Nutcracker Suite facts for kids

Tchaikovsky in 1893

The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a is a selection of 8 musical numbers Tchaikovsky made from The Nutcracker ballet for a concert performance before the St. Petersburg branch of the Musical Society on March 19, 1892. Every number was acclaimed and repeated, and the suite became an instant hit. The complete ballet was first performed on December 17, 1892. It was not a success. It did not gain any popularity until George Balanchine staged a production in New York City. The suite however was very popular in concert. It was featured in Disney's Fantasia. The Nutcracker Suite should not be mistaken for the complete ballet.

The numbers chosen by Tchaikovsky for The Nutcracker Suite and their sequence within the suite are as follows:

I. Miniature Overture

II. Danses caractéristiques

a. Marche

b. Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy [ending altered from ballet-version]

c. Russian Dance (Trepak)

d. Arabian Dance

e. Chinese Dance

f. Reed-Flutes

III. Waltz of the Flowers

Images for kids

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  (Left to right) Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz, in the original production of The Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, 1892)

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  Varvara Nikitina as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Pavel Gerdt as the Cavalier, in a later performance in the original run of The Nutcracker, 1892

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  Ivan Vsevolozhsky's original costume sketch for The Nutcracker (1892)

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  Ivan Vsevolozhsky's original costume designs for Mother Gigogne and her Polichinelle children, 1892

See also

In Spanish: El cascanueces para niños