| The Nutcracker |
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| nutcracker, the | |
| compositions by pyotr tchaikovsky | |
| suites | |
| christmas onstageballets | |
| nutcracker, the | |
| compositions by pyotr tchaikovsky | |
| suites | |
| christmas onstage | |
| ballet | |
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The Nutcracker () Op. 71, is a Fairy Tale - Ballet in two acts, three tableaux, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , composed in 1891 – 92 , and based on '' The Nutcracker And The Mouse King '' (), a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1816). Alexandre Dumas, Père 's adaptation of the story was set to music by Tchaikovsky (after a libretto possibly written by Marius Petipa and commissioned by the Imperial Theatres' administrator Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1891). In Western countries, this ballet has become among the most popular ballets performed, primarily around Christmas time. A selection of eight of the more popular numbers from the ballet was made by the composer before the ballet's premiere (Dec. 1892 ), forming ''The Nutcracker Suite'', Op. 71a, intended for concert performance. The suite became instantly popular; the complete ballet did not achieve its great popularity until around the mid-1960's. Some indication of how much the ''Nutcracker Suite'' once eclipsed the fame of the ballet may be found in Deems Taylor 's commentary in the Roadshow version of Disney's 1940 animated film '' Fantasia '', which features the suite as one of the animated segments. Taylor observes matter-of-factly, " ballet isn't performed anymore", a statement which certainly does not hold true today, and, indeed, has not been true since the mid-1950's, when George Balanchine 's production achieved great popularity in New York. |
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