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The Nutcraker

Ballet in two acts after Alexandre Dumas
 

Rudolf Nureyev staged The Nutcracker for the first time in November 1967 for the Royal Swedish Ballet following the request of Erick Bruhn.

This version was to be revived several times in London, Milan, Buenos Aires and Berlin.

The original libretto by Alexandre Dumas was completely revised by Nureyev who gave his version of The Nutcracker a psychoanalytic dimension: Drosselmeyer and the Prince are one and the same person, representing the ideal man dreamt up by the heroine, ready to leave her childhood and become a teenager.
 
In 1988, Rudolf, produced a filmed production of the ballet with Elisabeth Maurin in the role of Clara, and with Laurent Hilaire playing Drosselmeyer.

It was on the film set for The Nutcracker in the studios in Bry sur Marne that Rudolf Nureyev appointed Elisabeth Maurin principal dancer.

 

Première of the new version by Rudolf Nureyev :

17 november 1967, Royal Swedish Ballet - Stockholm

Productions of the Rudolf Nureyev version :

29 February 1968 - version for the Royal Ballet - London with new sets and costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis

18 September 1969 - Ballet of La Scala Milan

6 April 1971 - Ballet of the Teatro Colon - Buenos Aires

3 November 1979 - Ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

19 December 1985 - final version for the Paris Opera Ballet

28 October 1994 - Finnish National Ballet - Helsinki

7 October 2012 - Première of the Rudolf Nureyev version at the Weiner Staatoper

  

Music : Ballet in two acts after Alexandre Dumas

Choreography : Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov

Learn more The Nutcracker was created on the 18th December 1892 at the Maryinski Theatre in Saint-Petersburg.