The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky first saw the footlights at the Mariinsky Theatre on the 6th of December 1892, on the same evening as the opera Iolanta.

The libretto, based on the fairy-tale by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann in a loose translation by Alexandre Dumas, was written by Marius Petipa. Director of the Imperial Theatres Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky participated in the script development. The composer’s brother Modest Tchaikovsky gave the ideas its literary form and the choreography belonged to Lev Ivanov.

In Moscow, the ballet was shown for the first time after the revolution, on the 21st of May 1919. Alexander Gorsky changed the original libretto and rearranged the music. A two-act ballet was turned into a three-act performance. In the second act, the little Clara (called Marie in the fairy-tale) enters a magical winter forest, where Father Christmases and snowflakes who look like Snow Maidens dance, dressed in smart fur coats. In the third act the action was taken to the table, enlarged to a gigantic size, with Christmas decorations and presents.