Music #379 - Tchai - Nutcracker

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

 (1840 – 1893) 

The Nutcracker

For this 2-act ballet, Tchaikovsky chose Alexandre Dumas père's "Tale of the Nutcracker", which adapted Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".

 - full version

The Mariinsky Theater @ St. Petersburg
(formerly The Kirov Ballet of Leningad) 

= = = = = Bonus:

"Tchaikovsky acknowledged that Nutcracker was twee compared to The Sleeping Beauty, but his setting of this fairy tale has proved better box office, thanks to effects such as the Sugar Fairy's celesta."

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

Waltz of the Flowers

Extra:

celesta