St. Petersburg, Russia. December 1892.
Gentlemen with carefully trimmed beards and ladies dressed in the eccentric puffy-sleeved dresses of the 1890s pack themselves into the Imperial Mariinsky Theater on a blustering Russian night for the very first performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Italian ballerina Antoinetta dell’Era laces up the ribbons on her delicate pointe shoes and smoothes out her tutu before entering the stage as the Sugar Plum Fairy. The delicate chimes of the celesta serenade the audience as she glides gracefully across the stage. However, the first performance of this Christmas classic falls flat as critics yawn at the plot and pick away at the mediocre choreography. In lament, Tchaikovsky himself writes, “the papers, as always, reviled me cruelly.” But a century later, the criticized Christmas ballet now graces theaters across the country annually. How, then, did it rise to such prominence despite its rocky start?
The story of the ballet begins not with Tchaikovsky but with E. T. A. Hoffman, a German Romantic era author who published Kindermarchen, a collection of children’s fairy tales, in 1816. One such fairy tale was titled Nussknacker und Mausekönig- The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. A somewhat dark tale, the story follows young Marie and the Nutcracker doll she received for Christmas who comes to life at night and battles the seven-headed Mouse King. This mouse king proceeds to harass Marie at night, threatening to bite the Nutcracker to pieces if she does not relinquish to him her dolls and candies. The story concludes when the Nutcracker slays the villainous Mouse King, turns back into a human, and marries Marie a year later. In 1844, Alexandre Dumas published a sweeter version of the story, titled The Nutcracker of Nuremberg. It is this version which Tchaikovsky modeled his ballet after, rather than Hoffman’s original.
In late 1890, nearly 50 years after Dumas published his version, director of the Russian Imperial Theatre Ivan Vsevolozhsky commissioned Tchaikovsky and dance choreographer Marius Petipa to compose a ballet based upon the story. Both men disliked the fairy tale and expressed distaste towards the project. Petipa, more willing than his musical colleague to work on the commission, created the Sugar Plum Fairy and delegated lesser roles to the original characters of the story to favor the dances of more fantastical characters. Tchaikovsky, further dismayed by Petipa’s decisions, refused to work on the project until Vsevolozhsky bribed him with the commission of a one-act opera, Iolanthe, to be performed alongside the ballet. Thus, the Russian composer finally agreed in February 1891.
Derailed by a large tour abroad, Tchaikovsky’s work on The Nutcracker was sporadic for more than one reason. Among them were his frequent travels, a lack of inspiration, and the death of his sister, Aleksandra. However, despite various setbacks, Tchaikovsky still let his creativity shine. He wrote to his friend, Pyotr Jurgenson, asking for a collection of children’s instruments: children’s trumpets, cymbals, drums, and a cuckoo call for scenes with the toys to encapsulate the childlike whimsy of the scene. While in France, the composer discovered the celesta, a piano-like instrument which he considered to have “a divinely unusual sound.” Its chimes can be heard during the famous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Tchaikovsky finished the score by July of 1891, though evidently he was rather displeased with its quality. “The ballet is infinitely worse than ‘The Sleeping Beauty’—of this I’m sure,” he wrote.
Unfortunately, many critics agreed with him. When a shortened suite of the ballet was performed in December 1892, few were wooed by it, despite the popularity of the music itself when several pieces were performed before the ballet’s official debut. Additionally, Marius Petipa’s choreography was not received enthusiastically either. Allegedly, due to illness, he requested that his assistant finish much of the work, which perhaps added to its mediocrity. After the performance at the Imperial Theater, Tchaikovsky wrote “it seemed to me that the public did not like it. They were bored.” He died a year later, never to see his failed ballet become the success it is today.
A handful of theaters presented the ballet in the early 20th century; the National Theater of Prague in 1908, and the Bolshoi theater in 1919. It wasn’t until 1944 that The Nutcracker found its roots in the West when the San Francisco Ballet performed it in its entirety, rather than the original shortened version. Ever since, the Russian story has become a staple in Western ballet. Perhaps it was the enchanting music, the choreographing skills of San Franciso Ballet’s William Christensen, or the fact that Tchaikovsky’s composing talents could finally shine with a performance of the entire score. Regardless, the Russian composer would likely smile at audiences worldwide responding with such enthusiasm to his incredulous work every Christmas.
Works Cited
Boyle, Laura. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: A Classic Christmas Tale.” Jane Austen Centre and the Jane Austen Online Gift Shop, JaneAusten.co.uk, 28 Oct. 2020, https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/arts-and-entertainments/the-nutcracker-mouse-king-a-classic-christmas-tale.
Charles, Gerard. The Nutcracker History. BalletMet Columbus, Nov. 1998, https://web.archive.org/web/20081210074206/http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/NutHist.html.
Davis, Jay. “The Nutcracker by Warren Chappell.” 1 Jan. 1970, http://jadavisofmo.blogspot.com/2011/12/nutcracker-by-warren-chappell.html.
“History of the Nutcracker.” History of Nutcracker, https://www.nutcracker.com/about-us/history-of-nutcracker.
“The Nutcracker.” The Nutcracker – Tchaikovsky Research, https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/The_Nutcracker.
Wood, Anne. “A Magical Fit for Clara.” Village Living, 29 Nov. 2011, https://villagelivingonline.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/a-magical-fit-for-clara/.