The Nutcracker Ballet turns 120 today: Here’s a look at the long, candy-striped history of the Tchaikovsky masterpiece
Rebecca Tucker | Dec 18, 2012 10:17 AM ET | Last Updated: Dec 18, 2012 10:44 AM ET
More from Rebecca Tucker | @RebeccaTee
More from Rebecca Tucker | @RebeccaTee
PAT McGRATH / Postmedia NewsRehearsals for The Nutcracker in Ottawa earlier this month. The production at the National Arts Centre this year is performed by the Alberta Ballet.
On Tuesday, Google featured a Google Doodle celebrating the 120th birthday of The Nutcracker, the seasonal ballet beloved the world over. To celebrate the momentous anniversary, we’ve put together a brief history of the ballet, from the short story on which it is based to its current production by the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto.
1816: German author E.T.A Hoffman publishes The Nutcracker and The Mouse King.
1844: The Nutcracker(Histoire d’un casse-noisette), itself a story adaptation of Hoffman’s tale, is published by French author Alexandre Dumas. Dumas’ tale, a somewhat watered-down version of Hoffman’s, is used as the basis for the Tchaikovsky ballet. (Dumas is also the author of The Count of Monte Cristo andThe Three Musketeers, among other titles.)
1890: Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the imperial theatre in Russia, is so impressed by Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty that he commissions the composer to put together a double-bill featuring an opera and a ballet. Tchaikovsky would collaborate with choreographer Marius Petipa, with whom he worked on The Sleeping Beauty, to compose The Nutcracker Suite, which would be performed with Iolanda.
December 18, 1892: The Nutcracker makes its debut in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pepita, having dropped out due to illness, is replaced by Lev Ivanov as the principle choreographer. The choreography is criticised as confusing, and many consider the storyline unfaithful to Hoffman’s original tale.
1919: Russian choreographer Alexander Gorsky stages a production that fixes many of the issues in Pepita/Ivanov’s original production, choosing to cast lead character Clara as a teenager instead of a small child.
NelvanaThe Carebear's Nutcracker (1988)
1934: The ballet is performed outside of Russia for the first time, in England, by choreographer Nicholas Sergeyev.
1940: An abridged version of the ballet is staged in New York City.
1944: The full ballet is performed in the United States for the first time, by the San Fransisco Ballet, with choreography by Willam Christensen, who was assisted by George Balanchine. The San Fransisco Ballet was the first company to make The Nutcracker an annual Christmastime tradition.
1954: Balanchine stages his now-famous version of The Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet, to overwhelming success. Balanchine’s staging adhered closely to the 1892 version, and continues to be performed by the New York City Ballet, as well as the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Alabama Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre.
1963: Legendary ballet dancer Rudolph Nuryev stages a version of The Nutcrackerwith the Royal Ballet in London. Nuryev starred as the Nutcracker Prince in the production, the 1968 performance of which is available on DVD.
1976: Following in Nuryev’s footsteps, fellow dance icon Mikhail Baryshnikov premiered a version of the dance at the American Ballet Theatre in Washington, D.C., with himself in the title role as well.
1986: The Nutcracker makes its film debut as Nutcracker: The Motion Picture. The film featured costume designs by Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak, who in 1983 had designed sets and costumes for a Pacific Northwest Ballet production.Nutcracker: The Motion Picture was directed by Carroll Ballard.
1990: The Canadian animated film The Nutcracker Prince is released. Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Megan Followes and Peter O’Toole, the animated film is not balletic, but is instead a straight narrative following the general plot of Tchaikovsky’s score.
1993: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, the film which memorably starred Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker, is released. Several film adaptations of The Nutcracker have since been released, including one starring Barbie (2001).
2007: Ovation TV, in the U.S., began hosting its annual Battle of the Nutcrackers, in which viewers vote for their favourite production of the ballet. Mark Morris’ The Hard Nut, a contemporary version first staged in 1993, has won the contest several times. (You can vote in this year’s battle here.)
Present Day: The Nutcracker is currently performed at Christmastime by countless ballet companies around the world, and is often a company’s highest-earning performance of the year. This year’s National Ballet of Canada performance is choreographed by James Kudelka and is on now in Toronto.
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