A Brief History of The Nutcracker: Tchaikovsky, Dumas, and Hoffmann

[@dottieclogg8576]

Thank you for your thorough background and well produced video on The Nutcracker. I will be using it in my elementary music class.

[@lizbajork8018]

I’m watching the nutcracker from the Rochester NY ballet company streaming. It is beautiful!

[@akshaygiram]

Good work. Such stuff is hard for us to find. Thanks for the presentations.

[@Macvriendin]

Thank you for this historical background story of the Nutcracker! 👍

[@yomattty]

Here from Ellie's channel! WOW! what playlist!

[@Hailey_Paige_1937]

Critics: “The Nutcracker is terrible and cannot be classified as a ballet.” Stravinsky and Nijinsky: “Allow us to introduce ourselves.” 😂

[@culbycove4963]

One critic after the Rite premiere: “Ow my leg”

[@kartikazoldyck7946]

this deserves more views! great job! i love your work

[@Oddquartet]

Thank you! 🙏

[@cromiednk]

Thank You! ❤️🌹❤️🌹

[@Gladys-bq2qw]

I REALLY LIKE THE STORY OF IT FROM 1816!! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!!

[@IKongILoX]

Very educational video! Thank you a lot ! Helped a lot for the preparation for my first ever Ballet

[@liamorourke2445]

i’m seeing this play at butler university in indiana today. i’m excited

[@karinabreyer9832]

Who else is here because they have nutcracker auditions in a few months and ARE SO PUMPED! Just me. Okay

[@master-baiter22]

Nope I’m forced against my will to watch this for choir

[@wongpy9593]

me! im already in but my teacher wants me to get into character. apparently im not spanish enough xD

[@gabrielleangelica1977]

Good luck! 🍀

[@kmlumd44]

Audition to work passing out popcorn there

[@skyfast610]

nahh I'll have English test on nutcracker

[@6harrylotter785]

The Nutcracker, please. The Nutshack... now that was a masterpiece The Nut Job... that was a true beauty.....

[@noahperkins3]

lmao

[@brianhan9483]

Love your work! Although theory interests me, I really like your music history videos!

[@bruhmaster6915]

I just watched the nutcracker and I was sitting there thinking “there’s gotta be an analysis of this bc I’m kinda confused by who’s who.”

[@seanwebb605]

Each production is different. All of them change the story, location, time etc. And if they use children for some roles the dancing in the opening scenes is a little simpler and the main characters don't dance the more complicated roles like Sugar Plum Fairy. So the characters are split up, often with the children cast watching as spectators.

[@NolanDevious35]

i heard the nutcracker music odd quartet at 6:40 the nutcracker music sounds like the volume is low i can still hear it

[@laurawilson9163]

My whole life, 53 years, I’ve only known “Clara” as the main character. Who is this Marie?!?!? When did she come into the picture?

[@simondesbiens2463]

Marie was her original names that all

[@PlaceForFaith]

In the book her name is Maria. Clara was the name of one of her dolls that came to life during the mouse king fight. I think people liked the name Clara more and switched it.

[@davemorgan6013]

In Hoffmann's story she's called Marie, but Hoffmann wrote the story for the children of Julius Eduard Hitzig and their names were Friedrich and Clara. So, that's where Clara comes from.

[@Topdoggie7]

1816 is when Marie started.

[@siewheilou399]

So it is only since 1954 that Nutcracker is accepted as a ballet performance?

[@seanwebb605]

Well the Balanchine version is what most people in the west think of as The Nutcracker. It's even in the title of many ballet companies productions.

[@ileilanambingaamtheleader1154]

Time 1:04 The Stahlbaum family are the Kuso family(Bakugan). Marie is Dan Kuso, the 7 headed mouse King is Gordegon from Season 4 of Bakugan. The Nutcracker/Prince is Drago makes sense both turned into another shape and then grow bigger later on. Time 1:54 is New Vestroia :)

[@matthewtravisano1097]

Hold up. ‘The Nutrcacker’ was popularized in the U.S. way before Balanchine. Lew Christensen and San Francisco Ballet reintroduced it into the standard repertoire in 1944. San Francisco Ballet’s is the longest continuous professional staging of the work.

[@starfruitiger]

yesss and also Pacific Northwest Ballet's version by Kent Stowell with design and illustrations by Maurice Sendak (the guy who wrote where the wild things are) is the 80's film version i knew as a child; this one is closer to the original ETA Hoffman story (there is also an illustrated book version with Sendak's illustrations from the same time period). we also had the 90s movie of the Balanchine version with Macaulay Culkin and NYCB. i've been blessed to see the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker in person when I lived there and it was the best.

[@seanwebb605]

@@starfruitiger They put Balanchine's name right in the title in their promotions now.

[@Ariana-ch1ku]

I just got casted as clara🥰

[@Marg-sy4jt]

Congrats 👏 👏 👏 🎉

[@markbeck8384]

Interesting. Could you tell us where the Swan Lake story came from, and if the original version had an altered story. I heard once that there was originally an evil stepmother?? Also, is there a definitive ending? I've seen lots of versions.

[@curtthegamer934]

The evil stepmother thing is a stupid lie that's been copied to several different articles as if it's a fact (mostly because a lot of people don't bother reading the book to verify it). Marie had a normal family. There was no evil stepmother. I've seen that lie appear in so many articles now that it's not even funny.

[@Topdoggie7]

No evil stepmother in Nutcracker.

[@seanwebb605]

@@Topdoggie7 They were responding to a question about Swan Lake.

[@seanwebb605]

@@curtthegamer934 Which is to ignore that many versions of each of these stories existed in an oral tradition before being printed and literacy levels being high.

[@curtthegamer934]

@@seanwebb605 I know at least regarding The Nutcracker that Hoffmann invented that story. I'm not as certain about the Swan Lake legend.

[@ruben1475]

Yesterday I saw the Royal Opera's 2016 performance of The Nutcracker, and while I loved it I can understand why it flopped at the premiere. While Act 1 was reasonably well paced storywise, in my opinion Act 2 just seemed to drag on without going anywhere. I think the story was more like a framework for the music and ballet instead of vice versa, but I respect that because it is still wonderful.

[@davemorgan6013]

It's not unusual for the final act of ballets to be just a series of divertissements with no real plot. Delibes' ballet Coppelia is another example of that.

[@seanwebb605]

@@davemorgan6013 Oh nothing in the second act of a Nutcracker seems to ever be coherent in terms of story. It becomes a parade of disassociated performances. But keep in mind much of what is in the first story of the book and later sections is seen as a fever dream.

[@nataliya2641]

Thank you from Moscow.

[@Love6Justin]

Could you do one on swan lake? :) that was fascinating thank u

[@ElenaBeges]

Great video! I know nutcracker originally premiered in us in San Francisco in the 40s. Per this movie, that would have been before balanchines staging. So, nutcracker was still widespread and hade some popularity before Balanchine - yes? Did San Francisco and other companies change their staging after balanchines nutcracker?

[@Raghallach]

it was first performed in Saint Petersburg Russia on 18 December 1892, not San Francisco in the 40's.

[@andrushkalm]

Yes, very much so. It was dropped from the Imperial Theater around one year after the premiere and revived a few times after that. In 1919, Alexander Gorsky made his production for the Bolshoi Theater, making a lot of changes in the original Petipa/Ivanov choreography. Also in 1934, Vainonen made his famous version of the ballet for the Kirov (Mariinsky Theater) in St. Petersburg, which is danced to this day. The changes Gorsky made were kept and taken to almost every other production that came after his. So yes, The Nutcracker was very widespread before Balanchine.

[@andrushkalm]

Balanchine himself danced the original Petipa production, keeping some original parts to his own production. Which makes me understand why The Nutcracker was so hated at the time. I personally don’t like Balanchine’s version.

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

Alexander was no DumAs

[@hoochrocks]

Thanks for this.

[@capribreezee]

The ballet was like the first collab

[@davidvela-lopez8275]

I am going to the Nutcracker ballet in Hermosillo, Mexico. And wanted a little context

[@ViktorVaughn.]

hoffman is real champ

[@seanwebb605]

I'm not sure what source you are referencing for the original written stories or English translations. You seem to be speaking of some adaptation that came later.

[@octahedron115]

Do the entry of the gladiators

[@user-eu3op7or6v]

So interesting 🧐

[@williamokafor1750]

6:44

[@whatchrisdoinmusic]

I love videos like this!

[@danamarvelstar]

So where does the name Clara come in?

[@curtthegamer934]

I have never been able to figure it out. I've always been puzzled as to why the name was changed at all, since you never hear the names spoken on stage anyway, so anybody who isn't already aware of the names would probably just call her "the girl" or "the protagonist." I've seen her variously called, depending on the performance, Marie, Maria, Mary, Masha, Clara, and Klara. Clara is the most common name, but it's not even always the one used today in every production. Also, I still refer to the character as Marie because I grew up on the original book.

[@Topdoggie7]

1900s area, added in as it aged.

[@seanwebb605]

Clara, Sophia, Marie, Tyresha it's all going to depend where it is being shown, who the audience is and the time they are depicting. No two Nutcrackers are ever the same.

[@thewonderfulworldofderek6087]

30th anniversary years nutcracker history home review Intrvew 50th anniversary celebration

[@Drippybobsquarepants]

Is it a British soldier, Prussian soldier, french soldier and a man who nuts all over tchaiskovy?

[@ghosthost100]

The Maurice Sendak version is better in my opinion of The Nutcracker. Most metal adaptation of the story.

[@171QA]

Great video.

[@jamesaldrich7133]

But Tchaikovsky your one of the reasons for the nutcracker story existence

[@rockinresurrection6542]

Nah not really. Only the music

[@Topdoggie7]

Just the music.

[@seanwebb605]

@@rockinresurrection6542 Ummmmm.......just the music? Just the common element of almost every production that gets ran out on stage each year?

[@avidnongetit8710]

Thank you. Very well done. I still only like 4 musicals though 1 Westside Story 2 Rocky Horror Picture show 2 Tommy 4 Jesus Christ superstar 5 Hair Spray Yup I'm old

[@mytoenailjustfelloff8997]

avid Non you do realise that a ballett has absolutely nothing to do with a musical right? Theyre in no way comparable...

[@karinabreyer9832]

Mytoenail Justfelloff Actually they are very comparable. They aren’t super similar tho. Tho not have music, dancing, a story to tell, etc

[@Topdoggie7]

O L D.

[@thewonderfulworldofderek6087]

1993 movie wb studios years History

[@williamokafor1750]

1:32

[@dan020350]

❤

[@katiehickey4539]

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