The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

The benefits of a foreigner’s stay on Polish soil cannot be overestimated for world culture and art, and a great illustration of this thesis can be seen at Teatr Wielki. E.T.A. Hoffman lived in Warsaw at the beginning of the 19th century. As a Prussian official, he invented German-sounding names for Jews. Allegedly Rosenbaum, Goldberg or Eisenbaum were born out of his thoughts. The German writer’s inventiveness went far further, bringing to life trend-setting worlds, not yet recognized at the time as dark fantasy. The Nutcracker, Hoffmann’s Christmas Eve story about a girl called Clara, the Mouse King and the Nutcracker’s Realm, met Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s music. The world premiere’s modest success (1892) did not promise future triumphs at all: in the United States, about 40% of the ballet industry’s income is brought by The Nutcracker – and that has not changed since the 1960s. The Amsterdam staging feels great in Warsaw. Toer van Schayk sets the story in motion in a Warsaw apartment overlooking the Vistula River and the Royal Castle. A beautiful event with nostalgic notes that captures the audience’s hearts.

Ballet féerie in two acts
Libretto: Marius Petipa after a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann
World premiere of this production: 13 December 1996, Dutch National Ballet, Amsterdam
Polish premiere of this production: 25 November 2011, Polish National Ballet, Warsaw