The Nutcracker

Kalev presents:

Ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Libretto by Marius Petipa based on the fairy-tale of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas (perè)

World premiere on December 18, 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre

Premiere in the Estonian National Opera on December 1, 2023

Music Director and Conductor: Kaspar Mänd
Conductor: Risto Joost
Choreographer and Stage Director: Gyula Harangozó (Hungary)
Designer: Kentaur (Hungary)
Costume Designer: Rita Velich (Hungary)

Estonian National Opera invites everyone to enjoy one of the most brilliant and heart-warming Christmas classics of all times! Gyula Harangozó’s staging of the new “The Nutcracker” takes you on a dazzling tour of a fairy tale wonderland, brimming with your favourite melodies by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Gyula Harangozó: “With my ballet I would like to go back to its roots to be able to make it contemporary. It sounds as a contradiction, but it is not. When “The Nutcracker” was staged in St. Petersburg approximately 150 years ago, there was a very rough difference between the first act and the rest of the performance. The first act was a “here and now” situation with a 19th century Christmas party where the children could recognise everything they saw on stage. The rest of the ballet was a dream, a fairy tale where anything could happen without limits. This duality has disappeared by the passing of time and the whole performance has became a fairy tale for us.

To keep the original dramaturgy, I would like to stage the first act as “here and now”, hoping that the children will be familiar with everything that they see on stage – beginning with the costumes and setting up to a video game and the dolls shown by Drosselmayer – and are easily involved in the show. The second half of the performance will be built on the classical tradition inspired by the choreography of Vasili Vainonen, so the fans of the classical ballet will meet their expectations”.