The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act "fairy ballet" set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination.
The music is by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Opus 71. The plot is an adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa, with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty, assisted by Lev Ivanov.
Although the complete and staged The Nutcracker ballet was not as successful as had been the 20-minute Nutcracker Suite that Tchaikovsky had premiered nine months earlier, The Nutcracker soon became popular.
PERFORMANCE
Choreography: Valery Kovtun
Costumes and sets: Mariia Levytska
Lights: Igor Samarets
Stahlbaurn: Oleksiy Kovalenko
His wife: Liudmyla Melnyk
Clara, Their Daughter: Iuliia Moskalenko
Fritz, Brother of Clara: Ielizaveta Gogidze
Drosselmeyer: Yaroslav Tkachuk
Nutcracker (doll): Ielizaveta Cherniak
Nutcracker / The Prince: Mykyta Sukhorukov
Mouse King: Ruslan Avramenko
Harlequin: Sergii Kliachin
Columbine: Ganna Muromtseva
Devil: Marjia Nelen
Devil: Volodymyr Kutuzov
Corps de Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine
Orchestra and Chorus of the National Opera of Ukraine
Musical direction: Oleksiy Baklan