The Nutcracker
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
The Nutcracker is a fairy tale-ballet by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was composed in 1891-1892, and based on a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Tchaikovsky put some of the best music from the ballet together to make a suite for orchestra. This selection of music, called the The Nutcracker Suite, has some of the best known tunes in classical music.
Until the 1960s the full ballet was not often performed. People just knew the music from the suite. In the 1940s it was made particularly popular when it was used by Walt Disney in the animated film Fantasia. Today the whole ballet is very popular indeed, and often performed at Christmas time.
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[change] The orchestra
In this ballet Tchaikovsky used an instrument called the celeste. It was a new instrument, that looked like a piano but sounded like bells. Tchaikovsky heard one in Paris. He used it first in a symphonic poem called The Voyevoda and then in The Nutcracker where it plays in the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", together with the bass clarinet.
[change] Story
The story is about a German girl called Clara Stahlbaum.
[change] Act I
Before the dancing starts we hear an orchestral introduction. Only the high instruments play: violins, violas, woodwind (including piccolo), horns, and triangle.
When the curtain opens we see the house of the Stahlbaum family. The family are having a Christmas Eve party. The children's godfather Herr Drosselmeyer comes in with presents for everyone, including Clara's brother Fritz. Clara is still waiting for her present. Herr Drosselmeyer then produces three life-size dolls, who each take a turn to dance. Clara has still not had a present and starts to cry.
Drosselmeyer then conjures up a toy Nutcracker that looks like a soldier. Clara loves it. Her brother Fritz is jealous, and breaks it. Drosselmeyer chases him off and mends the toy.
The party ends and the Stahlbaum family go to bed, but Clara is worried about her Nutcracker. In the night she comes out to the Christmas tree to see it. She falls asleep under the tree with the Nutcracker in her arms. When the clock strikes midnight, Clara hears the sound of mice. She wakes up and tries to run away, but the mice stop her. Is this really happening or is it a dream? The Christmas tree suddenly begins to grow to enormous size, filling the room. The Nutcracker comes to life, he and his band of soldiers rise to defend Clara, and the Mouse King leads his mice into battle.
There is a fight, and when Clara helps the Nutcracker by throwing her slipper at the Mouse King, the Nutcracker stabs him. The mouse dies. The mice go away, taking their dead leader with them. The Nutcracker then changes into a prince.
Clara and the Prince travel to a world where dancing Snow Flakes greet them and fairies and queens dance, welcoming Clara and the Prince into their world.
[change] Act II
Clara and the Prince arrive in the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Sugar Plum Fairy and the people of the Land of Sweets dance for Clara and the Prince in the dances of Dew Drop Fairy, the Spanish dancers, the Chinese dancers, the Arabian dancers, the Russian dancers, Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles, the Reed Flutes (or Mirlitons), the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Waltz of the Flowers. The dances in the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy are not always performed in this order. These are the dances which are heard in the orchestral suite.
After the feast, Clara wakes up under the Christmas tree with the Nutcracker toy in her arms and the curtain closes. It had all been a dream.
In some productions the producer makes the end look as if it was not really a dream, but had actually happened.
[change] The composition
Tchaikovsky was not well when he composed The Nutcracker. He was nearly at the end of his life. He wrote the music for the suite while he was working at the ballet because he urgently needed some music for an orchestral concert. Then he worked hard at finishing the ballet. When he had finished it he was exhausted. He stopped all work and went to the zoo every day to relax. He died the next year.
