page_title: The Nutcracker
section_title: Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a
hierarchical_section_title: The Nutcracker / Concert excerpts and arrangements / Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a
caption_attribution_description: Vzevolozhsky's costume sketch for The Nutcracker.　
context_page_description: The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".
  Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker. The ballet's score has been used in several film adaptations of Hoffmann's story.
  Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda.
context_section_description: Tchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet before the ballet's December 1892 première, forming The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, intended for concert performance. The suite was first performed, under the composer's direction, on 19 March 1892 at an assembly of the Saint Petersburg branch of the Musical Society. The suite became instantly popular, with almost every number encored at its premiere, while the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City. The suite became very popular on the concert stage, and was excerpted in Disney's Fantasia, with everything omitted prior to Sugar Plum Fairies. The Nutcracker Suite should not be mistaken for the complete ballet. The outline below represents the selection and sequence of the Nutcracker Suite culled by the composer.
  Miniature Overture
  Danses caractéristiques
  Marche
  Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy [ending altered from ballet-version]
  Russian Dance (Trepak)
  Arabian Dance
  Chinese Dance
  Reed Flutes
  Waltz of the Flowers
caption: Ivan Vsevolozhsky's original costume sketch for The Nutcracker (1892)
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