The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, first staged at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg in December 1892. It is based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann in a French version by Alexandre Dumas, and tells of a girl named Clara, who is given a nutcracker doll at a Christmas party and is taken in a dream to a land of sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy rules. The choreography was begun by Marius Petipa and completed by Lev Ivanov, and the score includes the use of the celesta, a new instrument for which Tchaikovsky wrote the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The first production had a mixed reception, but the ballet became a Christmas tradition, especially in the United States.
Before and after
- 8 December 1891Construction of Paulista Avenue
- 10 December 1891Birth of Nelly Sachs
- 21 December 1891James Naismith invents basketball
- 1892Founding of National Library of Israel
- 1892The Nutcracker
- 3 January 1892Birth of J. R. R. Tolkien
- 26 March 1892Death of Walt Whitman
- 8 April 1892Birth of Mary Pickford
- 3 May 1892Birth of George Paget Thomson
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.