The Nutcracker Background Information

If you're somehow familiar with ballet, you’ve got to know the Nutcracker. If not – you must go and see this with your own eyes. The famous ballet is based on German fairytale The Nutcracker and the King of Mice written by E.T.A. Hoffman, the story of a young girl (Clara) who dreams of a Nutcracker Prince. Nutcrackers in the form of wooden carvings of a prince or a soldier were a kind of toy in the Europe of those times. The Nutcracker Prince will help her to defeat a Mouse King with seven heads. Actually, the classic version is closer to a revision by Alexander Dumas, a legendary French author.

A traditional plot features the following scenes: the Party Scene, the Fight Scene, the Land of Snow scene, the Land of Sweets scene, and the Dream Ends scene. In the Party Scene, Clara gets a beautiful Nutcracker on a Christmas Eve, which makes her brother Fritz jealous and he breaks the toy. Clara, worried about her beloved Nutcracker, falls asleep with him in her arms. In the Fight Scene, clock strikes midnight and room fills up with an army of mice under the command of Mouse King. Nutcracker awakens and turns an army of toy soldiers into combat with the mice enemy. Then generals go one-on-one, the Nutcracker seems to be weaker and he is loosing. Then Clara throws her slipper at the Mouse King – he’s falling.

The Land of Snow scene features a saved Nutcracker who becomes a Prince and takes Clara to the Land of Snow.

In the Land of Sweets scene, the Prince and Clara go to the Land of Sweets where they are welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

The very last scene, which is called, the Dream Ends shows Clara waking up with her beloved Nutcracker and realizing that everything was just a dream. Attending the Nutcracker is like falling in love, try it once – and you cannot live without it! Purchase the Nutcracker ballets tickets now and be enchanted by the splendor of the performance.