An afternoon or evening spent enjoying The Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s interpretation of Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is the perfect way to introduce children to the joys of ballet and classical music. With its fairy tale characters, dances and melodies that immediately imprint themselves on the memory, The Nutcracker has been capturing young hearts and minds all over the world for generations.
In the centre of Tchaikovsky’s ballet is Clara. She is given a nutcracker for Christmas from her godfather Drosselmeyer. When she falls asleep, she dreams that the nutcracker is head of a gingerbread army fighting against the minions of the Mouse King. With Clara’s help, the nutcracker wins the battles, turns into a prince and takes her to the Land of Sweets where he tells its ruler, the Sugar Plum Fairy, how Clara helped him to defeat his enemy. In the end, Clara wakes up.
The simplicity of The Nutcracker is exactly what makes it so appealing; an ideal choice for the Salzburg Marionette Theatre to bring to its stage. Seemingly drawn straight out of a child’s toy box, and without a complex plot to worry about, one is left to marvel at the ethereal qualities of Tchaikovsky’s music and the delightful dances that each group of puppets takes turns to perform.
The Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season.