* The ballet was based on the story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
* Tchaikovsky was less happy with The Nutcracker than with The Sleeping Beauty, finished beforehand.
* The of The Nutcracker story has been published in many book versions including colorful children-friendly versions. The plot revolves around a German girl named Clara (sometimes called Marie).* The work opens with a brief "Miniature Overture" which sets the fairy mood by using upper registers of the orchestra exclusively. The curtain opens to reveal a Christmas Eve at Clara's house. She is given a nutcrakcer by her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, which is promptly broken by her brother Fritz.
* After the party ends, Herr Drosselmeyer repairs the nutcracker. Clara then awakens and, at the stroke of midnight, Clara becomes entangled in a fight to help the nutcracker - now alive - defeat the Mouse King.
* In the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, the Prince is actually Drosselmeyer's nephew, who had been turned into a Nutcracker by the Mouse King. All of the events following the Christmas party have been arranged by Drosselmeyer in order to break the spell.
* Clara and the Prince travel to a world where dancing Snowflakes greet them and fairies and queens dance, welcoming Clara and the Prince into their world. The score conveys the wondrous images by introducing a wordless children's chorus. The curtain falls on Act I.
For more on all things Nutcracker, see wiki.
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