The Nutcracker

 

 In the hundred years or so since its debut, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker has become a delightful aspect of modern Christmas celebrations. Composed during the "Silver Age" of Russian ballet, The Nutcracker is based upon a fairy tale by the German romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffman, whose stories also inspired Delibes' Coppelia and Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman. It is one of the few ballets that is not a love story, although later stagings have tried to make it into one. The music, however, is powerful enough for any story of a great romance. In college, I helped my sister Andrea, who was still in high school, with a project; we were listening to the "Pas de Deux" of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier. Andrea said, "That must be from a really great love story." "No, it's just from The Nutcracker," I replied. It is a simple story, full of childhood's innocent, but very real, hopes and fears. To watch or listen to The Nutcracker is to enter into a dream, a dream which comes to life even after so many years, and all wars and revolutions which have tormented the world.

From Victoria:

For many, Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker was their first introduction to dancing wooden figures that resemble toy soldiers, but the history of these carved collectibles dates back centuries before the show’s 1892 debut. Seventeenth-century German craftsmen sculpted similar models that often were seen as good luck symbols in their homeland. Eventually, the popularity of these miniature military men spread beyond Germany’s borders and, somewhere along the way, they became associated with Christmas, a connection that is still celebrated today. Bernardaud’s sophisticated Grenadiers dinnerware, shown here, is a classic example of the whimsical nutcracker’s enduring association with the holiday. (Read more.)

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