutcracker Suite
, a selection of eight pieces from the complete score, has become extremely popular. The suite (sans the Miniature Overture and the March) was featured in the popular Disney film Fantasia
.
When Anna Pavlova formed her own troupe, she adapted the Journey through the Pine Forest and Waltz of the Snowflakes into a ballet called Snowflakes, with which she toured the United States and Europe from 1911 until her death in 1931. Although only a small fraction of the complete work, Pavlova's adaptation is significant for being the first time the Journey through the Pine Forest music was used for a pas de deux
between a Snow Queen and a Snow King. This music would also later be utilized for a first act pas de deux between Clara and the Nutcracker Prince by Vasily Vainonen in his production for the Mariinsky Ballet
, by Kurt Jacob for his German-American television production of the 1960s (see the section Television Presentations below), by Mikhail Baryshnikov
for his famous production with American Ballet Theatre
, by Kent Stowell for Pacific Northwest Ballet
, and by Peter Wright
for his Royal Ballet production and Birmingham Royal Ballet
productions. The Snow Queen/King would later be featured in some subsequent productions, including Helgi Tomasson's for the San Francisco Ballet
.
Russian choreographer Alexander Gorsky, who staged a production of The Nutcracker in Moscow
in 1919, is credited with the idea of combining Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy's roles (i.e. giving the Fairy's dances to Clara), eliminating the Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier, giving the Cavalier's dances to the Nutcracker Prince, and having the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince danced by adults, thereby introducing a love interest between the two characters that had not been present in the original ballet.
In 1934, Soviet choreographer Vasili Vainonen staged his complete version of the ballet in the U.S.S.R.. Vainonen followed Gorsky in departing from the original 1892 production, particularly in his casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara (called Masha in this production) and the Prince, having them perform the second act Grand Pas de Deux originally intended for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier (who are omitted from the production altogether), augmenting the role of Drosselmeyer, and concluding the ballet with Masha's realization that the fantasy sequences were a dream. Many subsequent productions, including those by Nureyev and Baryshnikov, have adopted these changes.
The production was revived in 1954, and received a special staging at the Mariinsky Theatre
in St. Petersburg to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ballet's premiere in 1992. In 1994, with sets and costumes first used in its 1954 revival, the Vainonen version was staged again, starring Larissa Lezhnina
as Masha, Victor Baranov as the Nutcracker / Prince, and Piotr Russanov as Drosselmeyer. This revival was videotaped and released on DVD.
Although abridged, this production is notable for being the first time The Nutcracker (beyond excerpts) was performed in America.
In 1944, Christensen created the first complete production in America with the help of George Balanchine
(who would go on to choreograph his own production
ten years later) and Alexandra Danilova
. Both of them were familiar with the 1892 version:
Christensen himself performed the role of the Cavalier. Gisella Caccialanza, the wife of Lew Christensen
, danced the rôle of the Sugar Plum Fairy. One of the other dancers in the production was Onna White
, who would later choreograph The Music Man
on both stage and screen, as well as the 1968 film version of "Oliver!"
.
The staging was a success, and one critic wrote: "We can't understand why a vehicle of such fantastic beauty and originality could be produced in Europe in 1892 with signal success [sic] and never be produced in its entirety in this country until 1944. Perhaps choreographers will make up for lost time from now on." The company was the first in the U.S. to make the ballet an annual tradition, and for ten years, the only company in the United States performing the complete ballet. The company has performed The Nutcracker annually in subsequent versions by Lew Christensen
and Helgi Tomasson respectively.
On New Year's Day, 1965, ABC-TV telecast a one-hour abridgment of Lew Christensen's 1964 version. Cynthia Gregory
danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy and dancer Terry Orr was the Snow King. This version has never been repeated on television, was never made available on VHS, and, as of 2010, is still unavailable on DVD.
See also: The Nutcracker (Christensen)
In 1954 George Balanchine followed in Christensen's footsteps by choreographing and premiering his now-famous New York City Ballet
version, adhering closely to the libretto of the original 1892 version (recollected from revivals in which he had performed the role of the Prince as a young boy in Russia).:
This version remained faithful to the original production in its casting actual children in the roles of Marie and the Nutcracker Prince, even reconstructing some of the original choreography for the Prince's pantomime and the Grand Pas de Deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier in Act II. Balanchine made some musical edits for his production, adding an entr'acte
originally composed for Act II of The Sleeping Beauty (used as a transition between the departure of the guests and the battle with the mice in Act I), moving the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy to earlier in Act II, and excising the Tarantella variation intended for the Cavalier during the Grand Pas de Deux. Balanchine also departed from the original production on some points. For instance, while in the original production the Waltz of the Flowers was performed by eighteen male-female couples, Balanchine utilized a group of fourteen female dancers led by a Dew Drop soloist. Other changes reflect a return to Hoffmann's original tale. For instance, Balanchine used Hoffmann's original name for the heroine, Marie Stahlbaum (rather than Clara Silberhaus as in the 1892 production), and introduced a nephew for Drosselmeyer who appears in the party scene and later as the Nutcracker Prince.
The production premiered on February 2, 1954 at the New York City Center, starring Alberta Grant as Marie, Michael Arshansky as Drosselmeyer, Paul Nickel as the Nutcracker Prince, Maria Tallchief
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Nicholas Magallanes
as the Cavalier. It enjoyed huge popularity in New York and has been performed by the New York City Ballet every year since its premiere. Annual performances now take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. This version has been broadcast twice on live television - first, in an abridged form in 1957, by CBS on the TV anthology Seven Lively Arts
. This marked the first telecast not only of the Balanchine version but of any staging of the ballet. CBS's Playhouse 90
broadcast a more complete (but still abridged) version of the Balanchine Nutcracker, narrated by actress June Lockhart
, who was then starring as the mother in CBS's Lassie
, in 1958; it was the first Nutcracker broadcast in color. There were only four commercial breaks. This television production starred Diana Adams
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Debbie Paine as Clara, and Robert Maiorano as the Nutcracker Prince. In 1993, it was the basis for the feature film George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. The latest revival of the production is scheduled to be telecast on Live from Lincoln Center
during the 2011 Christmas season on PBS. It will mark PBS's first-ever telecast of the Balanchine Nutcracker.
In addition to the New York City Ballet, Balanchine's version of The Nutcracker is currently performed annually by five other ballet companies in the United States: Alabama Ballet, the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, the Miami City Ballet
, the Oregon Ballet Theatre, and the Pennsylvania Ballet
. It was previously performed at the Stamford Center for the Arts
in Stamford, Connecticut
and by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
. From 1966 to 1994, the Atlanta Ballet
staged the complete Balanchine version annually (after having performed only Act II for eight years); the company now performs choreographer John McFall's version.
See also: The Nutcracker (Balanchine)
In 1963, Rudolf Nureyev
created his own version of Tchaikovsky's work with the Royal Ballet, in which he starred with Merle Park as Clara. Nureyev had previously performed the role of the Nutcracker Prince in Vainonen's version as a student at the Leningrad Ballet school in February 1958. Nureyev's production adopts many of Gorsky and Vainonen's alterations to the original 1892 version, including casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, eliminating the Sugar Plum Fairy, and having Clara awaken to realize the fantasy sequences were a dream.
The production was videotaped for British television in 1968 and is available on DVD. Nureyev played the roles of Drosselmeyer and the Nutcracker Prince, while Wayne Sleep
portrayed the Nutcracker. Some critics considered this a Freudian
touch, taking it to mean that it is not the Nutcracker who turns into a Prince, but Drosselmeyer. However, this is not necessarily obvious to viewers of the DVD of this production. In 2008, this production was revived by the Paris Opera Ballet in a heavily revised version, this time with Myriam Ould-Braham as Clara and Jeremie Belingard as both Drosselmeyer and the Prince.
In 1966, Yuri Grigorovich created his own version of The Nutcracker for the Bolshoi Ballet
, utilizing many of the changes made by Vasily Vainonen for his 1934 production, including the casting of adult dancers in the roles of the heroine (called Maria rather than Clara in this version) and the Nutcracker Prince, and the omission of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. In this version, all of the toys take part in the Journey Through the Snow sequence, rather than being offstage while Maria and the Prince perform the dance. And, as in the Vainonen version, much of the company also dances along with Maria and the Prince as they perform the Adagio in the Act II Pas de Deux; in fact, Maria and the Prince never have the stage all alone to themselves. As a departure from the original 1892 production, Grigorovich omits the pantomime that the Prince performs "describing" his defeat of the Mouse King at the beginning of Act II. The music for the pantomime is used for the defeat of the Mouse King, who is not killed in the first act as in the original or Vainonen's version, but at the beginning of the second act.
In this production, although Maria (or Clara) is outfitted with a bridal veil in the Final Waltz in anticipation to her impending wedding to the Nutcracker Prince, she then awakens to find that the fantasy sequences were a dream.
This version was recorded in 1987 (or 1978, depending on the source). It stars husband-and-wife team Ekaterina Maximova
as Maria and Vladimir Vasiliev
as the Nutcracker Prince. A revival of this version was recorded in 1989, starring Natalya Arkhipova as Clara, not Maria as in the earlier version, and Irek Mukhamedov
as the Nutcracker Prince (but not the Nutcracker himself; that role is played by a female dancer, Marisa Okothnikova). In this revival the romance between Clara and the Prince is slightly more pronounced than in the earlier Bolshoi version. The entire score is used, which means that the Dance of the Clowns, cut from the earlier version, is reinstated, though Mother Ginger does not appear, nor do any clowns; the dance is performed by the same dancers who perform the other divertissements. It is now available on DVD, and has been telecast in the U.S. as part of Ovation TV
's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
The first widescreen high-definition revival of the Grigorovich Nutcracker was streamed live to movie theatres in Europe in 2010. The use of the new technique afforded moviegoers to see the production in more vivid colors than had been featured in the earlier versions of the production, especially since the Bolshoi Theatre had been recently renovated. Nina Kaptsova starred as Marie (rather than Clara) and Artem Ovcharenko
was the Nutcracker Prince.
In 1976, the 28-year-old Mikhail Baryshnikov premiered a new version of the ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, with himself in the title role, Marianna Tcherkassky as Clara, and Alexander Minz as Drosselmeyer. The production premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in December 1976, and received its New York premiere on May 18, 1977 at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Like Nureyev, Baryshnikov adopted many of the changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen, including the casting of adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, the elimination of the Sugar Plum Fairy while making Drosselmeyer's role more prominent, and a concluding scene in which Clara realizes the fantasy sequences were a dream. This production also utilizes Vainonen's choreography for the Waltz of the Snowflakes. Other changes included having a drunken guest at the Christmas party be the one responsible for breaking the Nutcracker, not Clara's brother Fritz, who is portrayed fairly sympathetically in this version. Clara, meanwhile, does not throw her slipper at the Mouse King during the battle, but a candleholder instead. The Grand Adagio of the Pas de Deux in Act II was made almost into a Pas de Trois, as Drosselmeyer enters the festivities at the Land of Sweets to coax Clara back to reality but she refuses to go. In order to provide a dramatic climax to the story, the adagio was made the penultimate dance in the ballet, coming just before the Final Waltz and Apotheosis.
This production achieved particular popularity when it was recorded for television in 1977, starring Gelsey Kirkland
as Clara (one of her few roles captured on video), with Baryshnikov and Minz reprising their roles as the Nutcracker / Prince and Drosselmeyer respectively. The telecast was directed by multi-Emmy-winning choreographer and director Tony Charmoli
. Although not televised now as often as it used to be, and despite the fact that it was not shot in high definition widescreen, it retains its status as the most popular telecast of the ballet even today, having become a huge bestseller on DVD especially during the Christmas season. The television version was not a live performance from the Kennedy Center of the ballet, but a special presentation shot on videotape in a TV studio. NBC
had already done this as early as 1955, with its Producers' Showcase
version of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, starring Margot Fonteyn
(which was, however, presented live in those days of no videotape). This method of presentation permitted far greater freedom of camera movement and more use of different camera angles. The Baryshnikov Nutcracker was videotaped in Toronto, Canada.
Due to time constraints and the necessity to bring the program in at ninety minutes (counting three commercial breaks), the television version of the Baryshnikov production had to eliminate the Arabian Dance altogether. It was first telecast by CBS
as a Christmas season special with limited commercial interruption on December 16, 1977, re-broadcast by CBS several times, then afterwards many times annually by PBS
, often during their pledge drive
s. In 1997, a slightly edited version of it was telecast on the A&E Network
, as part of their Breakfast with the Arts
program. The presentation was nominated for an Emmy Award
for Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts, and Baryshnikov himself was nominated for an Emmy for Special Classification of Outstanding Individual Achievement. On September 28, 2004, the production was reissued on DVD, remastered and in both 2.0 and 5.1 stereo surround sound.
In 1981, Kent Stowell, artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet company in Seattle, approached children's author Maurice Sendak
to design the sets and costumes for a new production of The Nutcracker:
The version they eventually created premiered in December 1983. Unlike previous versions, Stowell and Sendak turned to the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story
for inspiration and incorporated some of the darker aspects of Hoffmann's tale. In this production, Clara is portrayed by a young girl up until the defeat of the Mouse King, after which the character is transformed into a young woman and performed by an adult dancer for the remainder of the ballet. Stowell dispenses with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Confiturembourg setting for Act II altogether, opting instead, according to Sendak, for an exotic port containing a seraglio
, in which the Grand Pasha (meant to resemble Drosselmeyer, played by the same performer) has his entourage perform for the couple in honor of their bravery. At the end of Act II, the boat on which Clara and the Prince journey to the Land of Sweets returns to take the Nutcracker and Clara away. Clara expresses reluctance to leave and the Pasha sends the boat away without her. As in the Vainonen, Clara wakes to realize the fantasy sequences were a dream. Sendak and Stowell also added to the original score a duet from Tchaikovsky's opera Pique Dame
, to be performed at the Christmas Party.
This production was extremely popular and has been revived in Seattle every year since its premiere, and is currently performed annually at McCaw Hall
. In 1986, it served as the basis for the feature film, Nutcracker: The Motion Picture.
In 1984, dancer-choreographer Peter Wright created a new production based on the original 1892 production for the Royal Ballet. In doing so, he enlisted the aide of musicologist Roland John Wiley, who had done extensive research on Tchaikovsky's ballets and served as production consultant. Together, they created a production that was closely based on the original by Lev Ivanov
. For the Waltz of the Flowers, for instance, Wright utilized the floor patterns designed by Ivanov for the premiere and, unlike many productions, featured a Vivandière
doll in Act I as in the original production. Wright departed from the original in the casting of adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, and omitting Mother Gigogne and her Polichinelles. Unlike Vasily Vainonen's 1934 production, however, the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier remain intact. Wright's production, like Balanchine's, incorporates a nephew for Drosselmeyer, named Hans-Peter, but in this production he is actually the Nutcracker Prince, an element featured in the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
. The sets and costumes were designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman, inspired by the Biedermeier
era of 19th century Europe
.
This production premiered at the Royal Opera House
in December 1984. In 1985, it was recorded by the BBC
and televised in the U.S. by A&E
, starring Julie Rose as Clara, Guy Niblett as Hans-Peter, Leslie Collier
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Anthony Dowell
as her Cavalier. Wright has stated that of all his productions of the ballet, the 1984 one is the closest to the original, although Clara and Hans-Peter are played by adults. Wright even has the dancing dolls at the Christmas party bursting out of pies, as in the 1892 production.
Wright revised the production in 2001 for the newly renovated Royal Opera House to create an ending in which Clara first believes that she was dreaming her adventures; then in the epilogue, after meeting Hans-Peter again in the real world, she realizes that they actually happened. The revised production was videotaped and televised in the U.S. as part of PBS's Great Performances
, starring Alina Cojocaru
as Clara, Ivan Putrov
as the Nutcracker Prince, Miyako Yoshida
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Anthony Dowell (this time as Drosselmeyer). These first two versions of the Wright production are available on DVD.
In 2008, again with a new cast (Iohna Loots as Clara, Ricardo Cervera as the Nutcracker Prince, and Gary Avis
as Drosselmeyer), the production was streamed live to movie theatres in England, and was presented as a high-definition film in selected theatres throughout the U.S. during the 2009 Christmas season. There exist two different versions of this revival. The first one, with Alexandra Ansanelli
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, was filmed in 2008, and another one, also with Loots, Cervera and Avis, but with Miyako Yoshida
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, was filmed in 2009 and was released on DVD in 2010.
The 2009 revival of the Wright production, with Iohna Loots as Clara and Yoshida as the Sugar Plum Fairy, was selected as a candidate in Ovation TV
's 2010 "Battle of the Nutcrackers" contest — not the version with Alina Cojocaru as Clara, as has been erroneously stated on some websites. The 2009 production ultimately was chosen as the viewer favorite in the contest. It made its U.S. TV debut on December 6, 2010. The contest marks the first time that this revival of the production has ever been shown on U.S. television.
Wright staged a new version of the ballet in 1990, when the Sadler Wells Royal Ballet moved to Birmingham
and became the Birmingham Royal Ballet
under his direction. For this production, Wright departed more freely from the 1892 original than in his 1984 Royal Ballet production. In this version, the fantasy sequences are once again a dream, Clara is a ballet student, and her mother is a former ballerina. The production has been particularly praised for John Mcfarlane's set designs. In 1994, this version was filmed, starring Irek Mukhamedov
as the Nutcracker Prince, Sandra Madgwick as Clara, and once again, Miyako Yoshida
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and was released on DVD by Kultur International Films (as of this writing, Ms. Yoshida has danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy more times on video than any other dancer).
In 1990, American dancer and choreographer Mark Morris began work on The Hard Nut, a contemporary version of The Nutcracker, taking inspiration from the horror-comic artist Charles Burns
, whose artwork focuses on the archetypal concepts of guilt, childhood, adolescent sexuality, and poignant, nostalgic portrayals of post-war America. Morris enlisted a team of collaborators with whom he could evoke Burns’ black-and-white world: set designer Adrianne Lobel, lighting designer James F. Ingalls
, and costume designer Martin Pakledinaz. The Hard Nut was the last of twelve pieces Mark Morris created during his time as Director of Dance at the National Opera House of Belgium.
The Hard Nut premiered on January 12, 1991 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. It was chosen the favorite by viewer votes in 2007, 2008, and 2009 in Ovation TV's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers". Shortly after the premiere, MMDG returned to the United States, having finished their three-year residency at the Monnaie, but the company returned six months later with film crew in hand for encore performances in Belgium's national opera house that were made available on VHS and Laserdisc. The Hard Nut was released on DVD in 2007.
2010 marked the first year that The Hard Nut was not part of the annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
See also: The Hard Nut
In 1992, choreographer Matthew Bourne
staged a new version of the ballet as part of a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's one-act opera
Iolanta
(presented by Opera North
) to celebrate the centenary of both works. Bourne's version, while retaining Tchaikovsky's score (except the music for Mother Gigogne and her Polichinelles), reworks the traditional libretto. In this version, Clara lives in an orphanage run by a wealthy family. The Nutcracker in this version resembles the ventriloquist dummy Jerry Mahoney
after coming to life, and turns into, not a Prince, but a shirtless, muscular man resembling Mr. Universe
. The Sugar Plum Fairy is replaced by a character named Princess Sugar, a calculating, slutty woman who steals Clara's beau away from her. Instead of abandoning plot development for divertissement in Act II as in the original 1892 production, in Act II of Bourne's production, Clara must find her hunky beau in time to prevent him from marrying Princess Sugar. Clara ultimately awakens in the orphanage to find him hiding under the covers of her bed, ready to whisk her away for a happily-ever-after ending.
The original production was a success and was brought back to the Sadler's Wells Theatre
in 1993 and 1994. It was nominated for a 1994 Laurence Olivier Award for "Best New Dance Production" and for a "Best of the Edinburgh Festival Award" by The Scotsman
. Bourne revised the production in 2002, which has since been performed in various locations in Britain and the U.S. In 2003, it was telecast on the Bravo channel. It was later released on DVD.
In 2001, Russian artist Mikhail Chemiakin joined with choreographer Kirill Simonov, at the request of conductor Valery Gergiev
, to design a new production of the ballet:
Like Maurice Sendak and Kent Stowell's 1984 production for the Pacific Northwest Ballet, they would draw on the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
for inspiration. Chemiakin chose to emphasize some of Hoffmann's darker and more grotesque themes, including those of repressed imagination and childhood alienation (the heroine is shunned by her own parents in this version, although she isn't in the Hoffmann story). As in the original 1892 production, the fantasy sequences are not a dream and the Sugar Plum Fairy still appears (though, like Gorsky's version and Vainonen's 1934 version, Simonov gives her Grand Pas de Deux in Act II to the heroine, called Masha, and the Nutcracker Prince). In one case, Chemiakin deviated sharply from Hoffmann, who gave his story a happy ending by having the heroine marry the Nutcracker Prince, and presumably stay in the Kingdom of Sweets to live happily ever after with him. Instead of Hoffmann's ending or the Apotheosis of the original production, Masha and the Prince, who fall deeply in love and are married offstage, are turned into confections at the top of a giant wedding cake, in danger of being eaten by rats who are climbing and nibbling on it.
The production premiered at the Mariinsky in February 2001, and was performed in the U.S. for the first time in 2003, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush
and his wife Laura
attended one of the performances. It has proved highly controversial and has received many withering reviews, which nevertheless praise the dancing of ballerina Irina Golub
, who portrays Masha on the DVD made of the production. Russian dance critic Nina Alovert also commented disparagingly of the production, saying that it was "full of uncaring human beings and rats who eat people", and that "The one good person [meaning Masha] is turned into a sugar-coated doll". In Dance View Times, critic George Jackson called it "The Gargoyle Nutcracker", and inexplicably termed Masha, the kindliest character in the production, a "brat" and a "minislut", perhaps partly because of the Act II Pas de Deux, which is made quite sensual in this production, some have even said sexual. On the other hand, Stephen Smoliar, published a favorable review of the production, in which he said of the Act II Pas de Deux, "Never before have I found such an erotically charged Pas de Deux (in any ballet)", stating that it represents the moment when Masha and the Nutcracker Prince consummate their relationship, and he complimented Irina Golub for "dancing it so passionately". He also praised choreographer Simonov, and stated that "never before has this eroticism [in the ballet] seemed so relevant." (In the production, the Grand Adagio of the Pas de deux culminates in a passionate kiss between Masha and the Nutcracker Prince, and at the end of the dance, Masha, with a mischievous smile and a knowing glance, grabs the Prince's hand and runs backstage with him, perhaps so that the Prince can announce the couple's engagement offstage, but perhaps also to make love with him in private. It is left to the viewer to decide.) The ending of this version is quite horrifying, in that it implies that Masha and the Prince have been killed.
This production was filmed in 2007 and released on DVD in 2008, both on Blu-ray and regular format; however, the regular format version rapidly went out-of-print.
Onstage, Golub and Natalya Sologub alternated in the rôle of Masha.
This version is scheduled to make its U.S. TV debut in December of 2011, on Ovation TV's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
In December 2004, artistic director Helgi Tomasson staged a new version of the ballet for the San Francisco Ballet set in San Francisco during the Panama–Pacific International Exposition
. (Other productions, such as Robert Joffrey
's for the Joffrey Ballet
and Septime Webre's for the Washington Ballet
have taken a similar route in transplanting the action to America.) Clara is played, for the most part, by a young girl rather than an adult woman.
This production utilizes the basic outline of the original 1892 version, with some departure. For example, as in the Chemiakin version, the Nutcracker first "comes to life" at the Christmas party before Clara's dream begins. Rather than a Soldier as in the original 1892 version, it is the Nutcracker that is Drosselmeyer's second life-sized doll. And, rather than throwing her slipper at the Mouse King, Clara humorously arranges with the help of the toy soldiers to get the Mouse King's tail caught in a huge mousetrap, thus enabling the Nutcracker to fatally stab him.
In lieu of the Confiturembourg setting for Act II, Tomasson substitutes a Crystal Palace, like the one featured at the 1915 fair.
As the festivities draw to a close, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Drosselmeyer grant Clara her greatest Christmas wish and transform her into a beautiful woman to dance in the arms of her Prince. Thus, as in Gorsky's version and Vasily Vainonen's 1934 version, the Grand Pas de Deux is danced, not by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, but by the Nutcracker Prince and Clara. Also, like Vainonen's production, Clara awakes on Christmas morning to find that the fantasy sequences were a dream.
In 2007, this version was filmed by KQED and presented in select movie theatres throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The following winter, it was presented on PBS' Dance in America
and subsequently released on DVD.
, was featured online on the orchestra's website. It was conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin
.
. In this film, the music from The Nutcracker is accompanied by dancing fairies
, mushroom
s and fish
, among others and, as host Deems Taylor
mentions in live-action footage, the Nutcracker itself is nowhere in sight. One remark that strikes modern-day viewers strongly if they see the roadshow theatrical release
of Fantasia (now on DVD) rather than the more commonly seen general release version, is Taylor's declaration that the full-length Nutcracker "wasn't much of a success and nobody performs it nowadays", a statement that had some validity in 1940, but is certainly not true now. (This remark was edited out of the general release version of Fantasia, which began playing theatres in 1946 and is the one released on VHS.)
As mentioned before, this suite should not be mistaken for the entire Nutcracker. The suite used in Fantasia is a slightly altered version of the Nutcracker Suite selected by the composer. As animated in Fantasia, it does not make use of a Christmas setting at all, although snow and ice are shown near the end of it. This version omits the Overture and the Marche, and the remaining dances are reordered (The accompanying animation is provided in parentheses):
and The Sleeping Beauty. In this version the heroine is not Clara, the daughter of a distinguished Town Council President, but a lonely chambermaid who works in a large house. When she kisses the Nutcracker, he comes to life, but is ashamed of his appearance. He must fight the Mouse King in order to break the spell placed upon him and become a Prince again. Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov featured this version in his PBS television series Stories from My Childhood. The U.S. telecast added narration by Shirley MacLaine
.
. Directed by Carroll Ballard
, it was released nationwide on Thanksgiving Day, in 1986. As in the stage version, Clara was played by a young girl (Vanessa Sharp) during the Christmas party and the Battle with the Mice, and an adult dancer (Patricia Barker) throughout the remainder of the ballet (until Clara awakens from her dream). The Nutcracker and the Nutcracker Prince were also played by two dancers in the film: Jacob Rice before the toy's transformation into a Prince, and Wade Walthall throughout the rest of the film. This version introduces hints of sexual tension between Clara and Drosselmeyer. During the Christmas Party, Clara is visibly uneasy around Drosselmeyer, who seems to be leering at her. In the dream sequence, there is an obvious rivalry between the Pasha (Drosselmeyer's dream counterpart) and the Nutcracker Prince, as the Pasha tries to get Clara to sit with him, against the wishes of the Nutcracker Prince. The ending of the film departs from the stage version. As Clara and her Prince slowly swirl around wrapped in each other's arms while the Apotheosis plays, the Pasha magically levitates them higher and higher into the air as the other dancers wave goodbye. Suddenly, the jealous Pasha points his finger at the couple, which magically causes them to let go of each other. They suddenly begin to freefall, and the Prince again becomes a nutcracker. Just as both are about to hit the ground and presumably be seriously injured or killed, Clara (a young girl again) is jolted awake from her dream. In the film, the Final Waltz is heard during the closing credits (although the Apotheosis is performed during the last moments of the ballet). Drosselmeyer is sleeping at his work desk, on which we see the dancers performing the waltz.
, Megan Follows
, and Peter O'Toole
, among others, was released. This one also used Tchaikovsky's music, but was actually a straightforward full-length animated cartoon, not a ballet film. The plot follows E.T.A. Hoffmann's original storyline in having the Nutcracker actually be Drosselmeyer's nephew (named Hans in this version), and having Clara meet him in real life at the end. The fantasy elements really do occur in this film version, as in Hoffmann's story. New characters (one of them voiced by Peter O'Toole) are added to the plot.
. It was distributed and released by Warner Brothers. The film was directed by Emile Ardolino
, with narration spoken by Kevin Kline
. The cast includes Jessica Lynn Cohen as Marie, Macaulay Culkin
as the Nutcracker, the Prince, and Drosselmeyer's nephew, Darci Kistler
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Damian Woetzel
as the Fairy's Cavalier, and Wendy Whelan
as Coffee. The film was criticized by James Berardinelli
for not capturing the excitement of a live performance, stating that it "opts to present a relatively mundane version of the stage production... utilizing almost none of the advantages offered by the (film) medium." Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
criticized the film for not adapting the dance for a film audience and also its casting of Culkin who, he writes, "seems peripheral to all of the action, sort of like a celebrity guest or visiting royalty, nodding benevolently from the corners of shots." In The Washington Post
, Lucy Linfield echoed Ebert's criticism of Culkin, stating that "it's not so much that he can't act or dance; more important, the kid seems to have forgotten how to smile... All little Mac can muster is a surly grimace." She praised the dancing, however, as "strong, fresh and in perfect sync" and Kistler's Sugar Plum Fairy as "the Balanchinean ideal of a romantic, seemingly fragile beauty combined with a technique of almost startling strength, speed and knifelike precision." The New York Times
Stephen Holden
also criticized Culkin, calling his performance the film's "only serious flaw", but praised the cinematography as "very scrupulous in the way it establishes a mood of participatory excitement, then draws back far enough so that the classic ballet sequences choreographed by Balanchine and staged by Peter Martins can be seen in their full glory."
became the first computer-animated film released straight to video. An example of the skewed tone that this version took may be inferred from the fact that Phyllis Diller
provided the voice of an obese Sugar Plum Fairy. Some of Tchaikovsky's music was used.
the doll, released in 2001. (However, Barbie appears not as Clara, but as herself. Clara, though, looks exactly like Barbie, and is still the main character, and her story is told as a story-within-a-film). The film significantly alters the storyline of the Hoffmann tale, adding all sorts of perils not found in the original story, or the ballet. There is even a Stone Monster, sent by the Mouse King, that chases Clara and the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer is not Clara's godfather but her grandfather, and is depicted as being notably grumpy. It is not Drosselmeyer who gives Clara the Nutcracker, but her aunt, and in this version, Clara is an orphan raised by her grandfather. The Nutcracker, rather than becoming a Prince after his victory in battle, must travel to the Sugar Plum Princess's castle in order for the spell to be broken; defeating the Mouse King is not enough. At the end, Clara turns out to be the Sugar Plum Princess, and her kiss breaks the spell that had been placed on the Nutcracker. Real New York City Ballet dancers were used in the production and rotoscope
d in order to properly capture ballet movements - the Trepak, the Adagio from the pas de deux
, and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy are performed much as they would be in a live production of The Nutcracker. Peter Martins
served as choreographer. In this version, the Prince asks Clara to stay on as his Queen, even telling her "I love you". But Clara is dreaming, and therefore must awaken. However, the couple is reunited in reality when Clara's aunt brings "the son of a friend" over to visit for Christmas. In this version, the Mouse King does not die until near the end. The film also features touches of (sometimes deliberately anachronistic) humor: after the battle with the mice, the Nutcracker, who has not yet regained his form as a Prince, says to Clara, "Thank you for saving my life, and for your superior nursing skills". During the early part of her adventures, Clara maintains a skeptical attitude, even saying "This is crazy" at one point.
as the Mouse King, Robert Hays
as the mouse Squeak, Fred Willard
as the mouse Bubble, and Eric Idle
(of Monty Python
fame) as the voice of Herr Drosselmeyer.
, and makes Clara's father a prisoner of war. Nazis also feature in this adaptation.
as the Rat King, Elle Fanning
as Mary (rather than Clara) and Nathan Lane
as a young Albert Einstein
, here known only as Uncle Albert. Originally scheduled to be released during the Christmas holiday season of 2009, it reportedly began showing in European countries as early as February 2009, and was released in the U.S. just before Thanksgiving in 2010. The film is written and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
. The music for the songs in this film is adapted from different works by Tchaikovsky, and the lyrics are by Tim Rice
. The film is set in 1920s Vienna. Konchalovsky evokes Adolf Hitler
and the SS through the Rat King and his army. The film has received unfavorable reviews.
This production cut the ballet down to a one-act version lasting slightly less than an hour, and drastically re-ordered all the dances, even to the point of altering the storyline to somewhat resemble The Wizard of Oz, which, at that time, was an enormously successful annual attraction on television. The Mouse King, although having turned the Prince into a Nutcracker, does not even appear in this production. Instead, as Clara's dream begins, she and the Nutcracker must now journey to the Castle of the Sugar Plum Fairy, where the Fairy will wave her wand and turn him back into a Prince. Along the way, much like Oz 's Dorothy, the couple encounters several fantastic characters - the waltzing snowflakes, the Russian Dancers, Mother Ginger and her Clowns, the Bluebirds, and the waltzing flowers. Villella does not wear a Nutcracker mask at all in this production; he is seen throughout as a normal-looking man, and the only way that one can tell that he has been transformed from a nutcracker into a prince is by his change in costume. The two bluebirds from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty appear to perform the Dance of the Reed Flutes rather than Sleeping Beauty 's Bluebird Pas de Deux. And curiously enough, the famous March is not heard during the actual ballet, but only during the new opening credits and hosting sequence devised by CBS. The March comes to a sudden halt as host Eddie Albert cracks a nut with a nutcracker that he has beside him on a table.
held their annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers" viewing contest, giving their audience a choice of which Nutcracker to choose as the best. Out of six television and/or film versions of the ballet, The Hard Nut was chosen as the favorite for the second year in a row. The Pacific Northwest Ballet version, designed by Maurice Sendak, was second choice, with the Maurice Bejart version of 2000 coming in third.
In Ovation's 2009 "Battle of the Nutcrackers", The Hard Nut was chosen the viewer's favorite for the 3rd year.
The 2010 "Battle of the Nutcrackers" began its run on December 6, 2010. It included two very traditional versions - the 1989 Bolshoi version and the 2009 Royal Ballet version - as well as the Patrice Bart version, the Maurice Bejart version, and an all-new candidate, Casse Noisette Circus, a production of the work that takes place entirely in a circus atmosphere. (Casse Noisette is French for Nutcracker.) The winner was the Royal Ballet version.
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
began to slowly enjoy worldwide popularity after Balanchine first staged his production of it in 1954. As of now, it may be the most popular ballet in the world.
In Russia, choreographer Alexander Gorsky staged a new version of the work in 1919 that addressed many of the criticisms of the original 1892 production by casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, rather than children as they had been originally written.
The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934, staged by Nicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. An abridged version of the ballet, performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...
, was staged in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1940 by Alexandra Fedorova - again, after Petipa's version.
The ballet's first complete United States performance was on 24 December 1944, by the San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
The San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
, staged by its artistic director Willam Christensen
Willam Christensen
Willam Farr Christensen was an American ballet dancer, choreographer and founder of the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is known for bringing the complete version of the Russian ballet The Nutcracker to the United States, as well as staging the first American...
. The New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
gave its first annual performance of George Balanchine's staging of The Nutcracker in 1954. The tradition of performing the complete ballet at Christmas eventually spread to the rest of the United States. Since Vasili Vainonen
Vasili Vainonen
Vasili Vainonen was a renowned Soviet choreographer, mainly for the Kirov Ballet, now known as the Mariinsky Ballet, with which he worked from 1930 to 1938...
and Balanchine's productions, many other choreographers have made their own versions. Some institute the changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen respectively while others, like Balanchine, utilize the original libretto. Some notable productions include those by Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
for the Royal Ballet, Yuri Grigorovich for the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
for the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
, and Peter Wright for the Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
. In recent years, revisionist productions, including those by Mark Morris
Mark Morris
Mark William Morris is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments...
, Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne OBE is a British classical and contemporary ballet and dance choreographer.-Biography:Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. He went to William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London...
, and Mikhail Chemiakin have appeared, which depart radically from both the original 1892 libretto and Gorsky's revival.
In addition to annual live stagings of the work, many productions have also been televised and released on home video. The ballet has also brought attention to the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls...
, which is now the source material for various animated and live action films. Tchaikovsky's music, especially The Nutcracker Suite
The Nutcracker Suite
The Nutcracker Suite is a recording by American guitarist Tim Sparks, released in 1993. It consists of both an adaptation for acoustic guitar of Tchaikovsky's suite from his ballet The Nutcracker and the Balkan Dreams Suite, a suite of songs based on melodies and ideas of Bela Bartok...
, a selection of eight pieces from the complete score, has become extremely popular. The suite (sans the Miniature Overture and the March) was featured in the popular Disney film Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
.
Snowflakes — Ivan Clustine/Anna Pavlova (1911)
- Choreography: Ivan Clustine
- Company: Anna Pavlova
- Premiere: 1911
When Anna Pavlova formed her own troupe, she adapted the Journey through the Pine Forest and Waltz of the Snowflakes into a ballet called Snowflakes, with which she toured the United States and Europe from 1911 until her death in 1931. Although only a small fraction of the complete work, Pavlova's adaptation is significant for being the first time the Journey through the Pine Forest music was used for a pas de deux
Pas de deux
In ballet, a pas de deux is a duet in which ballet dancers perform the dance together. It usually consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations , and a coda.-Notable Pas de deux:...
between a Snow Queen and a Snow King. This music would also later be utilized for a first act pas de deux between Clara and the Nutcracker Prince by Vasily Vainonen in his production for the Mariinsky Ballet
Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
, by Kurt Jacob for his German-American television production of the 1960s (see the section Television Presentations below), by Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
for his famous production with American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
, by Kent Stowell for Pacific Northwest Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet is a ballet company based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. Founded in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera and named the Pacific Northwest Dance Association, it broke away from the Opera in 1977 and took its current name in 1978. It is said to have the highest per...
, and by Peter Wright
Peter Wright
Peter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...
for his Royal Ballet production and Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
productions. The Snow Queen/King would later be featured in some subsequent productions, including Helgi Tomasson's for the San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
The San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
.
Alexander Gorsky (1919)
- Choreography: Alexander Gorsky (after Petipa)
- Company: Bolshoi BalletBolshoi BalletThe Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
, MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent... - Premiere: 1919
Russian choreographer Alexander Gorsky, who staged a production of The Nutcracker in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1919, is credited with the idea of combining Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy's roles (i.e. giving the Fairy's dances to Clara), eliminating the Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier, giving the Cavalier's dances to the Nutcracker Prince, and having the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince danced by adults, thereby introducing a love interest between the two characters that had not been present in the original ballet.
Vasily Vainonen (1934)
- Choreography: Vasily Vainonen
- Company: Mariinsky BalletMariinsky BalletThe Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
- Premiere: 1934, Mariinsky TheatreMariinsky TheatreThe Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
, St. Petersburg
In 1934, Soviet choreographer Vasili Vainonen staged his complete version of the ballet in the U.S.S.R.. Vainonen followed Gorsky in departing from the original 1892 production, particularly in his casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara (called Masha in this production) and the Prince, having them perform the second act Grand Pas de Deux originally intended for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier (who are omitted from the production altogether), augmenting the role of Drosselmeyer, and concluding the ballet with Masha's realization that the fantasy sequences were a dream. Many subsequent productions, including those by Nureyev and Baryshnikov, have adopted these changes.
The production was revived in 1954, and received a special staging at the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
in St. Petersburg to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ballet's premiere in 1992. In 1994, with sets and costumes first used in its 1954 revival, the Vainonen version was staged again, starring Larissa Lezhnina
Larissa Lezhnina
Larisa Lezhnina is a principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet, Amsterdam. She was born on March 17, 1969 in Leningrad , Russia. She graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad in 1987 and joined the Kirov Ballet . In 1990 she became its First Soloist...
as Masha, Victor Baranov as the Nutcracker / Prince, and Piotr Russanov as Drosselmeyer. This revival was videotaped and released on DVD.
Alexandra Fedorova (1940)
- Choreography: Alexandra Fedorova, after Lev IvanovLev IvanovLev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
- Company: Ballet Russe de Monte CarloBallet Russe de Monte CarloBallet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...
- Premiere: October 17, 1940. 51st Street TheaterMark Hellinger TheatreThe Mark Hellinger Theatre is a generally used name of a former legitimate Broadway theater, located at 237 West 51st Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Since 1991, it has been known as the Times Square Church...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Although abridged, this production is notable for being the first time The Nutcracker (beyond excerpts) was performed in America.
Willam Christensen (1944)
- Choreography: Willam ChristensenWillam ChristensenWillam Farr Christensen was an American ballet dancer, choreographer and founder of the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is known for bringing the complete version of the Russian ballet The Nutcracker to the United States, as well as staging the first American...
- Company: San Francisco BalletSan Francisco BalletThe San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
- Premiere: December 24, 1944, San Francisco
In 1944, Christensen created the first complete production in America with the help of George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
(who would go on to choreograph his own production
The Nutcracker (Balanchine)
Choreographer George Balanchine's production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker has become the most famous stage production of the ballet performed in the U.S. The Balanchine Nutcracker uses the plot of the Alexandre Dumas, père version of E.T.A...
ten years later) and Alexandra Danilova
Alexandra Danilova
Aleksandra Dionisyevna Danilova was a Russian-born prima ballerina who became an American citizen....
. Both of them were familiar with the 1892 version:
Christensen himself performed the role of the Cavalier. Gisella Caccialanza, the wife of Lew Christensen
Lew Christensen
Lewellyn Farr "Lew" Christensen was a ballet dancer, choreographer and director for many companies. He was largely associated with George Balanchine and the San Francisco Ballet, which he directed from 1952–1984...
, danced the rôle of the Sugar Plum Fairy. One of the other dancers in the production was Onna White
Onna White
Onna White was a Canadian choreographer and dancer nominated for eight Tony Awards.-Career:Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, White began taking dance lessons at the age of twelve, and eventually her studies took her to the famed San Francisco Ballet Company, where she danced in the first full-length...
, who would later choreograph The Music Man
The Music Man
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with...
on both stage and screen, as well as the 1968 film version of "Oliver!"
Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a 1968 British musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
.
The staging was a success, and one critic wrote: "We can't understand why a vehicle of such fantastic beauty and originality could be produced in Europe in 1892 with signal success [sic] and never be produced in its entirety in this country until 1944. Perhaps choreographers will make up for lost time from now on." The company was the first in the U.S. to make the ballet an annual tradition, and for ten years, the only company in the United States performing the complete ballet. The company has performed The Nutcracker annually in subsequent versions by Lew Christensen
Lew Christensen
Lewellyn Farr "Lew" Christensen was a ballet dancer, choreographer and director for many companies. He was largely associated with George Balanchine and the San Francisco Ballet, which he directed from 1952–1984...
and Helgi Tomasson respectively.
On New Year's Day, 1965, ABC-TV telecast a one-hour abridgment of Lew Christensen's 1964 version. Cynthia Gregory
Cynthia Gregory
Cynthia Kathleen Gregory is an American ballerina.-Career:Born in Los Angeles, Gregory’s parents encouraged her to take up dancing when she was five, hoping exercise would stem a history of childhood illnesses. By age six, she was en pointe...
danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy and dancer Terry Orr was the Snow King. This version has never been repeated on television, was never made available on VHS, and, as of 2010, is still unavailable on DVD.
See also: The Nutcracker (Christensen)
The Nutcracker (Christensen)
The Nutcracker can refer to two different settings of The Nutcracker by brothers Willam and Lew Christensen:* The Nutcracker * The Nutcracker...
George Balanchine (1954)
- Choreography: George BalanchineGeorge BalanchineGeorge Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
, after Marius PetipaMarius PetipaVictor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
and Lev IvanovLev IvanovLev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet.... - Company: New York City BalletNew York City BalletNew York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
- Premiere: February 2, 1954, City Center of Music and DramaNew York City CenterNew York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
In 1954 George Balanchine followed in Christensen's footsteps by choreographing and premiering his now-famous New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
version, adhering closely to the libretto of the original 1892 version (recollected from revivals in which he had performed the role of the Prince as a young boy in Russia).:
This version remained faithful to the original production in its casting actual children in the roles of Marie and the Nutcracker Prince, even reconstructing some of the original choreography for the Prince's pantomime and the Grand Pas de Deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier in Act II. Balanchine made some musical edits for his production, adding an entr'acte
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...
originally composed for Act II of The Sleeping Beauty (used as a transition between the departure of the guests and the battle with the mice in Act I), moving the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy to earlier in Act II, and excising the Tarantella variation intended for the Cavalier during the Grand Pas de Deux. Balanchine also departed from the original production on some points. For instance, while in the original production the Waltz of the Flowers was performed by eighteen male-female couples, Balanchine utilized a group of fourteen female dancers led by a Dew Drop soloist. Other changes reflect a return to Hoffmann's original tale. For instance, Balanchine used Hoffmann's original name for the heroine, Marie Stahlbaum (rather than Clara Silberhaus as in the 1892 production), and introduced a nephew for Drosselmeyer who appears in the party scene and later as the Nutcracker Prince.
The production premiered on February 2, 1954 at the New York City Center, starring Alberta Grant as Marie, Michael Arshansky as Drosselmeyer, Paul Nickel as the Nutcracker Prince, Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief was the first native-American prima ballerina. From 1942 to 1947 she danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but she is best known for her time with the New York City Ballet from 1947 to 1965.-Early life:...
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Nicholas Magallanes
Nicholas Magallanes
Nicholas Magallanes was a first-generation principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Along with Jerome Robbins, Francisco Moncion and Maria Tallchief, Magallanes was among the core group of dancers with which George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein formed the New York City Ballet in 1948...
as the Cavalier. It enjoyed huge popularity in New York and has been performed by the New York City Ballet every year since its premiere. Annual performances now take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. This version has been broadcast twice on live television - first, in an abridged form in 1957, by CBS on the TV anthology Seven Lively Arts
Seven Lively Arts
The Seven Lively Arts was a short-lived Sunday afternoon hour-long television anthology series produced in 1957 by CBS television and executive producer John Houseman. It was hosted by New York Herald Tribune critic John Crosby...
. This marked the first telecast not only of the Balanchine version but of any staging of the ballet. CBS's Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
broadcast a more complete (but still abridged) version of the Balanchine Nutcracker, narrated by actress June Lockhart
June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr...
, who was then starring as the mother in CBS's Lassie
Lassie (1954 TV series)
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
, in 1958; it was the first Nutcracker broadcast in color. There were only four commercial breaks. This television production starred Diana Adams
Diana Adams
Diana Adams was an American dancer, leading dancer for the New York City Ballet from 1950 to 1963 and a favorite of George Balanchine, later became a teacher and a dean at the School of American Ballet. Adams was born in Staunton, Virginia and died in San Andreas, California....
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Debbie Paine as Clara, and Robert Maiorano as the Nutcracker Prince. In 1993, it was the basis for the feature film George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. The latest revival of the production is scheduled to be telecast on Live from Lincoln Center
Live from Lincoln Center
Live From Lincoln Center is an ongoing series of musical performances produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with Thirteen/WNET in New York City....
during the 2011 Christmas season on PBS. It will mark PBS's first-ever telecast of the Balanchine Nutcracker.
In addition to the New York City Ballet, Balanchine's version of The Nutcracker is currently performed annually by five other ballet companies in the United States: Alabama Ballet, the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, the Miami City Ballet
Miami City Ballet
Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida. It was created in 1986 by former New York City Ballet principal dancer Edward Villella and flourishes today as one of America's most respected ballet companies...
, the Oregon Ballet Theatre, and the Pennsylvania Ballet
Pennsylvania Ballet
Founded in 1963 by Balanchine student and protégée Barbara Weisberger, Pennsylvania Ballet is one of the leading ballet companies in the United States. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company’s annual local season features six programs of classic favorites and new works, including the...
. It was previously performed at the Stamford Center for the Arts
Stamford Center for the Arts
The Stamford Center for the Arts in downtown Stamford, Connecticut, USA, actually consists of two facilities on Atlantic Street: the restored Palace Theatre, and the Rich Forum, both within four blocks of each other:-Performance and other facilities:...
in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
and by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is an American professional ballet company based in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.- History :...
. From 1966 to 1994, the Atlanta Ballet
Atlanta Ballet
Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the nation’s longest continuously performing ballet company and the State Ballet of Georgia.- History :...
staged the complete Balanchine version annually (after having performed only Act II for eight years); the company now performs choreographer John McFall's version.
See also: The Nutcracker (Balanchine)
The Nutcracker (Balanchine)
Choreographer George Balanchine's production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker has become the most famous stage production of the ballet performed in the U.S. The Balanchine Nutcracker uses the plot of the Alexandre Dumas, père version of E.T.A...
Rudolf Nureyev (1963)
- Choreography: Rudolf NureyevRudolf NureyevRudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
, after Vasily Vainonen - Company: Royal Ballet
- Premiere: November, 1967, Royal Opera HouseRoyal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent GardenCovent GardenCovent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
In 1963, Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
created his own version of Tchaikovsky's work with the Royal Ballet, in which he starred with Merle Park as Clara. Nureyev had previously performed the role of the Nutcracker Prince in Vainonen's version as a student at the Leningrad Ballet school in February 1958. Nureyev's production adopts many of Gorsky and Vainonen's alterations to the original 1892 version, including casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, eliminating the Sugar Plum Fairy, and having Clara awaken to realize the fantasy sequences were a dream.
The production was videotaped for British television in 1968 and is available on DVD. Nureyev played the roles of Drosselmeyer and the Nutcracker Prince, while Wayne Sleep
Wayne Sleep
Wayne Philip Colin Sleep OBE is a British dancer, director, choreographer and panelist. He was a Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet and has appeared as a Guest Artist with several other ballet companies.-Early life:...
portrayed the Nutcracker. Some critics considered this a Freudian
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
touch, taking it to mean that it is not the Nutcracker who turns into a Prince, but Drosselmeyer. However, this is not necessarily obvious to viewers of the DVD of this production. In 2008, this production was revived by the Paris Opera Ballet in a heavily revised version, this time with Myriam Ould-Braham as Clara and Jeremie Belingard as both Drosselmeyer and the Prince.
Yuri Grigorovich (1966)
- Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich
- Company: Bolshoi BalletBolshoi BalletThe Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
- Premiere: 1966, Bolshoi TheatreBolshoi TheatreThe Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
, MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
In 1966, Yuri Grigorovich created his own version of The Nutcracker for the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
, utilizing many of the changes made by Vasily Vainonen for his 1934 production, including the casting of adult dancers in the roles of the heroine (called Maria rather than Clara in this version) and the Nutcracker Prince, and the omission of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. In this version, all of the toys take part in the Journey Through the Snow sequence, rather than being offstage while Maria and the Prince perform the dance. And, as in the Vainonen version, much of the company also dances along with Maria and the Prince as they perform the Adagio in the Act II Pas de Deux; in fact, Maria and the Prince never have the stage all alone to themselves. As a departure from the original 1892 production, Grigorovich omits the pantomime that the Prince performs "describing" his defeat of the Mouse King at the beginning of Act II. The music for the pantomime is used for the defeat of the Mouse King, who is not killed in the first act as in the original or Vainonen's version, but at the beginning of the second act.
In this production, although Maria (or Clara) is outfitted with a bridal veil in the Final Waltz in anticipation to her impending wedding to the Nutcracker Prince, she then awakens to find that the fantasy sequences were a dream.
This version was recorded in 1987 (or 1978, depending on the source). It stars husband-and-wife team Ekaterina Maximova
Ekaterina Maximova
Ekaterina Sergeevna Maximova was a Soviet and Russian ballerina of international renown.-Career:Maximova was born in Moscow, Soviet Union. An artist who combined great technical prowess with piquant prettiness, Maximova enjoyed her greatest successes in Giselle, Don Quixote, Cinderella and The...
as Maria and Vladimir Vasiliev
Vladimir Vasiliev (ballet dancer)
Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev , a Russian ballet dancer, was principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, and was best known for his role of Spartacus and his powerful leaps and turns.-Biography:Born in Moscow in 1940, the son of a truck driver, Vasiliev graduated from the Moscow Ballet School in 1958...
as the Nutcracker Prince. A revival of this version was recorded in 1989, starring Natalya Arkhipova as Clara, not Maria as in the earlier version, and Irek Mukhamedov
Irek Mukhamedov
Irek Mukhamedov OBE is a Soviet-born ballet dancer of Tatar origin who has danced with the Bolshoi Ballet & the Royal Ballet He trained at the Moscow Choreographic Institute under the guidance of Alexander Prokofiev between 1970 and 1978. Upon graduation he joined the Classical Ballet Company, ...
as the Nutcracker Prince (but not the Nutcracker himself; that role is played by a female dancer, Marisa Okothnikova). In this revival the romance between Clara and the Prince is slightly more pronounced than in the earlier Bolshoi version. The entire score is used, which means that the Dance of the Clowns, cut from the earlier version, is reinstated, though Mother Ginger does not appear, nor do any clowns; the dance is performed by the same dancers who perform the other divertissements. It is now available on DVD, and has been telecast in the U.S. as part of Ovation TV
Ovation TV
Ovation is an American television channel that airs programming dedicated to the arts and contemporary culture. It features programming devoted to performance, people, art, music and film. In addition, Ovation features in-depth profiles on various artists and performers, Arts news from the U.S and...
's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
The first widescreen high-definition revival of the Grigorovich Nutcracker was streamed live to movie theatres in Europe in 2010. The use of the new technique afforded moviegoers to see the production in more vivid colors than had been featured in the earlier versions of the production, especially since the Bolshoi Theatre had been recently renovated. Nina Kaptsova starred as Marie (rather than Clara) and Artem Ovcharenko
Artem Ovcharenko
Artem Ovcharenko is a ballet dancer and first soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre.- Biography :Artem began his study of ballet when he was 11 years old, in the Dnipropetrovsk State Choreographic School. At the age 17 he entered the Bolshoi Ballet Academy...
was the Nutcracker Prince.
Mikhail Baryshnikov (1976)
- Choreography: Mikhail BaryshnikovMikhail BaryshnikovMikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
, after Vasily Vainonen - Company: American Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
- Premiere: December 21, 1976, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
, Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
In 1976, the 28-year-old Mikhail Baryshnikov premiered a new version of the ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, with himself in the title role, Marianna Tcherkassky as Clara, and Alexander Minz as Drosselmeyer. The production premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in December 1976, and received its New York premiere on May 18, 1977 at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Like Nureyev, Baryshnikov adopted many of the changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen, including the casting of adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, the elimination of the Sugar Plum Fairy while making Drosselmeyer's role more prominent, and a concluding scene in which Clara realizes the fantasy sequences were a dream. This production also utilizes Vainonen's choreography for the Waltz of the Snowflakes. Other changes included having a drunken guest at the Christmas party be the one responsible for breaking the Nutcracker, not Clara's brother Fritz, who is portrayed fairly sympathetically in this version. Clara, meanwhile, does not throw her slipper at the Mouse King during the battle, but a candleholder instead. The Grand Adagio of the Pas de Deux in Act II was made almost into a Pas de Trois, as Drosselmeyer enters the festivities at the Land of Sweets to coax Clara back to reality but she refuses to go. In order to provide a dramatic climax to the story, the adagio was made the penultimate dance in the ballet, coming just before the Final Waltz and Apotheosis.
This production achieved particular popularity when it was recorded for television in 1977, starring Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland is an American ballerina. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age fifteen, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was promoted to soloist in 1969 and principal in 1972...
as Clara (one of her few roles captured on video), with Baryshnikov and Minz reprising their roles as the Nutcracker / Prince and Drosselmeyer respectively. The telecast was directed by multi-Emmy-winning choreographer and director Tony Charmoli
Tony Charmoli
Tony Charmoli , an American dancer, choreographer, and director, began dancing on Broadway in such shows as "Make Mine Manhattan" but soon began choreographing for television with "Stop the Music" in 1949. Charmoli then choreographed dance sequences for the popular "Your Hit Parade," winning his...
. Although not televised now as often as it used to be, and despite the fact that it was not shot in high definition widescreen, it retains its status as the most popular telecast of the ballet even today, having become a huge bestseller on DVD especially during the Christmas season. The television version was not a live performance from the Kennedy Center of the ballet, but a special presentation shot on videotape in a TV studio. NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
had already done this as early as 1955, with its Producers' Showcase
Producers' Showcase
Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October...
version of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, starring Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
(which was, however, presented live in those days of no videotape). This method of presentation permitted far greater freedom of camera movement and more use of different camera angles. The Baryshnikov Nutcracker was videotaped in Toronto, Canada.
Due to time constraints and the necessity to bring the program in at ninety minutes (counting three commercial breaks), the television version of the Baryshnikov production had to eliminate the Arabian Dance altogether. It was first telecast by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
as a Christmas season special with limited commercial interruption on December 16, 1977, re-broadcast by CBS several times, then afterwards many times annually by PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, often during their pledge drive
Pledge drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time...
s. In 1997, a slightly edited version of it was telecast on the A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
, as part of their Breakfast with the Arts
Breakfast with the Arts
Breakfast with the Arts is a television program that aired on A&E from 1991 until 2007.Over the years, the show featured performances and interviews from all facets of the performing arts including rock, jazz, and classical, music, Broadway, film, dance, and books...
program. The presentation was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts, and Baryshnikov himself was nominated for an Emmy for Special Classification of Outstanding Individual Achievement. On September 28, 2004, the production was reissued on DVD, remastered and in both 2.0 and 5.1 stereo surround sound.
Kent Stowell/Maurice Sendak (1983)
- Choreography: Kent Stowell
- Company: Pacific Northwest BalletPacific Northwest BalletPacific Northwest Ballet is a ballet company based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. Founded in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera and named the Pacific Northwest Dance Association, it broke away from the Opera in 1977 and took its current name in 1978. It is said to have the highest per...
- Premiere: December 13, 1983, Seattle Center Opera HouseSeattle CenterSeattle Center is a park and arts and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington. The campus is the site used in 1962 by the Century 21 Exposition. It is located just north of Belltown in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.-Attractions:...
, Seattle
In 1981, Kent Stowell, artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet company in Seattle, approached children's author Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
to design the sets and costumes for a new production of The Nutcracker:
The version they eventually created premiered in December 1983. Unlike previous versions, Stowell and Sendak turned to the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls...
for inspiration and incorporated some of the darker aspects of Hoffmann's tale. In this production, Clara is portrayed by a young girl up until the defeat of the Mouse King, after which the character is transformed into a young woman and performed by an adult dancer for the remainder of the ballet. Stowell dispenses with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Confiturembourg setting for Act II altogether, opting instead, according to Sendak, for an exotic port containing a seraglio
Seraglio
A seraglio or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household. The word comes from an Italian variant of Turkish saray, from Persian sarai , meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace...
, in which the Grand Pasha (meant to resemble Drosselmeyer, played by the same performer) has his entourage perform for the couple in honor of their bravery. At the end of Act II, the boat on which Clara and the Prince journey to the Land of Sweets returns to take the Nutcracker and Clara away. Clara expresses reluctance to leave and the Pasha sends the boat away without her. As in the Vainonen, Clara wakes to realize the fantasy sequences were a dream. Sendak and Stowell also added to the original score a duet from Tchaikovsky's opera Pique Dame
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
, to be performed at the Christmas Party.
This production was extremely popular and has been revived in Seattle every year since its premiere, and is currently performed annually at McCaw Hall
McCaw Hall
The Marion Oliver McCaw Hall is a performance hall and opera house, located in Seattle, Washington. Inaugurated in June 2003, it was constructed within the basic steel support structure of the earlier Seattle Opera House, originally created for the World's Fair in 1962 and gutted for this...
. In 1986, it served as the basis for the feature film, Nutcracker: The Motion Picture.
Peter Wright (1984 and 1990)
- Choreography: Peter Wright, after Lev IvanovLev IvanovLev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
- Company: Royal Ballet
- Premiere: December 20, 1984, Royal Opera HouseRoyal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent GardenCovent GardenCovent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
In 1984, dancer-choreographer Peter Wright created a new production based on the original 1892 production for the Royal Ballet. In doing so, he enlisted the aide of musicologist Roland John Wiley, who had done extensive research on Tchaikovsky's ballets and served as production consultant. Together, they created a production that was closely based on the original by Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
. For the Waltz of the Flowers, for instance, Wright utilized the floor patterns designed by Ivanov for the premiere and, unlike many productions, featured a Vivandière
Vivandière
Vivandière may refer to:*Vivandière a generic name for women attached to military regiments*La Vivandière, a ballet choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon.*La Vivandière , an 1867 musical play by W. S. Gilbert...
doll in Act I as in the original production. Wright departed from the original in the casting of adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, and omitting Mother Gigogne and her Polichinelles. Unlike Vasily Vainonen's 1934 production, however, the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier remain intact. Wright's production, like Balanchine's, incorporates a nephew for Drosselmeyer, named Hans-Peter, but in this production he is actually the Nutcracker Prince, an element featured in the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls...
. The sets and costumes were designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman, inspired by the Biedermeier
Biedermeier
In Central Europe, the Biedermeier era refers to the middle-class sensibilities of the historical period between 1815, the year of the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions...
era of 19th century Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
This production premiered at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in December 1984. In 1985, it was recorded by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and televised in the U.S. by A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
, starring Julie Rose as Clara, Guy Niblett as Hans-Peter, Leslie Collier
Leslie Collier
Leslie Harold Collier was a scientist responsible for developing a freeze-drying method to produce a more heat stable smallpox vaccine in the late 1940s....
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Anthony Dowell
Anthony Dowell
Sir Anthony James Dowell, CBE is a retired English ballet dancer and former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet. He studied at the Hampshire School and The Royal Ballet Schools, before joining the Royal Ballet in 1961...
as her Cavalier. Wright has stated that of all his productions of the ballet, the 1984 one is the closest to the original, although Clara and Hans-Peter are played by adults. Wright even has the dancing dolls at the Christmas party bursting out of pies, as in the 1892 production.
Wright revised the production in 2001 for the newly renovated Royal Opera House to create an ending in which Clara first believes that she was dreaming her adventures; then in the epilogue, after meeting Hans-Peter again in the real world, she realizes that they actually happened. The revised production was videotaped and televised in the U.S. as part of PBS's Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
, starring Alina Cojocaru
Alina Cojocaru
Alina Cojocaru is a female principal dancer with The Royal Ballet of London.-Early years:Alina Cojocaru was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She has one sister. From a young age she studied gymnastics...
as Clara, Ivan Putrov
Ivan Putrov
Ivan Putrov is a Ukrainian-born ballet dancer, an independent dance artist, he was a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet from 2002 until July 2010.- Biography :...
as the Nutcracker Prince, Miyako Yoshida
Miyako Yoshida
Miyako Yoshida is a Japanese ballet dancer. She was a Principal Guest Artist of The Royal Ballet as well as a Principal dancer in K-ballet, Japan.-Biography:...
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Anthony Dowell (this time as Drosselmeyer). These first two versions of the Wright production are available on DVD.
In 2008, again with a new cast (Iohna Loots as Clara, Ricardo Cervera as the Nutcracker Prince, and Gary Avis
Gary Avis
Gary Avis is an English ballet dancer and Principal Character Artist with The Royal Ballet, a leading classical ballet company based in London, England. Born in Ipswich, he began studying dance locally at the age of 12, later attending the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Kent...
as Drosselmeyer), the production was streamed live to movie theatres in England, and was presented as a high-definition film in selected theatres throughout the U.S. during the 2009 Christmas season. There exist two different versions of this revival. The first one, with Alexandra Ansanelli
Alexandra Ansanelli
Alexandra Ansanelli was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and at The Royal Ballet, London. She trained at City Ballet's affiliated School of American Ballet before joining NYCB and in 2003 was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch"....
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, was filmed in 2008, and another one, also with Loots, Cervera and Avis, but with Miyako Yoshida
Miyako Yoshida
Miyako Yoshida is a Japanese ballet dancer. She was a Principal Guest Artist of The Royal Ballet as well as a Principal dancer in K-ballet, Japan.-Biography:...
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, was filmed in 2009 and was released on DVD in 2010.
The 2009 revival of the Wright production, with Iohna Loots as Clara and Yoshida as the Sugar Plum Fairy, was selected as a candidate in Ovation TV
Ovation TV
Ovation is an American television channel that airs programming dedicated to the arts and contemporary culture. It features programming devoted to performance, people, art, music and film. In addition, Ovation features in-depth profiles on various artists and performers, Arts news from the U.S and...
's 2010 "Battle of the Nutcrackers" contest — not the version with Alina Cojocaru as Clara, as has been erroneously stated on some websites. The 2009 production ultimately was chosen as the viewer favorite in the contest. It made its U.S. TV debut on December 6, 2010. The contest marks the first time that this revival of the production has ever been shown on U.S. television.
- Choreography: Peter WrightPeter WrightPeter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...
- Company: Birmingham Royal BalletBirmingham Royal BalletBirmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
- Premiere: December 29, 1990, Birmingham HippodromeBirmingham HippodromeThe Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End...
, BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
Wright staged a new version of the ballet in 1990, when the Sadler Wells Royal Ballet moved to Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and became the Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
under his direction. For this production, Wright departed more freely from the 1892 original than in his 1984 Royal Ballet production. In this version, the fantasy sequences are once again a dream, Clara is a ballet student, and her mother is a former ballerina. The production has been particularly praised for John Mcfarlane's set designs. In 1994, this version was filmed, starring Irek Mukhamedov
Irek Mukhamedov
Irek Mukhamedov OBE is a Soviet-born ballet dancer of Tatar origin who has danced with the Bolshoi Ballet & the Royal Ballet He trained at the Moscow Choreographic Institute under the guidance of Alexander Prokofiev between 1970 and 1978. Upon graduation he joined the Classical Ballet Company, ...
as the Nutcracker Prince, Sandra Madgwick as Clara, and once again, Miyako Yoshida
Miyako Yoshida
Miyako Yoshida is a Japanese ballet dancer. She was a Principal Guest Artist of The Royal Ballet as well as a Principal dancer in K-ballet, Japan.-Biography:...
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and was released on DVD by Kultur International Films (as of this writing, Ms. Yoshida has danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy more times on video than any other dancer).
The Hard Nut — Mark Morris (1991)
- Choreography: Mark MorrisMark MorrisMark William Morris is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments...
- Company: Mark Morris Dance Group
- Premiere: January 12, 1991, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
In 1990, American dancer and choreographer Mark Morris began work on The Hard Nut, a contemporary version of The Nutcracker, taking inspiration from the horror-comic artist Charles Burns
Charles Burns (cartoonist)
Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for...
, whose artwork focuses on the archetypal concepts of guilt, childhood, adolescent sexuality, and poignant, nostalgic portrayals of post-war America. Morris enlisted a team of collaborators with whom he could evoke Burns’ black-and-white world: set designer Adrianne Lobel, lighting designer James F. Ingalls
James F. Ingalls
James F. Ingalls is a respected and prolific lighting designer who has worked extensively on Broadway, in London and at many regional theaters including The Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and Steppenwolf...
, and costume designer Martin Pakledinaz. The Hard Nut was the last of twelve pieces Mark Morris created during his time as Director of Dance at the National Opera House of Belgium.
The Hard Nut premiered on January 12, 1991 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. It was chosen the favorite by viewer votes in 2007, 2008, and 2009 in Ovation TV's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers". Shortly after the premiere, MMDG returned to the United States, having finished their three-year residency at the Monnaie, but the company returned six months later with film crew in hand for encore performances in Belgium's national opera house that were made available on VHS and Laserdisc. The Hard Nut was released on DVD in 2007.
2010 marked the first year that The Hard Nut was not part of the annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
See also: The Hard Nut
The Hard Nut
The Hard Nut is an adaptation of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker choreographed by Mark Morris. It took its inspiration from the comic artist Charles Burns...
Nutcracker! — Matthew Bourne (1992)
- Choreography: Matthew BourneMatthew BourneMatthew Bourne OBE is a British classical and contemporary ballet and dance choreographer.-Biography:Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. He went to William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London...
- Company: Adventures in Motion Pictures
- Premiere: August 26, 1992, Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh FestivalThe Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
, EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
In 1992, choreographer Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne OBE is a British classical and contemporary ballet and dance choreographer.-Biography:Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. He went to William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London...
staged a new version of the ballet as part of a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's one-act opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Iolanta
Iolanta
Iolanta, Op. 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter by Henrik Hertz. The play was translated by Fyodor Miller and adapted by Vladimir Zotov...
(presented by Opera North
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle...
) to celebrate the centenary of both works. Bourne's version, while retaining Tchaikovsky's score (except the music for Mother Gigogne and her Polichinelles), reworks the traditional libretto. In this version, Clara lives in an orphanage run by a wealthy family. The Nutcracker in this version resembles the ventriloquist dummy Jerry Mahoney
Paul Winchell
Paul Winchell was an American ventriloquist, voice actor and comedian, whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s...
after coming to life, and turns into, not a Prince, but a shirtless, muscular man resembling Mr. Universe
World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships
The World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships is a male bodybuilding contest organised by the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness and first held in 1959. The name was changed in 1976 to avoid confusion with the NABBA Mr...
. The Sugar Plum Fairy is replaced by a character named Princess Sugar, a calculating, slutty woman who steals Clara's beau away from her. Instead of abandoning plot development for divertissement in Act II as in the original 1892 production, in Act II of Bourne's production, Clara must find her hunky beau in time to prevent him from marrying Princess Sugar. Clara ultimately awakens in the orphanage to find him hiding under the covers of her bed, ready to whisk her away for a happily-ever-after ending.
The original production was a success and was brought back to the Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
in 1993 and 1994. It was nominated for a 1994 Laurence Olivier Award for "Best New Dance Production" and for a "Best of the Edinburgh Festival Award" by The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
. Bourne revised the production in 2002, which has since been performed in various locations in Britain and the U.S. In 2003, it was telecast on the Bravo channel. It was later released on DVD.
Kirill Simonov / Mikhail Chemiakin (2001)
- Choreography: Kirill Simonov
- Company: Mariinsky BalletMariinsky BalletThe Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
- Premiere: February 12, 2001, Mariinsky TheatreMariinsky TheatreThe Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
, St Petersburg
In 2001, Russian artist Mikhail Chemiakin joined with choreographer Kirill Simonov, at the request of conductor Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
, to design a new production of the ballet:
Like Maurice Sendak and Kent Stowell's 1984 production for the Pacific Northwest Ballet, they would draw on the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls...
for inspiration. Chemiakin chose to emphasize some of Hoffmann's darker and more grotesque themes, including those of repressed imagination and childhood alienation (the heroine is shunned by her own parents in this version, although she isn't in the Hoffmann story). As in the original 1892 production, the fantasy sequences are not a dream and the Sugar Plum Fairy still appears (though, like Gorsky's version and Vainonen's 1934 version, Simonov gives her Grand Pas de Deux in Act II to the heroine, called Masha, and the Nutcracker Prince). In one case, Chemiakin deviated sharply from Hoffmann, who gave his story a happy ending by having the heroine marry the Nutcracker Prince, and presumably stay in the Kingdom of Sweets to live happily ever after with him. Instead of Hoffmann's ending or the Apotheosis of the original production, Masha and the Prince, who fall deeply in love and are married offstage, are turned into confections at the top of a giant wedding cake, in danger of being eaten by rats who are climbing and nibbling on it.
The production premiered at the Mariinsky in February 2001, and was performed in the U.S. for the first time in 2003, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and his wife Laura
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
attended one of the performances. It has proved highly controversial and has received many withering reviews, which nevertheless praise the dancing of ballerina Irina Golub
Irina Golub
Irina Ivanovna Golub is a Russian-born ballerina with the Mariinsky Ballet, once known as the Kirov Ballet. She should not be confused with the gymnast with the same name. Born in what was then Leningrad, and a graduate of the Vaganova Academy, Ms. Golub joined the Mariinsky in 1998 at the age of...
, who portrays Masha on the DVD made of the production. Russian dance critic Nina Alovert also commented disparagingly of the production, saying that it was "full of uncaring human beings and rats who eat people", and that "The one good person [meaning Masha] is turned into a sugar-coated doll". In Dance View Times, critic George Jackson called it "The Gargoyle Nutcracker", and inexplicably termed Masha, the kindliest character in the production, a "brat" and a "minislut", perhaps partly because of the Act II Pas de Deux, which is made quite sensual in this production, some have even said sexual. On the other hand, Stephen Smoliar, published a favorable review of the production, in which he said of the Act II Pas de Deux, "Never before have I found such an erotically charged Pas de Deux (in any ballet)", stating that it represents the moment when Masha and the Nutcracker Prince consummate their relationship, and he complimented Irina Golub for "dancing it so passionately". He also praised choreographer Simonov, and stated that "never before has this eroticism [in the ballet] seemed so relevant." (In the production, the Grand Adagio of the Pas de deux culminates in a passionate kiss between Masha and the Nutcracker Prince, and at the end of the dance, Masha, with a mischievous smile and a knowing glance, grabs the Prince's hand and runs backstage with him, perhaps so that the Prince can announce the couple's engagement offstage, but perhaps also to make love with him in private. It is left to the viewer to decide.) The ending of this version is quite horrifying, in that it implies that Masha and the Prince have been killed.
This production was filmed in 2007 and released on DVD in 2008, both on Blu-ray and regular format; however, the regular format version rapidly went out-of-print.
Onstage, Golub and Natalya Sologub alternated in the rôle of Masha.
This version is scheduled to make its U.S. TV debut in December of 2011, on Ovation TV's annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
Helgi Tomasson (2004)
- Choreography: Helgi Tomasson
- Company: San Francisco BalletSan Francisco BalletThe San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
- Premiere: December 17, 2004, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
In December 2004, artistic director Helgi Tomasson staged a new version of the ballet for the San Francisco Ballet set in San Francisco during the Panama–Pacific International Exposition
Panama–Pacific International Exposition
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery...
. (Other productions, such as Robert Joffrey
Robert Joffrey
Robert Joffrey was an American dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets...
's for the Joffrey Ballet
Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern...
and Septime Webre's for the Washington Ballet
Washington Ballet
The Washington Ballet is an ensemble of professional athletic classical ballet dancers. It was founded in 1976 by American ballet pioneer Mary Day, and has been under the artistic directorship of Septime Webre since 1999.-The Mary Day years :...
have taken a similar route in transplanting the action to America.) Clara is played, for the most part, by a young girl rather than an adult woman.
This production utilizes the basic outline of the original 1892 version, with some departure. For example, as in the Chemiakin version, the Nutcracker first "comes to life" at the Christmas party before Clara's dream begins. Rather than a Soldier as in the original 1892 version, it is the Nutcracker that is Drosselmeyer's second life-sized doll. And, rather than throwing her slipper at the Mouse King, Clara humorously arranges with the help of the toy soldiers to get the Mouse King's tail caught in a huge mousetrap, thus enabling the Nutcracker to fatally stab him.
In lieu of the Confiturembourg setting for Act II, Tomasson substitutes a Crystal Palace, like the one featured at the 1915 fair.
As the festivities draw to a close, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Drosselmeyer grant Clara her greatest Christmas wish and transform her into a beautiful woman to dance in the arms of her Prince. Thus, as in Gorsky's version and Vasily Vainonen's 1934 version, the Grand Pas de Deux is danced, not by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, but by the Nutcracker Prince and Clara. Also, like Vainonen's production, Clara awakes on Christmas morning to find that the fantasy sequences were a dream.
In 2007, this version was filmed by KQED and presented in select movie theatres throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The following winter, it was presented on PBS' Dance in America
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
and subsequently released on DVD.
Other Productions
- Mary Day/Martin Buckner (1961) — Among the first wave of productions in the U.S. after Christensen and Balanchine was the Washington BalletWashington BalletThe Washington Ballet is an ensemble of professional athletic classical ballet dancers. It was founded in 1976 by American ballet pioneer Mary Day, and has been under the artistic directorship of Septime Webre since 1999.-The Mary Day years :...
's production, choreographed by Mary DayWashington BalletThe Washington Ballet is an ensemble of professional athletic classical ballet dancers. It was founded in 1976 by American ballet pioneer Mary Day, and has been under the artistic directorship of Septime Webre since 1999.-The Mary Day years :...
with Martin Buckner and Choo San GohChoo San GohGOH Choo San , choreographer, was son of Kim Lok Goh, a merchant, and Siew Han Ch’ng.-Childhood:He was the youngest of ten children. His Chinese parents spoke Mandarin and the family was brought up with very traditional values. Goh was influenced by and followed in the path of three of his older...
. The production premiered at DAR Constitution HallDAR Constitution HallDAR Constitution Hall is a concert hall in Washington, D.C. It was built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to house its annual convention when membership delegations outgrew Memorial Continental Hall. Later, the two buildings were connected by a third structure housing the DAR...
with the National Symphony OrchestraNational Symphony OrchestraThe National Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra that performs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.-History:...
in December 1961. The production was subsequently performed at various venues throughout Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
including Lisner AuditoriumLisner AuditoriumLisner Auditorium is an auditorium, located on the campus of The George Washington University, at 730 21st Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C.. It is named for Abram Lisner, a trustee of the University who donated the money for its construction....
and the Warner TheatreWarner Theatre (Washington, D.C.)The Warner Theatre is a theater located at 513 13th Street, N.W. in Downtown Washington, D.C.. The basement level is at 1299 Pennsylvania Avenue.-History:...
until Day's retirement in 2004, at which point the production was retired and replaced with a new version by Septime Webre, set in 19th century Georgetown.
- Robert Joffrey/Gerald Arpino (1987) — In 1987, Robert JoffreyRobert JoffreyRobert Joffrey was an American dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets...
and Gerald ArpinoGerald ArpinoGerald Arpino was an American dancer and choreographer. He was the artistic director and co-founder of The Joffrey Ballet.-Life and career:...
created a version of the ballet for the Joffrey BalletJoffrey BalletThe Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern...
set in Currier and IvesCurrier and IvesCurrier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives . Based in New York City from 1834–1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored...
America. The production has been performed in cities nationwide, including New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and ultimately in ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where the company established its permanent home in 1995. In 1999, an abridged version of the production was televised on some PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
stations in U.S. as The Joffrey Nutcracker.
- Graeme Murphy (1992) — Graeme MurphyGraeme MurphyGraeme Murphy is an Australian dance choreographer. Together with his fellow dancer Janet Vernon, he has guided Sydney Dance Company to become one of Australia's most successful and well-known dance companies....
's version, entitled "Nutcracker: The Story of Clara", was created in 1992 for the Australian Ballet, released on video in 1994, and released on DVD in 2008. It retains Tchaikovsky's music, but throws out nearly all of the original story. In this version, set in the 1950s, Clara is an aging Australian ballerina who recalls her past life in flashback.
- Anatoli Emilianov (1993) — Anatoli Emilianov has staged a version for the Moscow BalletMoscow BalletThe name Moscow Ballet has commonly been applied to a number of different ballet companies, these include the:*Moscow Ballet, A Russian ballet company...
called The Great Russian Nutcracker, in which the second act is set in the "Land of Peace and Harmony". As in the Gorsky and Vainonen versions, Clara performs all of the dances usually performed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Prince performs the Cavalier's dances. New York Times dance critic Alastair MacaulayAlastair MacaulayAlastair Macaulay is a dance critic for the New York Times. He was previously chief dance critic at The Times Literary Supplement and chief theater critic of the Financial Times, both of London...
has criticized what he calls "the production's emphasis on Love, Love, Love," claiming that a romance between Clara and the Nutcracker Prince makes The Nutcracker seem like too many other classical ballets, rather than a unique one which essentially does not have an adult love interest.
- Pär Isberg (1997) — Pär Isberg's version for the Royal Swedish BalletRoyal Swedish BalletThe Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian dominance in this field; he also founded the Royal Swedish Opera and the...
, staged in 1997, uses most of Tchaikovsky's music, but bears little resemblance to the original ballet, although there still is a Mouse King. In this version, it is a charcoal burner who becomes a handsome Prince, and a housemaid falls in love with him and becomes his Princess. Instead of simply Clara visiting the Kingdom of Sweets, it is two children, Lotta and her brother Petter, who do so. (Some of the new libretto is inspired by Elsa BeskowElsa BeskowElsa Beskow was a Swedish author and illustrator of children's books...
's children's book "Peter and Lotta's Christmas".) This version is available on DVD only in Great Britain.
- Patrice Bart (1999) — Patrice Bart's version, available on DVD, created for the Berlin Staatsoper, and premiered there in 1999, reworks the libretto. The heroine (here called Marie) is an unhappy, traumatized child who finds herself in the care of the cruel Stahlbaum family after her mother is kidnapped by Russian Revolutionaries. Her only friend is Drosselmeyer who here is a young man who helps Marie remember and overcome her repressed trauma. The nutcracker toy, whose uniform reminds Marie of her father, becomes the catalyst for this experience. Drosselmeyer evokes in the revolutionaries (taking the place of the Mice from the traditional staging), enabling Marie to drive them off by throwing her toy nutcracker at them. The toy then explodes, comes to life, and almost immediately turns into a Prince. In the second act, Marie is reunited with her mother. As in Vainonen's 1934 version, there is no Sugar Plum Fairy or Cavalier; their dances are performed by Marie and the Nutcracker Prince. This production appeared on DVD with Nadja Saidakova as Marie and Vladimir MalakhovVladimir Malakhov (dancer)Vladimir Malakhov , was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. In 2004 he became the artistic director and first soloist of the Staatsballett Berlin which was newly formed from the ballets of the three public opera houses.He began his dance training at the age of four at a small ballet...
as the Nutcracker Prince. Daniel BarenboimDaniel BarenboimDaniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....
conducts the orchestra. This version was also shown on U.S. TV in Ovation's 2010 "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
- Maurice Béjart (2000) — Maurice BéjartMaurice BéjartMaurice Béjart was a French born, Swiss choreographer who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He was the son of the French philosopher Gaston Berger.- Biography :...
's 2000 version throws out the original story altogether, creating all-new characters and planting his own mother at the center of the story. Here, the main character is named Bim, and is intended to represent Béjart himself. Mephisto and Felix the CatFelix the CatFelix the Cat is a cartoon character created in the silent film era. His black body, white eyes, and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons place him, combine to make Felix one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history...
appear as characters. A piece of set design seen throughout the production resembles a woman's naked torso, with a visible uterusUterusThe uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...
. There is a strong hint of incest between Bim and his mother, and there is also a gay subtext throughout. The Act I Pas de Deux between Bim and his mother, originally meant to be performed at the point at which the Nutcracker turns into a Prince, is extremely suggestive sexually. This one was also a candidate in 2010's "Battle of the Nutcrackers".
- Youri Vamos (2007) — Hungarian choreographer Youri VámosYouri VámosYouri Vámos was born in Budapest. He trained in ballet from a young age at the State Ballet School in Budapest. He was a soloist at the Hungarian State Opera and then later accepted a contract as a first soloist at the Bavarian State Opera....
has created The Nutcracker: A Christmas Story, a version of Tchaikovsky's ballet, released on DVD in 2007, which combines Hoffmann's story with elements from Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's A Christmas CarolA Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
, to the point of including Ebenezer ScroogeEbenezer ScroogeEbenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
, Bob CratchitBob CratchitRobert "Bob" Cratchit is a fictional character who is the abused, underpaid clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol...
, Mrs. Cratchit, and the Spirit of Christmas as characters.
- Gary Harris (2010) - Choreographer Gary Harris has created a production for the New Zealand Ballet which takes place partly in a hospital ward to which Clara is taken after receiving a bump on the head, courtesy of her slingshot-wielding brother Fritz.
- Alexei Ratmansky (2010) — Russian choreographer Ratmansky has choreographed a new production of The Nutcracker for American Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of MusicBrooklyn Academy of MusicBrooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
on Thursday, December 23, 2010, with principal dancers Gillian MurphyGillian MurphyGillian Murphy is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.Murphy was born in Wimbledon, England and took her first ballet class at the age of three in Belgium while her father was working overseas...
and David Hallberg. In this production, during the Pas de deux, the little girl Clara and the boy Nutcracker Prince imagine themselves dancing it as adults, whereupon the principal dancers take over the roles until the Apotheosis of the ballet. The production follows Chemiakin's by beginning the ballet in the Stahlbaum's kitchen (where mice are hiding), in making the snowflakes have a sinister quality, and in having Clara and the Nutcracker Prince kiss onstage near the end. It follows the Bolshoi version in having attendants place a bridal veil on Clara after she accepts the Prince's marriage proposal during the Pas de Deux. And, like the Bolshoi version and many others, it all turns out to have been a dream at the end. The production has received mostly rave reviews, perhaps the best for an ABT "Nutcracker" since Baryshnikov's famous production.
- Cabaret Red Light (2010) — Cabaret Red LightCabaret Red LightCabaret Red Light is a theater group based in Philadelphia that performs vaudeville, burlesque, spoken word and puppet theater, set to original music by The Blazing Cherries. In their first season, between November 2008 and July 2009, Cabaret Red Light staged the series "The Seven Deadly Sins"...
has created a new burlesqueBurlesqueBurlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
-and-ballet version of The Nutcracker with original score by Rolf Lakaemper and Peter Gaffney, and choreography by Christine Fisler. Directed by Anna Frangiosa and Gaffney, the new production draws on material from the original short story by E.T.A. HoffmannE.T.A. HoffmannErnst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann , better known by his pen name E.T.A. Hoffmann , was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist...
, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," aiming to restore scenes, characters and other elements not included in Alexandre Dumas' French adaptation of the holiday classic, and presenting a version that is generally truer to the spirit and uncanny nature of Hoffmann's work. Using a variety of media - shadow puppets, kinetic sculptures, experimental music and narrative dance - Cabaret Red Light's NUTCRACKER revolves around the figure of Marie and her Godfather Drosselmeyer's efforts to warn her about the false promises and counterfeit values that mark the transition into adult life. The new production premiered on December 16, 2010 at Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.
Concert version
In 2010, a rare concert performance of the complete ballet, without scenery, costumes, or dancers, played by the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and filmed in hi-def in the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, was featured online on the orchestra's website. It was conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a French Canadian conductor. He is Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and will become Music Director in 2012.-Biography:...
.
Fantasia (1940)
Selections from the Nutcracker Suite were heard in the 1940 Disney animated film FantasiaFantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
. In this film, the music from The Nutcracker is accompanied by dancing fairies
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
, mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s and fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, among others and, as host Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor
Joseph Deems Taylor was a U.S. composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.-Career:Taylor initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices...
mentions in live-action footage, the Nutcracker itself is nowhere in sight. One remark that strikes modern-day viewers strongly if they see the roadshow theatrical release
Roadshow theatrical release
A roadshow theatrical release was a term in the American motion picture industry for a practice in which a film opened in a limited number of theaters in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco for a specific period of time before the...
of Fantasia (now on DVD) rather than the more commonly seen general release version, is Taylor's declaration that the full-length Nutcracker "wasn't much of a success and nobody performs it nowadays", a statement that had some validity in 1940, but is certainly not true now. (This remark was edited out of the general release version of Fantasia, which began playing theatres in 1946 and is the one released on VHS.)
As mentioned before, this suite should not be mistaken for the entire Nutcracker. The suite used in Fantasia is a slightly altered version of the Nutcracker Suite selected by the composer. As animated in Fantasia, it does not make use of a Christmas setting at all, although snow and ice are shown near the end of it. This version omits the Overture and the Marche, and the remaining dances are reordered (The accompanying animation is provided in parentheses):
-
- 1. Danses caractéristiques
- a. Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy (Dew Fairies)
- b. Chinese Dance (Chinese Mushrooms)
- c. Reed-Flutes (Blossoms)
- d. Arabian Dance (Goldfish)
- e. Russian Dance (Thistles and Orchids)
- 2. Waltz of the Flowers (Frost Fairies & Snow Fairies)
- 1. Danses caractéristiques
Schelkunchik (1973)
Schelkunchik (Nutcracker) is a 1973 Russian animated short based on the story with no dialogue, and features Tchaikovsky's music, not only from The Nutcracker, but also from Swan LakeSwan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
and The Sleeping Beauty. In this version the heroine is not Clara, the daughter of a distinguished Town Council President, but a lonely chambermaid who works in a large house. When she kisses the Nutcracker, he comes to life, but is ashamed of his appearance. He must fight the Mouse King in order to break the spell placed upon him and become a Prince again. Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov featured this version in his PBS television series Stories from My Childhood. The U.S. telecast added narration by Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
.
Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (1986)
The film Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (referred to in the film credits as Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker) is a feature film based on Kent Stowell's 1983 production of The Nutcracker with sets and costume designs by Maurice SendakMaurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
. Directed by Carroll Ballard
Carroll Ballard
-Biography:Carroll Ballard started out making documentaries for the U.S. Information Agency, Beyond This Winter's Wheat and Harvest ; the latter was nominated for an Academy Award...
, it was released nationwide on Thanksgiving Day, in 1986. As in the stage version, Clara was played by a young girl (Vanessa Sharp) during the Christmas party and the Battle with the Mice, and an adult dancer (Patricia Barker) throughout the remainder of the ballet (until Clara awakens from her dream). The Nutcracker and the Nutcracker Prince were also played by two dancers in the film: Jacob Rice before the toy's transformation into a Prince, and Wade Walthall throughout the rest of the film. This version introduces hints of sexual tension between Clara and Drosselmeyer. During the Christmas Party, Clara is visibly uneasy around Drosselmeyer, who seems to be leering at her. In the dream sequence, there is an obvious rivalry between the Pasha (Drosselmeyer's dream counterpart) and the Nutcracker Prince, as the Pasha tries to get Clara to sit with him, against the wishes of the Nutcracker Prince. The ending of the film departs from the stage version. As Clara and her Prince slowly swirl around wrapped in each other's arms while the Apotheosis plays, the Pasha magically levitates them higher and higher into the air as the other dancers wave goodbye. Suddenly, the jealous Pasha points his finger at the couple, which magically causes them to let go of each other. They suddenly begin to freefall, and the Prince again becomes a nutcracker. Just as both are about to hit the ground and presumably be seriously injured or killed, Clara (a young girl again) is jolted awake from her dream. In the film, the Final Waltz is heard during the closing credits (although the Apotheosis is performed during the last moments of the ballet). Drosselmeyer is sleeping at his work desk, on which we see the dancers performing the waltz.
The Nutcracker Prince (1990)
In 1990, a Canadian animated version, The Nutcracker Prince, starring the voices of Kiefer SutherlandKiefer Sutherland
Kiefer Sutherland is an English-born Canadian actor, producer and director, best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox thriller drama series 24 for which he has won an Emmy Award , a Golden Globe award , two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Satellite...
, Megan Follows
Megan Follows
Megan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows is a Canadian/American actress. She is most known to international audiences for her role as Anne Shirley in the acclaimed 1985 Canadian television miniseries Anne of Green Gables and its two sequels.-Biography:Follows was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as the...
, and Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, among others, was released. This one also used Tchaikovsky's music, but was actually a straightforward full-length animated cartoon, not a ballet film. The plot follows E.T.A. Hoffmann's original storyline in having the Nutcracker actually be Drosselmeyer's nephew (named Hans in this version), and having Clara meet him in real life at the end. The fantasy elements really do occur in this film version, as in Hoffmann's story. New characters (one of them voiced by Peter O'Toole) are added to the plot.
George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (1993)
In 1993, George Balanchine's version for the New York City Ballet served as the basis for a full-length feature film called George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, made by Electra Entertainment and Regency EnterprisesRegency Enterprises
Regency Enterprises is a Los Angeles-based film and television production company formed by Arnon Milchan and Joseph P. Grace. It was founded in 1982 as Embassy International Pictures, but the company name changed to avoid confusion with Norman Lear's Embassy Pictures . Its most successful film is...
. It was distributed and released by Warner Brothers. The film was directed by Emile Ardolino
Emile Ardolino
Emile Ardolino was an American film director, choreographer, and producer, best known for his films Dirty Dancing and Sister Act .-Biography:...
, with narration spoken by Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...
. The cast includes Jessica Lynn Cohen as Marie, Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Carson Culkin is an American actor. He became widely known for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also known for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Pagemaster, and Party Monster...
as the Nutcracker, the Prince, and Drosselmeyer's nephew, Darci Kistler
Darci Kistler
Darci Kistler is a noted American ballerina. She is often said to be the last muse for legendary choreographer George Balanchine.-Biography:...
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Damian Woetzel
Damian Woetzel
Damian Woetzel, former ballet star, is a producer and director of dance and music performances. Among his recent projects was directing the first performance of the White House Dance Series in September 2010, which took place in the East Room of the White House and was hosted by First Lady Michelle...
as the Fairy's Cavalier, and Wendy Whelan
Wendy Whelan
Wendy Whelan is a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and guest artist with Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company.-Early life:A native of Louisville, Kentucky , she began her dance training with local teacher Virginia Wooton at the age of three...
as Coffee. The film was criticized by James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
for not capturing the excitement of a live performance, stating that it "opts to present a relatively mundane version of the stage production... utilizing almost none of the advantages offered by the (film) medium." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
criticized the film for not adapting the dance for a film audience and also its casting of Culkin who, he writes, "seems peripheral to all of the action, sort of like a celebrity guest or visiting royalty, nodding benevolently from the corners of shots." In The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Lucy Linfield echoed Ebert's criticism of Culkin, stating that "it's not so much that he can't act or dance; more important, the kid seems to have forgotten how to smile... All little Mac can muster is a surly grimace." She praised the dancing, however, as "strong, fresh and in perfect sync" and Kistler's Sugar Plum Fairy as "the Balanchinean ideal of a romantic, seemingly fragile beauty combined with a technique of almost startling strength, speed and knifelike precision." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
also criticized Culkin, calling his performance the film's "only serious flaw", but praised the cinematography as "very scrupulous in the way it establishes a mood of participatory excitement, then draws back far enough so that the classic ballet sequences choreographed by Balanchine and staged by Peter Martins can be seen in their full glory."
The Nuttiest Nutcracker (1999)
In 1999, a comedy version entitled The Nuttiest NutcrackerThe Nuttiest Nutcracker
The Nuttiest Nutcracker is a 1999 direct-to-video Christmas film loosely based on the classic tale The Nutcracker, directed by Harold Harris, starring the voices of James Belushi, Cheech Marin, and Phyllis Diller...
became the first computer-animated film released straight to video. An example of the skewed tone that this version took may be inferred from the fact that Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...
provided the voice of an obese Sugar Plum Fairy. Some of Tchaikovsky's music was used.
Barbie in The Nutcracker (2001)
This animated film uses generous chunks of Tchaikovsky's music, and is a direct-to-video digitally animated version of the story with, of course, BarbieBarbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
the doll, released in 2001. (However, Barbie appears not as Clara, but as herself. Clara, though, looks exactly like Barbie, and is still the main character, and her story is told as a story-within-a-film). The film significantly alters the storyline of the Hoffmann tale, adding all sorts of perils not found in the original story, or the ballet. There is even a Stone Monster, sent by the Mouse King, that chases Clara and the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer is not Clara's godfather but her grandfather, and is depicted as being notably grumpy. It is not Drosselmeyer who gives Clara the Nutcracker, but her aunt, and in this version, Clara is an orphan raised by her grandfather. The Nutcracker, rather than becoming a Prince after his victory in battle, must travel to the Sugar Plum Princess's castle in order for the spell to be broken; defeating the Mouse King is not enough. At the end, Clara turns out to be the Sugar Plum Princess, and her kiss breaks the spell that had been placed on the Nutcracker. Real New York City Ballet dancers were used in the production and rotoscope
Rotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
d in order to properly capture ballet movements - the Trepak, the Adagio from the pas de deux
Pas de deux
In ballet, a pas de deux is a duet in which ballet dancers perform the dance together. It usually consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations , and a coda.-Notable Pas de deux:...
, and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy are performed much as they would be in a live production of The Nutcracker. Peter Martins
Peter Martins
Peter Martins is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was named man of the year by Danish American Society, 1980...
served as choreographer. In this version, the Prince asks Clara to stay on as his Queen, even telling her "I love you". But Clara is dreaming, and therefore must awaken. However, the couple is reunited in reality when Clara's aunt brings "the son of a friend" over to visit for Christmas. In this version, the Mouse King does not die until near the end. The film also features touches of (sometimes deliberately anachronistic) humor: after the battle with the mice, the Nutcracker, who has not yet regained his form as a Prince, says to Clara, "Thank you for saving my life, and for your superior nursing skills". During the early part of her adventures, Clara maintains a skeptical attitude, even saying "This is crazy" at one point.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (2004)
In 2004, Argus International in Moscow produced an animated version of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", based on the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The English version was released in 2005 and features the voices of Leslie NielsenLeslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
as the Mouse King, Robert Hays
Robert Hays
Robert Hays is an American actor and is arguably most well known for his role in the movie Airplane!-Life and career:...
as the mouse Squeak, Fred Willard
Fred Willard
Fred Willard is an American actor, comedian, and voice over actor, best known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration as well as...
as the mouse Bubble, and Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
(of Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
fame) as the voice of Herr Drosselmeyer.
The Secret of the Nutcracker (2007)
The Secret of the Nutcracker, a 2007 Canadian made-for-television film which uses some of the ballet characters as well as Tchaikovsky's music, has never been telecast in the U.S., but has been released on DVD. This version, a dramatic film which uses a new plot, features Brian Cox as Drosselmeyer. This "retelling" is set during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and makes Clara's father a prisoner of war. Nazis also feature in this adaptation.
The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)
The Nutcracker in 3D (also known as Nutcracker: The Untold Story) is a feature-length musical variation in 3-D on the tale set in 1920s Vienna, featuring John TurturroJohn Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as the Rat King, Elle Fanning
Elle Fanning
Mary Elle Fanning , credited as Elle Fanning, is an American actress. She is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning and mainly known for her starring roles in Phoebe in Wonderland, Somewhere, Super 8 and We Bought a Zoo which will receive a theatrical release on December 23,...
as Mary (rather than Clara) and Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
as a young Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, here known only as Uncle Albert. Originally scheduled to be released during the Christmas holiday season of 2009, it reportedly began showing in European countries as early as February 2009, and was released in the U.S. just before Thanksgiving in 2010. The film is written and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky is a Soviet-American and Russian film director, film producer and screenwriter....
. The music for the songs in this film is adapted from different works by Tchaikovsky, and the lyrics are by Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
. The film is set in 1920s Vienna. Konchalovsky evokes Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the SS through the Rat King and his army. The film has received unfavorable reviews.
Animated
There have been several animated versions of the original story, but none can really be actually considered an animated version of the ballet itself. All of these invent characters that appear neither in the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story nor in the ballet.- In 1979, a stop-motion puppet version, entitled Nutcracker FantasyNutcracker FantasyNutcracker Fantasy is an animated film by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker and E.T.A. Hoffman's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Motion Picture...
, was released, using some of the Tchaikovsky music. This version featured the voices of Christopher LeeChristopher LeeSir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
as Drosselmeyer, and Melissa GilbertMelissa GilbertMelissa Ellen Gilbert is an American actress, writer, and producer, primarily in movies and television. Gilbert is best known as a child actress who co-starred as Charles Ingalls's second daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the dramatic television series Little House on the Prairie...
as Clara. - Care Bears: The NutcrackerCare Bears Nutcracker SuiteCare Bears Nutcracker Suite is the third and final television special to feature the Care Bears characters. Produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana, it is loosely based on the Nutcracker ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky...
was an 1988 animated short based extremely loosely on the original ballet. It was made for video, and was first shown on TV on the Disney ChannelDisney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
. - The Jetlag ProductionsJetlag ProductionsJetlag Productions was an American-Japanese animation studio that, just like the similar studio Golden Films, has created a number of animated films based on different, popular children's stories, while at the same time creating a few original productions...
animation studio produced its own version of the story in 1994 entitled, simply "The Nutcracker". The animated adaptation used some of Tchaikovsky's compositions as well as some original melodies and songs.
Television Presentations
Please see the Stage section above for more information about televised versions by George Balanchine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Matthew Bourne, Lew Christensen, Mark Morris, Rudolf Nureyev, Helgi Tomasson, and Peter Wright. Other televised versions are noted below:- In 1961, then-husband-and-wife Robert GouletRobert GouletRobert Gerard Goulet was a Canadian American entertainer as a singer and actor. He played the role of Lancelot in the Broadway musical Camelot of 1960.-Early life:...
and Carol Lawrence starred in a musical ABC-TV Christmas special entitled The Enchanted Nutcracker, with a libretto by Samuel and Bella SpewackSamuel and Bella SpewackSamuel and Bella Spewack were a husband-and-wife writing team.Samuel, who also directed many of their plays, was born in the Ukraine...
. It was directed by Jack SmightJack SmightJack Smight was an American theatre and film director.Smight was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to school with future actor Peter Graves...
. Patrick AdiartePatrick AdiartePatrick Adiarte is an American theater, film and television actor and dancer, known for his portrayal of foreign or Asian characters in various roles in film and television. His roles have included Prince Chulalongkorn in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, college student T.J...
and Pierre Olaf co-starred. Very little information is currently available on this telecast, and no video clips have been made available, so it is difficult to know just what, if any, portions of the Tchaikovsky ballet were used. This special appears to have been notably unsuccessful, having been telecast only once and never being made available on VHS or DVD, or for that matter, online.
- A made-for-TV filmed color German-American production of The Nutcracker was first telecast in the United States as a Christmas season special by CBS in December 1965. Choreographed by Kurt Jacob, it featured a largely German, but still international cast made up from several companies, including Edward VillellaEdward VillellaEdward Villella is an American ballet dancer and choreographer, frequently cited as America's most celebrated male dancer at the time....
(the Nutcracker/Prince), Patricia McBridePatricia McBridePatricia McBride is a ballerina who spent nearly 30 years dancing with the New York City Ballet....
(the dream Clara) and Melissa HaydenMelissa Hayden (dancer)Melissa Hayden was a Canadian ballerina at the New York City Ballet.-Early life:...
(the Sugar Plum Fairy) from the New York City BalletNew York City BalletNew York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
. A little girl portrayed Clara in the "real" sequences. First televised in Germany in 1964, this production aired on CBS annually between 1965 and 1968, and then was withdrawn from American network television, but after more than forty years it has resurfaced nationally on a Warner Archive DVD. Videotaped "wraparound" host segments in English, made in the style of those that CBS manufactured for their 1950s and '60's telecasts of MGM's The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, featured Eddie AlbertEddie AlbertEdward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
(at that time starring in the CBS long-running hit Green AcresGreen AcresGreen Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
), as host; he also narrated the story offscreen. These segments were added to the program for its showings in the U.S. New opening and closing credits were also added in English. All of these are included on the DVD along with the actual film. Famed German dancer Harald KreutzbergHarald KreutzbergHarald Kreutzberg , was a German dancer and choreographer.Kreutzberg was born at Reichenberg/Liberec. Trained at the Dresden Ballet School, he also studied dance with Mary Wigman and Rudolf Laban....
appeared (in what was probably his last rôle) in the dual rôles of Drosselmeyer and the Snow King (though in one listing, Drosselmeyer has been re-christened Uncle Alex Hoffman — presumably a reference to E.T.A. Hoffmann, who wrote the original tale).
This production cut the ballet down to a one-act version lasting slightly less than an hour, and drastically re-ordered all the dances, even to the point of altering the storyline to somewhat resemble The Wizard of Oz, which, at that time, was an enormously successful annual attraction on television. The Mouse King, although having turned the Prince into a Nutcracker, does not even appear in this production. Instead, as Clara's dream begins, she and the Nutcracker must now journey to the Castle of the Sugar Plum Fairy, where the Fairy will wave her wand and turn him back into a Prince. Along the way, much like Oz 's Dorothy, the couple encounters several fantastic characters - the waltzing snowflakes, the Russian Dancers, Mother Ginger and her Clowns, the Bluebirds, and the waltzing flowers. Villella does not wear a Nutcracker mask at all in this production; he is seen throughout as a normal-looking man, and the only way that one can tell that he has been transformed from a nutcracker into a prince is by his change in costume. The two bluebirds from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty appear to perform the Dance of the Reed Flutes rather than Sleeping Beauty 's Bluebird Pas de Deux. And curiously enough, the famous March is not heard during the actual ballet, but only during the new opening credits and hosting sequence devised by CBS. The March comes to a sudden halt as host Eddie Albert cracks a nut with a nutcracker that he has beside him on a table.
The Nutcracker on Ice
Various versions of the ballet featuring ice-skating have been made:- In The Nutcracker: a Fantasy on Ice, a television adaptation for ice skatingIce skatingIce skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
from 1983 starring Dorothy HamillDorothy HamillDorothy Stuart Hamill is an American figure skater. She is the 1976 Olympic champion in Ladies' Singles and 1976 World Champion.-Early life:...
and Robin CousinsRobin CousinsRobert "Robin" Cousins is a British retired competitive figure skater. He is the 1980 Olympic Champion, the 1980 European champion, a three-time World medalist and four-time British national champion. He later starred in ice shows and also produced his own...
, narrated by Lorne GreeneLorne GreeneLorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
, and telecast on HBO, Tchaikovsky's score underwent not only reordering, but also insertion of music from his other ballets and also of music from Mikhail Ippolitov-IvanovMikhail Ippolitov-IvanovMikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov was a Russian composer, conductor and teacher.- Biography :...
's Caucasian SketchesCaucasian SketchesCaucasian Sketches is a pair of orchestral suites written in 1894 and 1896 by the Russian composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. The Caucasian Sketches is the most often performed of his compositions and can be heard frequently on classical radio stations. The final movement of the Caucasian Sketches,...
. Drosselmeyer did not appear at all in this version. Some years later, Ms. Hamill and then-husband Kenneth Forsythe produced a more complete ice ballet version for the stage, which was broadcast (in somewhat abridged form) in 1990 on NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Sportsworld, co-narrated by Hamill herself and Merlin OlsenMerlin OlsenMerlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...
. This version featured Nathan Birch as the Prince, J. Scott Driscoll as the Nutcracker, and Tim Murphy as Drosselmeyer. - Another ice skating version, 1994's Nutcracker on Ice, starring Oksana BaiulOksana BaiulOksana Serhiyivna Baiul is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic Champion in Ladies' Singles and 1993 World Champion.-Early and personal life:...
as Clara and Victor Petrenko as Drosselmeyer, was originally telecast on NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, and is now shown on several cable stations. It was also condensed to slightly less than an hour, radically altering and compressing both the music and the storyline. - Still another one-hour ice skating version, also called Nutcracker on Ice, was staged on television in 1995, starring Peggy FlemingPeggy FlemingPeggy Gail Fleming is an American figure skater. She is the 1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' singles and a three-time World Champion...
as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Nicole BobekNicole BobekNicole Bobek is an American figure skater. She is the 1995 U.S. Champion and World bronze medalist.-Biography:An only child, Bobek was raised by her Czech mother, Jana, and her friend Joyce Barron...
as Clara, and Todd EldredgeTodd EldredgeTodd James Eldredge is an American figure skater. He is the 1996 World Champion and a six-time national champion .-Biography:...
as the Nutcracker. - And yet another version of Nutcracker on Ice, this one starring Tai Babilonia as Clara and Randy GardnerRandy Gardner (figure skater)Randy Gardner is an American pair skater. With partner Tai Babilonia, he was the 1979 World Champion and the 1976-1980 U.S. national champion.-Career:...
as the Nutcracker/ Prince, was released straight-to-video in 1998, appearing on DVD in 2007. - Another edition of Nutcracker on Ice, also only an hour in length, was made in 1996 and was telecast in some areas in December 2009. Debi ThomasDebi ThomasDebra Janine "Debi" Thomas M.D. is an American figure skater and physician. She is the 1986 World champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist, having taken part in the Battle of the Carmens at those games.-Personal life:...
appears as the Snow Queen, Calla UrbanskiCalla UrbanskiCalla V. Urbanski-Petka is an American pair skater. With partner Rocky Marval, she is the 1992-1993 U.S. National Champion. They finished 10th at the 1992 Winter Olympics. They were dubbed "The Waitress and the Truck Driver" by the media because of their former occupations. They split up in the...
is Clara, Rocky MarvalRocky MarvalRocky Marval is an American pair skater. With partner Calla Urbanski, he is the 1992–1993 U.S. National Champion. They finished 10th at the 1992 Winter Olympics....
is the Nutcracker/ Prince, and Rudy GalindoRudy GalindoVal Joe "Rudy" Galindo is an American figure skater who competed in both single skating and pair skating. As a single skater, he is the 1996 U.S. national champion and 1987 World Junior Champion. As a pairs skater, he competed with Kristi Yamaguchi and was the 1988 World Junior Champion and the...
is Drosselmeyer. Music from other works by Tchaikovsky is added, and many of the divertissement dances are cut.
Satirical versions
- One satirical version involves a group of presumably gayGayGay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
boys constructing a show involving the "nut cracker". The stage version involves a chorus of singing parts and various out-of-character renditions of "fairies" and "dancing flowers" - In 2008, The SlutcrackerThe SlutcrackerThe Slutcracker is a burlesque, satirical version of The Nutcracker that is the creation of Babes in Boinkland troupe director Vanessa White. It has been performed in cities such as Somerville, Massachusetts, and Montreal, Canada...
made its debut at the Somerville TheatreSomerville TheatreThe Somerville Theater is a movie theater and concert venue in Davis Square, located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, in the city of Somerville in the United States of America. It is currently the only operating movie theater in Somerville since the closing of the theater complex at Assembly...
in Somerville, MA. The ballet, a satirical burlesque version of the classic, produced, choreographed and directed by Vanessa White (A.K.A. Sugar Dish) featured Boston-area actors, burlesque and can-can dancers, drag kings, hoopers, ballerinas, acrobats, and bellydancers. The plot recasts Clara as an adult, the "slutcracker" as an adult toy, and the rat king antagonist as her jealous boyfriend. Because of the show's sell-out popularity it has been booked at the same venue for extended performances in 2009, 2010, and for a limited run at the Théâtre Saint-DenisThéâtre Saint-DenisThe Théâtre Saint-Denis is a theatre venue located on Saint Denis Street in Montreal, Quebec.A movie theatre built in 1915, the Théâtre Saint-Denis' mission changed in the 1980s and has since focused exclusively on performing arts...
in Montréal.
Battle of the Nutcrackers
In 2008, Ovation TVOvation TV
Ovation is an American television channel that airs programming dedicated to the arts and contemporary culture. It features programming devoted to performance, people, art, music and film. In addition, Ovation features in-depth profiles on various artists and performers, Arts news from the U.S and...
held their annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers" viewing contest, giving their audience a choice of which Nutcracker to choose as the best. Out of six television and/or film versions of the ballet, The Hard Nut was chosen as the favorite for the second year in a row. The Pacific Northwest Ballet version, designed by Maurice Sendak, was second choice, with the Maurice Bejart version of 2000 coming in third.
In Ovation's 2009 "Battle of the Nutcrackers", The Hard Nut was chosen the viewer's favorite for the 3rd year.
The 2010 "Battle of the Nutcrackers" began its run on December 6, 2010. It included two very traditional versions - the 1989 Bolshoi version and the 2009 Royal Ballet version - as well as the Patrice Bart version, the Maurice Bejart version, and an all-new candidate, Casse Noisette Circus, a production of the work that takes place entirely in a circus atmosphere. (Casse Noisette is French for Nutcracker.) The winner was the Royal Ballet version.