The History of the Nutcracker

During the holiday season, who has not thought about the Nutcracker Ballet?  When one thinks about the Nutcracker, we envision a classic tale about a girl named Clara who receives a gift from her favorite Uncle Drosselmeyer during her family’s Christmas Party.  The gift is a nutcracker which at night, turns into a Prince after having saved Clara from the Mouse King and his mice soldiers.  She is ultimately taken to the land of the sweets where she meets the Sugarplum fairy.  Clara is then introduced to a variety of beautiful and exotic characters.  Although the Nutcracker Ballet is one of the most fun and well known Ballet performances, and is attended and enjoyed by children and adults alike, it was not the intent of the individual who authored the original work.

In 1816, author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman (E.T.A. Hoffman) wrote a collection of fairy tales for children and the story “The Nutcracker and the King of the Mice” was among them.  Although it was written for children, it had a dark ending and was quite scary.

Hoffman’s story shows the Prince transforming into a horribly ugly dwarf.  His only ability to return to his previous self was if someone could crack the extremely hard Krakatuk nut.   According to the story, only Drosselmeyer’s nephew could perform this task.  All turns out well for the Prince until Drosselmeyer angers the character “Mouserink” who casts another magical spell on the Prince.  This spell can only be broken when the seven headed Mouse King is killed.  The Prince is ultimately victorious and he leaves off with Clara and they arrive at the Marzipan Castle. Hoffman based many of the characters on family and friends.

Years later, this story was rewritten by a French writer named Alexandre Dumas.  This story was much more friendly for children and became quite a sensation. The ballet “Sleeping Beauty” was quite popular and the director of the Imperial Theater wanted to make another ballet based on the Nutcracker.  He wanted Tchaikovsky to write the musical score for the ballet.  Tchaikovsky was not fond of this project, however after some convincing he agreed to provide the music for the ballet production. Tchaikovsky was not very proud of his work on the Nutcracker, although later in life it is said that he grew to appreciate the music that he had written.

The premier of the Nutcracker occurred in December 1892 in Russia.  It first premiered in England in 1934.  The first full American Nutcracker Ballet was performed in San Francisco in 1944.  The Nutcracker Ballet has become a family tradition for the holiday season. Every year the Nutcracker is performed by Ballet Companies all over the United States for adults and children.  Its’ extremely popular and the Nutcracker Ballet is becoming a tradition for more and more families every year.

Want to see The Nutcracker?

Our Performance Dates

Want to be in The Nutcracker?

Visit our Nutcracker page