The Classical Music Minute

The Nutcracker: 'Tis the season

January 03, 2022 Steven Hobé, Composer & Host Season 1 Episode 36
The Classical Music Minute
The Nutcracker: 'Tis the season
Show Notes Transcript

Description
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is a staple of ballet stages worldwide during the holiday season. But how did it come to be? And was it a hit right off the bat? Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
In the original version of "Nutcracker and Mouse King" a little girl, Marie, worries about a beautiful nutcracker that's been broken. At night, she goes to check up on it. To her surprise, it has come alive, and a story-within-the-story begins. Armies of mice and toy soldiers battle in what is either the child's delirious nightmare or perhaps another reality into which she wanders. Alexandre Dumas altered that original version, making it lighter and less scary for the ballet version that we see today.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

Support the show

Every holiday season, The Nutcracker graces stages worldwide. But how did this festive ballet come to be?

The Nutcracker is the last of three ballets by Tchaikovsky. It’s loosely based on the E.T.A. Hoffmann fantasy story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against an evil Mouse King. 

Tchaikovsky began scoring the work in February 1891. During a trip through Paris, he discovered a new instrument: the celesta. Which then became the perfect fit for the “voice” of the Sugar Plum Fairy. 

The ballet debuted in St. Petersburg in December 1892 to little fanfare. Tchaikovsky himself remarked that it turned out “...to be rather boring.” 

Critics slammed the show, from the tasteless scenery and costumes to the lacklustre performance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. 

Despite this rocky start, The Nutcracker has become the most frequently performed of all ballets.