Der Nussknacker
Ballet
Choreografische Uraufführung
by Karl Alfred Schreiner
Music by Peter I. Tschaikowsky
Adapted Version
Premiered November 23, 2017
Age recommendation: 8 years and above
On the evening of 24 December, everyone in the Stahlbaum family household is waiting for the Christmas celebrations to start. Young Klara and her cheeky brother Fritz are very excited, because once again, the family has invited the strange senior councillor Droßelmeier, who is known for his fantastic stories and always comes up with unusual surprises. For Klara, it becomes a Christmas Eve full of intense moments and strange encounters that appear to her at night in her dreams, and the next morning, she is perhaps no longer the young girl that she was the day before ...
With the ballet classic »Der Nussknacker« [The Nutcracker], Peter I. Tchaikovsky created one of the most important works of the international dance repertoire and many of probably his most famous melodies. Pieces like the »March of the Tin Soldiers«, the »Dance of the Reed Flutes« or the »Waltz of the Flowers« are amongst the most prominent pieces of classical music ever. Since its first performance in the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre on 18 December 1892, »Der Nussknacker« has become an essential staple of the pre-Christmas period, and many great choreographers have presented their interpretations of the work over the course of the years and decades. Based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's romantic fairy tale, the »Nutcracker and the Mouse King«, the ballet not only tells an imaginative Christmas story of princes, fairies and sugar palaces, but also contains a parable of becoming an adult. After his successful interpretation of Tchaikovsky's »Dornröschen« [Sleeping Beauty], ballet director Karl Alfred Schreiner had now choreographed the masterfully dreamy Christmas ballet about little Klara and her big dreams...
