The Nutcracker

The genesis of the ballet

The original story of the The Nutcracker was written in 1816 under the title Nußknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. The conceit underlying the tale is that the world is full of miracles, but not everyone can see them. Hoffmann’s work has a uniquely sweet tone to it, which has made the story enduring reading for children. But in Hoffmann’s story, Christmas is just the pretext for the author to take his readers to a world whose border s he himself has crossed from time to time. Hoffmann spent his entire life balanced on the frontier between the worlds of reality and fantasy. In the original story of the nutcracker doll, we happen upon the festivities of an entirely ordinary bourgeois family, but the story soon crosses the line into the world of fantasy. Suffering from an illness, a young boy dreams feverishly about a battle between the mice that have been infesting the house and the toy lead soldiers; the hero, the “Nutcracker Prince” – a wooden figure with a snappable jaw used for cracking open nuts – comes to life and becomes the commander of the toy soldiers who are defending the house. However, Hoffmann’s world was not even close to being as balanced as that of fairy tales: in his version the scenes swirl together madly, until the author finally transgresses the boundaries of the story itself: he brings the nutcracker to life and has him become betrothed to Marie, the young girl who is his protagonist. Marie and the Nutcracker Prince then make wonderful journeys into a fantasy realm full of strange and fantastic beings.

Alexandre Dumas père revised Hoffmann's story substantially in 1844. This book, created expressly for children, was published in Paris in 1845 under the title The Story of a Nutcracker. This version, which was extremely popular in the era, was given to Tchaikovsky by the director general of the Imperial Theatres. The composer was commissioned to compose a fairy-tale ballet, and Marius Petipa, the legendary French-born choreographer of the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, was charged with creating the choreography. Petipa also worked on the libretto, in which the story was abridged: they preserved the Christmas scene in the first half of the ballet, but in the second part they focused on the spectacle, the introduction of the Land of Sweets. They wanted to premier in a single spectacle a piece that would surpass everything that had been performed up until that point, using a set of fairy-tale-like beauty and gorgeous costumes.

They then asked Tchaikovsky to compose the music. The choreographer gave detailed plans and instructions for the composition, for which Petipa specified the precise length, rhythm and mood of the musical phrases. Tchaikovsky initially refused the task as he was afraid that the bombastic spectacle might divert the audience’s attention from the musical subtleties. He began composition in February 1891 and finished his work in early 1892. His initial reservations were soon overcome by enthusiasm for the fairy tale, leading to excerpts from the ballet, in the form of the The Nutcracker Suite, being premiered at a concert of the Music Society in St. Petersburg on 7 March 1892. The Nutcracker became one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works.

Rita Major

The world premiere and the variations of The Nutcracker

The world premiere of the complete ballet was held on 18 December 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and Tchaikovsky’s one-act opera Iolanta was premiered on the same night. Both were the composer’s final works for the stage. Due to Petipa’s sudden illness, the choreography for the 1892 world premiere had instead been created by his assistant Lev Ivanov in the end, who has been a loyal colleague of his for seven years and followed the maestro’s instructions and script to the letter. Although the two artists’ styles were fundamentally different, the change was not noticeable at the performance, as Petipa had given precise and detailed instructions to his assistant, who possessed a special sensitivity for music. Although the audience received the ballet well, and the imperial family also held it in high regard, the critics sniffed. They disliked the choreography and found the plot to be lacking in drama. All of the critics, however, uniformly praised Tchaikovsky’s music.

The immortal work can be seen in countless versions around the world. Its first premiere outside of Russia’s borders took place in England: Nikolai Sergeyev taught the revised version to the Royal Ballet company in 1934. The other most famous productions include those of Alexander Gorsky (1919), Vasily Vainonen’s choreography (1934), George Balanchine (1954), Yuri Grigorovich (1966), Rudolf Nureyev (1967, 1985), John Neumeier (1971), Mikhail Baryshnikov (1976), Roland Petit (1976), Mark Morris (entitled The Hard Nut, 1991), Matthew Bourne (1992), Patrice Bart (1999), Maurice Béjart (2000) and Alexei Ratmansky (2010). Some of these versions stuck with the original storyline, or some variation of it, but in others the basic story received a completely different treatment, showing that The Nutcracker is one of those classic ballets that have also served as a launching point for re-interpretation.

The Hungarian Royal Opera House first premiered the piece on 21 December 1927 in a choreography by Ede Brada, but the performance was not popular. Árpád Szemere (the Opera's principal director), revised the ballet in 1929, but success remained elusive. After World War II, however, the situation changed. In 1949, the renowned choreographer of the Soviet era Vasili Vainonen and his wife, Klavdiya Armasevskaya, arrived in Hungary in order to teach together the choreographer’s own version of The Nutcracker (1934). The premiere was held in 1950, and Vainonen’s Nutcracker, with the ballet arranged into three acts in ten scenes, has remained in repertoire almost continuously. The 1950 premiere was an important step in the history of the Opera House. In some respects, it can even be considered the company’s coming of age. What made the premiere into a milestone was the fact that Vainonen created for Tchaikovsky’s music a choreography containing the essence of the great Imperial Russian Ballet, which on the one hand required an increase in the size of the company, and on the other hand opened the way for further full-length ballet productions. As another of its virtues, Vainonen departed from Petipa’s saccharine libretto and, using Tchaikovsky’s music as a starting point, reconstructed the script. One of the production's main strengths was the impressive and gorgeous visual design by Gusztáv Oláh (1901–1956).

Rita Major

The 2015 production – in conversation with Tamás Solymosi and Wayne Eagling

After 65 years, why did you decide to create a new production of The Nutcracker?

T. S.: I feel that every now and then every household requires a bit of “fresh paint”. While some people do this after ten or 15 years, it took us 65 years to get to this point. After so much time, much has changed in the world, as well as in the world of the theatre, including the technology, set and costume design, and tastes. My objective was for us to remain faithful to the spirit and era of Gusztáv Oláh’s work, and to preserve what is good about it, but also to update and replace the aspects of it that have become a bit frayed around the edges over the years.

How did this project come about, in the sense of making a whole new production together?

W. E.: I had previously worked with the company on a short ballet called Duet, and that’s when Tamás Solymosi mentioned that he was looking to make The Nutcracker a little bit more updated, to make it not so old-fashioned and more of a nostalgic look back at that great earlier production. The Nutcracker is one of the more difficult ballets to do, because the story in Act 1 is the party and the battle between the mice and the soldiers, and the second act is virtually just a short journey, and then the series of different dance numbers. It’s a difficult ballet to tie together, and it’s also difficult to make sense of the story without doing a lot of mime. We took our starting point from the old production, but I streamlined it a bit. We got it into two acts instead of three, we altered the libretto a bit and created new choreographies as well. I’ve made the role of the Prince very difficult. Normally the roles of the Prince and the Nutcracker were for two different people – in this production it’s just one dancer, so it has become a big challenge and quite a hard part. This is a uniquely Hungarian production, different from the versions I’d done before.

T. S.: I’ve snuck a few details into the production that indicate that the story takes place in Hungary. There are Hungarian paintings on the wall, and during the Waltz of the Snowflakes, a detail from the castle in Ják, the one behind the famous chapel there, appears in the scenery. We even went to go visit real mansions on Andrássy Avenue in order to make sure that every detail was just right. For a year and a half, I’ve been photographing and collecting material for the visual design, and we have even looked to films for inspiration. Beáta Vavrinecz and Nóra Rományi used Gusztáv Oláh’s designs as a starting point in order to realise our vision. In terms of both the visual concept and the story, we added tiny little details to the characters that will help viewers quickly grow fond of the piece, with characters that are more human and lovable and that will give the audience the feeling that they are at home, watching the story take place in their own family. I spent two years analysing past productions of The Nutcracker to see which aspects needed to be thought through again. One of these, for example, was the Christmas tree, which we made even more ornate and festive, while also giving the different families more individual characteristics and also adding more dance to the whole thing. The basic framework for this current production came from the concept of the Amsterdam version, which we restructured in light of the Vainonen–Oláh production, thus engendering new choreographies on whose creation I myself also collaborated. With respect to the plot, the new production is more faithful to the original piece than the Vainonen version was.

What is the target audience? Adults or children?

W. E.: Both. This piece is particularly suitable for introducing the world of classical ballet to younger audiences: it has wonderful music, it uses children in the ballet, and it has a lot of spectacular, fabulous elements and adventures. At the same time, it also puts a spell on the adults.

T. S.: The piece is a true family event. There will be excitement for young and old alike, as well as a message. Our objective was for the production to speak to every age group.

Interview by Judit Kenesey