First shown on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in December 1892, the ballet by P.I. Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" has become a traditional New Year's fairy tale, which is staged all over the world and loved by both children and adults.
And meanwhile, this is a rather complex ballet: both in terms of stage implementation, and in terms of music, which gravitates towards a choreographic symphony.
P.I. Chaikovsky
The ballet "The Nutcracker" and the opera "Iolanta", staged simultaneously, are considered a kind of spiritual testament of P.I. Tchaikovsky. They call for selflessness, fidelity, devotion and love at all costs. It is also worth noting that the fate of the ballet was rather controversial: a huge success with the public - and a terrible abuse of criticism. Perhaps that is why a rather simple plot of a fairy tale, set to rather complex music, remains to this day a work that is “discovered” again and again.
The history of the creation of the ballet
The idea of the ballet belonged to I.A. Vsevolozhsky.
I.A. Vsevolozhsky
Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky(1835-1909) - Russian theatrical figure, screenwriter, artist, privy councilor, chief chamberlain. Since 1881, he was the director of the imperial theaters, in this area he carried out a number of important organizational reforms. And although he is reproached for the fact that in his activities he was guided by the tastes of the court and aristocratic circles, pomp and external showiness, he did a lot for the national national musical culture: he ordered P.I. Tchaikovsky the music for the ballets The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, he himself created the libretto and sketches of scenery and costumes for performances, and, having become the director of the Hermitage, attracted a number of young specialists to work in the Hermitage, whom Alexander Benois united around the magazines Artistic Treasures of Russia and "Old Years". On the initiative of I.A. Vsevolozhsky on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, an opera by P.I. Tchaikovsky " Eugene Onegin", in which, at the request of Vsevolozhsky, new fragments were added for the sixth scene of the opera. It was he who gave the idea of the plot of the opera The Queen of Spades, in every possible way encouraging the composer to write it.
I.A. Tchaikovsky dedicated to Vsevolozhsky the ballet "Sleeping Beauty".
"Nutcracker"- ballet in two acts. The libretto was created by M. Petipa based on the fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816), but the basis of the libretto was not Hoffmann's fairy tale itself, but its arrangement by A. Dumas père.
THIS. Hoffman
Libretto(ital. libretto booklet, reduced from libro"book") is the literary basis of a large musical composition (opera, ballet, operetta, oratorio, cantata, musical).
The plot of the ballet
Prologue (introduction).On Christmas Eve, guests begin to gather at Dr. Stahlbaum's house:adults and children, including the children of the doctor - Marie and Fritz.
ActionI. All children look forward to gifts. The masked Drosselmeyer arrives last, he can bring the toys to life, but when he removes the mask, Marie and Fritz recognize their favorite godfather.
Marie wants to play with the donated dolls, but they've already been taken away. Marie is upset. To reassure the girl, the godfather gives her the Nutcracker - a doll that can crack nuts (nutcrackers in the shape of a soldier). I really liked Marie's doll, although she was somewhat strange. But the naughty and mischievous Fritz inadvertently breaks the doll. Marie is upset. She puts her beloved doll to sleep. Fritz and his friends put on mouse masks and start teasing Marie.
The holiday ends, the guests dance the traditional dance "Gross-Vater" and go home. The night is coming. Marie hugs the Nutcracker - and then Drosselmeyer appears already in the role of a good wizard. A wave of the hand - and everything changes in the room: the walls move apart, the Christmas tree begins to grow, Christmas decorations come to life and become soldiers.
Suddenly mice appear under the leadership of the Mouse King. The brave Nutcracker leads the soldiers into battle with them, but the army of mice outnumbers the army of soldiers.
Marie, in desperation, takes off her shoe and throws it at the Mouse King. He flees with his army. Soldiers won! They carry Marie on their shoulders to the Nutcracker. Suddenly, the Nutcracker's face begins to change: he ceases to be an ugly doll and turns into a handsome Prince.
And again, an unexpected transformation: Marie and the dolls find themselves under a starry sky and a beautiful Christmas tree, snowflakes are spinning around.
ActionII. But suddenly this beauty is again violated by mice, attacking them. The prince wins. Everyone is dancing and having fun, celebrating the victory over the mouse army.
Dolls from different countries and peoples thank Marie for saving their lives. Everyone is dancing around.
Drosselmeyer magically changes everything again: preparations for the royal wedding of Marie and the Prince begin.
But... Marie wakes up. The Nutcracker is still in her hands. She is sitting in her room. Alas, it was just a dream...
First production of The Nutcracker
The premiere of the ballet took place December 18, 1892. at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg on the same evening with the opera Iolanta. The roles of Clara and Fritz were performed by students of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater School: Clara - Stanislava Belinskaya, Fritz - Vasily Stukolkin. The Nutcracker is Sergey Legat, the Dragee fairy is Antonietta Del-Era, Prince Whooping cough is Pavel Gerdt, Drosselmeyer is Timofey Stukolkin, niece Marianna is Lydia Rubtsova.
The choreographer of the performance is L. Ivanov, the conductor is R. Drigo, the artists are M. Bocharov and K. Ivanov, the costumes are I. Vsevolozhsky and E. Ponomarev.
Ballet life
Among the works of the late period of the creative path of P.I. Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" occupies a special place: it is innovative not only because of the musical embodiment, but also in the interpretation of the characters. And although the plot of the ballet was traditionally perceived as a children's fairy tale, there is a deep philosophical connotation in it: the illusory nature of the line between reality and sleep, living beings and inanimate objects and toys, the relationship between the world of adults and children, the eternal struggle of nobility and petty evil, wisdom hidden behind the mask of eccentricity the all-conquering power of love.
Tchaikovsky's music, like the plot of a fairy tale, is inexhaustible. This complexity was understood only in the 20th century.
After the first production of the ballet (L. Ivanova), many major choreographers of Russia turned to him: A. Gorsky, F. Lopukhov, V. Vainonen, Yu. Grigorovich, I. Belsky, I. Chernyshev. Each of them took into account the experience of their predecessors and offered their own original version, correlating their own aesthetic priorities and contemporary demands with their own understanding of Tchaikovsky's music. Until now, the ballet "The Nutcracker" remains attractive to the modern theater and the audience.
Mariinskii Opera House
E. T. A. Hoffmann "The Nutcracker". Many of us are familiar with this fairy tale from early childhood, others learned about it through cartoons or attending a ballet. One way or another, the story of a prince turned into a toy is known to almost everyone. Let's talk about this work in more detail.
About the work
Hoffmann published the fairy tale story "The Nutcracker" in 1816 in the collection "Children's Tales". When creating the work, the writer was greatly influenced by the children of his friend, who bore the names of Marie and Fritz. That is how Hoffman called his main characters.
"The Nutcracker": a summary. tie
Outside on December 25, the children of Stahlbaum, the medical adviser, Marie and Fritz are sitting in their bedroom waiting for gifts that are under the tree in the living room. The girl eagerly wants to know what her godfather will come up with for her this year - he made a toy for Marie with his own hands for every Christmas. However, the girl understands that the gifts of her parents are much better, since they are not taken away immediately after the holiday.
Under the tree, children find many gifts. Among other things, Mari notices a toy designed to crack nuts, which was made in the form of a smartly dressed person. At this moment we get acquainted with the main character of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker". Summary, unfortunately, cannot convey the joy of the girl at the sight of this toy. Marie took him under her care and gave him only the smallest nuts to crack. However, Fritz specifically selected the largest and hardest, which led to damage to the toy. Then the girl hid the Nutcracker from Fritz and constantly carried it with her.
The appearance of the Mouse King
We continue to describe the summary of The Nutcracker. One evening, Marie plays with dolls for too long. Her brother goes to bed, the girl is left alone in the room. As the clock strikes midnight, a muffled rustle begins in the living room, mice appear from everywhere. A huge seven-headed mouse in crowns is selected from under the floor - the Mouse King. Marie is pressed against the wall in fright. The mouse army begins to attack her.
Marie breaks the closet door, which scares the rodents. But the broken cabinet immediately begins to glow. Toys come to life. The Nutcracker gathers an army and leads it into battle with mice.
The battle begins. At first, the army of toys is moving forward successfully. But gradually the mice begin to win. The toys take heavy casualties while their generals retreat. The Nutcracker is in the clutches of the enemy. The mouse king rushes at him, but Marie, wanting to save her favorite toy, throws her shoe right at the leader of the rodents.
After that, the girl loses consciousness.
Fairy tale
The work "The Nutcracker" tells the story of a little girl (a summary is presented in this article).
So Marie regains consciousness in her bed. Next to her is Dr. Wendelstern. A mother appears who scolds the girl for her willfulness. Marie learns that she was found in the blood among the scattered toys, and in her hand she was clutching the Nutcracker. Adults, having heard the girl's story about what happened at night, thought that she had dreamed everything.
Marie spends several days in bed. The godfather comes to the girl and brings the "cured" Nutcracker. He asks Marie to forget about mice and tell a story.
"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" has an interesting structure. In fact, this is a fairy tale within a fairy tale. Such a technique is characteristic only for a literary work and is impossible in folk art.
The story of the little princess Pirlipat begins. A holiday was being prepared in the kingdom, but the mice climbed into the storerooms and ate sausage lard. The court watchmaker Drosselmeyer set up mousetraps in which many rodents died. Then Myshilda, the mouse queen, turned the princess into an ugly creature. Then the court astrologer calculated that only the Krakatuk nut, which can only be split by a single young man, can restore the beauty of Pirlipat.
Drosselmeyer, along with the astrologer, soon found a nut. But not a single prince managed to gnaw it. Then Drosselmeyer's nephew got down to business. The young man helped the princess restore her beauty, but Myshilda prevented the end of the ceremony. The old mouse died, but turned the young man into the Nutcracker. The astrologer predicted that the young man's curse would end the moment a beautiful girl fell in love with him and he defeated the Mouse King.
Marie's torment
Marie believes that this story actually happened. Now she understands why the Nutcracker and the Mouse King had to fight. The Mouse King comes to the girl and begins to blackmail her, demanding sugar dolls and marzipan. Then Fritz offers his sister to borrow a cat from a baker for a while, and his father asks to simply arrange the mousetraps.
The Mouse King torments Mari again. He asks her to give him a beautiful Christmas dress and a picture book. Then the girl complains to the Nutcracker - soon she will have nothing left, and then she will have to give herself away. After that, the toy comes to life and asks not to worry about anything and get a saber for him. The next night, the Nutcracker challenges the Mouse King to a fight, wins, and gives Marie his seven crowns.
denouement
The tale "The Nutcracker" comes to an end. The protagonist in the guise of a doll leads Marie to a wardrobe, from where they enter a magical land. The Nutcracker takes the girl to the Pink Lake and introduces her to her beautiful sisters, whom she helps to grind golden nuts in a mortar.
Marie wakes up, her parents laugh at her bizarre dreams. Once, while talking with her godfather, the girl confesses that she would never have abandoned the Nutcracker because of her deformity. After these words, a crack is heard. In fright, the girl falls from her chair. The curse is broken. A beautiful young man appears before Marie, who proposes to her, and a year later they leave for the Doll Kingdom.
The heroine of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker"
Marie is a little girl who is full of compassion, kindness, determination and courage. She is the only one who manages to unravel the true nature of the Nutcracker. That is why Marie takes the toy under her protection. Sincere feelings of the girl save the main character.
This two-act ballet was written by the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The plot is based on the fairy tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”.
History of creation
The libretto was created based on a fairy tale, the author of which is E. T. A. Hoffman. The Nutcracker, a summary of which will be presented in this article a little lower, is one of the later works of P. I. Tchaikovsky. This ballet occupies a special place in the composer's work, as it is innovative.
The adaptation of the fairy tale, according to which the libretto of the ballet was created, was made in 1844 by a French writer. The premiere performance took place in 1892, on December 18, at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The roles of Fritz and Clara were played by children who studied at the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater School. The part of Clara was performed by S. Belinskaya, and the part of Fritz by V. Stukolkin.
Composer
The author of the music for the ballet, as already mentioned above, is P. I. Tchaikovsky. He was born on April 25, 1840 in Votkinsk, a small town in which he wrote more than 80 masterpieces, including ten operas (Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, The Enchantress and others), three ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan lake", "Sleeping Beauty"), four suites, more than a hundred romances, seven symphonies, as well as a large number of works for piano. Pyotr Ilyich also led and was a conductor. At first, the composer studied jurisprudence, but then devoted himself entirely to music and in 1861 entered the Russian Musical Society (in music classes), which in 1862 was transformed into a conservatory.
One of the teachers of the great composer was another great composer - A. G. Rubinshtein. P. I. Tchaikovsky turned out to be one of the first students of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He studied in the composition class. After graduation, he became a professor at the newly opened conservatory in Moscow. From 1868 he acted as a music critic. In 1875, a textbook of harmony was published, the author of which was Pyotr Ilyich. The composer died on October 25, 1893 from cholera, which he contracted by drinking unboiled water.
ballet characters
The main character of the ballet is the girl Clara (Marie). In different editions of the ballet, it is called differently. In E. T. A. Hoffmann's fairy tale, she is called Marie, and her doll is called Clara. After the First World War, the heroine was called Masha for patriotic reasons, and her brother Fritz was left because he was a negative character. The Stahlbaums are the parents of Masha and Fritz. Drosselmeyer is the godfather of the main character. The Nutcracker is a doll, an enchanted prince. Other characters are the Dragee fairy, Prince Whooping cough, Marianne is the niece of the Stahlbaums. The mouse king is three-headed, the main enemy of the Nutcracker. As well as relatives of the Schtalbaums, guests at the feast, toys, servants, and so on.
Libretto
The famous choreographer Marius Petipa is the author of the libretto for The Nutcracker.
Summary of the first scene of the first act:
Last preparations before the Christmas holiday, bustle. The action takes place in the kitchen. Chefs and cooks prepare festive dishes, the owners with children come in to check how the preparations are going. Fritz and Marie try to eat dessert, the boy is treated to candy - he is the parents' favorite, and Marie is brushed aside. The action is transferred to the dressing room, where the Stahlbaums choose outfits for the holiday, the children spin around them. Fritz receives a cocked hat as a gift, and Marie is left with nothing. A guest appears in the house - this is Drosselmeyer. This is how the Nutcracker ballet begins.
Summary of the second scene of the first act:
The dancing begins. Godfather Marie brings gifts - mechanical dolls. Everyone takes apart toys. Marie gets the Nutcracker, which no one has chosen. But the girl likes him, because he deftly cracks nuts, besides, she feels that he is not just a toy. The holiday ends, the guests disperse, all except Marie. She sneaks into the living room to take another look at the Nutcracker. At this time, rats dressed as aristocrats are dancing in the room. This picture frightens Masha, and she faints. The clock strikes 12. The intrigue of the Nutcracker ballet begins.
Brief summary of the third scene of the first act:
Marie comes to her senses and sees that the room has become huge, and she is now the size of a Christmas tree toy. The Nutcracker with an army of toy soldiers takes on the Mouse King and his mice. Marie, out of fright, hides in her grandfather's old shoe, but to help the Nutcracker, she throws a shoe at the Rat King. The mouse emperor is confused. The Nutcracker stabs him with a sword. Good Marie feels sorry for the vanquished, and she bandages his wound. The army of rats is broken. Marie the Nutcracker takes her on a fabulous journey over the city at night in an old grandfather's shoe.
Brief summary of the fourth scene of the first act:
The Nutcracker and Marie arrive at the old cemetery. A snowstorm begins, and the evil snowflakes, along with their Queen, are trying to kill Marie. Drosselmeyer stops an evil blizzard. The girl is saved by the Nutcracker.
Summary of the first scene of the second act:
The Nutcracker brings Marie to the fabulous city of Konfiturenburg. It's full of sweets and cakes. The city is inhabited by funny people who are very fond of sweets. Residents of Confiturenburg dance in honor of the arrival of dear guests. Marie, delighted, rushes to the Nutcracker and kisses him, and turns into the Nutcracker Prince.
Summary of the epilogue:
Christmas night passed, and Marie's magical dream melted away. A girl and her brother are playing with the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer comes to them, with him his nephew, who looks like a prince, whom the Nutcracker turned into in Marie's fairy tale dream. The girl rushes to meet him, and he embraces her.
And, of course, it is better to see the performance with your own eyes. You can buy tickets for the Nutcracker through the service http://bolshoi-tickets.ru/events/shelkunchik/. There is also all the relevant information about the dates of productions. Stay tuned - the poster is being updated!
The most significant performances
The premiere performance took place on December 6, 1892 at the Mariinsky Theater (choreographer Lev Ivanov). The performance was resumed in 1923, the directors of the dances were F. Lopukhov, and in 1929 the ballet was released in a new edition. On the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, The Nutcracker began its "life" in 1919. In 1966, the performance was presented in a new version. The choreographer Yuri Grigorovich was the director.
German romanticism is a trend in the literature of the 18th century, the founders and associates of which created brilliant works. Today, the works of Shamisso, Hölderlin, Novalis, the Schlegel brothers are used as literary primary sources for performances, films, cartoons and performances. Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, the creator of The Nutcracker, gave the world a fairy tale, interest in which will never subside.
The Nutcracker in Literature
Johann Heemann, a resident of the German town of Seifen, made a living by making wooden toys. In 1699, he created a specific soldier, whom he named Nibbler. Having loaded a manual wheelbarrow with products, the master walked one and a half hundred kilometers, reaching Leipzig.
Having overcome mountain paths and unsuitable rural roads, he profitably sold all the blanks and creations in the big city. Zubastik fell in love with buyers. Since then, wood carving masters began to make such wooden dolls. Zubastic came to America in the 20th century, when US Army soldiers shipped toys to their children across the ocean.
Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was inspired by the image of a soldier and wrote a fairy tale, the main character of which was the Nutcracker. A work called "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" was published in 1816 in a collection of children's fairy tales. Working on the images of children, Gomphan was inspired by the children of a friend named Marie and Fritz. So that's what the main characters are called.
Marichen Stahlbaum received an unusual nutcracker as a Christmas present from her godfather. They looked like soldiers. The surprise presented by the storyteller Drosselmeyer was with a secret. Behind the appearance of the ugly Nutcracker was a prince. He was bewitched by the evil Queen Myshilda.
The girl, who treated the toy with trepidation and care, hid it from her restless brother, showed courage, courage and determination. The fearless and brave Nutcracker overcame all difficulties, defeated the villain Mouse King, who had seven heads, and, turning into a prince, took Marie as his wife.
The main theme of the work was the victory of good and love over evil. The tale also teaches that appearance is not the main thing. The Nutcracker had a big ugly jaw, but the girl fell in love with him. Hoffmann's essay teaches courage and self-confidence, hinting that these are key qualities that help overcome all obstacles and obstacles, overcome any enemies.
Screen adaptations
Frame from the cartoon "The Nutcracker" (1973) A small brave soldier with a toy saber has become a character in children's cartoons and films. His image was often used in animated series. The most memorable project for Soviet viewers was The Nutcracker in 1973. A good cartoon in which a toy soldier defeats the Mouse King has been broadcast for over 45 years.
In 1988, the authors of the Care Bears: The Nutcracker project used the image of a soldier. The project of Paul Shibli, released in 1990 for a children's audience, was the closest to the action described in the fairy tale. The animated cartoon "The Nutcracker Prince" was remembered by the kids.
Frame from the cartoon "Barbie and the Nutcracker" (2001) In 1995, a Japanese-American project dedicated to the history of the Nutcracker was released. In 1997, a short fantasy musical directed by Christine Edzard premiered. In 2001, directors David Stern and Dan Goggin released a comedy musical based on a German fairy tale. In the same year, Owen Hurley adapted the fairy tale to modern realities by releasing the cartoon Barbie and the Nutcracker. In 2004, German producers released an animated version of the fairy tale.
In 2007, the Nutcracker was mentioned in one of the episodes of the animated project "Tom and Jerry". A restless mouse performed in the costume of an enchanted prince. In 2014, the American adaptation of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Rat King 3D" was presented. He made a film with the participation of foreign artists.
Still from Andrey Konchalovsky's film "The Nutcracker and the Rat King 3D" Lasse Hallström in 2018 released a project called The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms, based on a fairy tale.
- Of the works of Hoffmann, the directors paid special attention to The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Worldly Views of Murr the Cat, Little Tsakhes, Princess Brambilla and others. Italian, French, Russian writers and playwrights borrowed motifs from the works of German romantics for their own compositions.
- Hoffmann was fond of the theater, and puppets and puppets attracted his attention. Of course, far from modern Barbie, but too beautiful things would not have such a fabulous biography that the Nutcracker found. Hoffmann's love for puppets was explained by the fact that he believed that people are toys in the hands of fate, pulling the strings. The writer himself trusted fate and entrusted his own fate to a higher power.
Ballet "The Nutcracker" - The plot of Hoffmann's fairy tale formed the basis of the ballet, the music for which he wrote. The Nutcracker glorified the composer on the ballet stage. Marius Petipa created the choreography for the play. An arrangement of the tale, written in 1844, served as the libretto. Thanks to the ballet, Hoffmann's work found life on the theater stage and has been imprinted for centuries. Today the ballet The Nutcracker can be seen in the main theaters of Moscow and St. Petersburg (Bolshoi, Mariinsky, Mikhailovsky, The Crown of Russian Ballet), as well as on other stages in Russia and Europe.
Hoffmann's life was never particularly happy. When the future writer was only 3 years old, his parents and the boy were brought up by their maternal grandmother and uncle. At the insistence of his uncle, Hoffmann chose a career in law, although he was constantly eager to leave it and earn a living by writing.
Two worlds in the work of Hoffmann
Nevertheless, for most of his life, the writer worked in the offices of the judicial department. In his free time, he enthusiastically studied music, and at night, in which eerie events often took place. Almost all of his works are built on the opposition of two border worlds. One of them is the prosaic world of German philistinism, the other is the world of fairy tales and magic. Hoffmann's characters are the same dreamers and romantics as he was, they strive to escape from the daily routine, to escape into the alluring and mysterious world. For some, like Anselma from the first work of the writer "The Golden Pot", this escape leads to personal happiness, but for someone, like for another student Nathaniel from the short story "The Sandman", it turns into madness and death.The same theme of "two worlds" is also found on the pages of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". Its action takes place in the usual German city of Dresden, whose inhabitants are preparing to celebrate Christmas. The young dreamer Marie receives a funny toy, the Nutcracker, as a gift from her godfather. From this moment, the real miracles begin. The Nutcracker, of course, turns out to be an enchanted prince who, with Marie's help, manages to defeat the evil mouse king. After that, he leads his savior to the beautiful Doll Kingdom, the princess of which she is destined to become.
Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker"
In December 1892, the premiere of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker took place at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. In the original version of the libretto, its main character was called Clara (for Hoffmann, this is the name of Marie's favorite doll), later the plot of the ballet was closer to the perception of the Russian audience, and the girl began to be called Masha.The wonderful ballet is still loved by both young and adult viewers. On the stage of opera and ballet theaters, not a single New Year's holiday can do without it. Tchaikovsky's music became practically identified with Hoffmann's fairy tale. No wonder it sounds in almost every of the numerous film adaptations of The Nutcracker.
