In 1890, the administration of the Imperial Theatres commissioned Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) to compose a one-act opera and a ballet. The composer chose Hoffmann’s fairy tale “The Nutcracker” in its French version by Alexandre Dumas, père. Tchaikovsky’s famous American tour in 1891 interrupted the work, and the pieces were not finished on time, so the premieres of the ballet
The Nutcracker and the opera
Iolanta were postponed for a year. During that downtime the composer’s co-author, the legendary choreographer Marius Petipa, fell seriously ill, and the work was completed by the second ballet master of the Mariinsky Theatre, Lev Ivanov, who used Petipa’s sketches. A long-awaited premiere took place on 6 (18) December 1892, conducted by Ricardo Drigo. But much earlier, in March of the same year, a suite from the ballet was performed in a symphony concert of the Russian Music Society conducted by Tchaikovsky.
One of the peaks of Tchaikovsky’s work and the quintessence of his style, The Nutcracker explicitly shows the composer’s approach to the genre. Ballet in the early 19th century looked a lot like patchwork: an array of loosely connected numbers. Mostly thanks to Tchaikovsky and Petipa ballet acquired single dramaturgy like symphony music, based on the contrast and interaction of the main themes and images.
In over 120 years The Nutcracker has been staged in many great theatres and by many great choreographers including Alexander Gorsky, George Balanchine, Fyodor Lopukhov, Vasily Vainonen, Igor Belsky, Yury Grigorovich, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Aleksey Ratmansky. The original version underwent some changes. For example, the main character’s name, Clara, was at first changed to Marie and then, in the Soviet period, to Masha. The famous Adagio (the lyrical apotheosis of the ballet) is now performed by Masha and the Nutcracker and not by the Prince and Sugar Plum Fairy.
“The brilliant symphony of childhood” (Boris Asafiev), The Nutcracker is still one of the most beautiful music fairy tales about good overpowering evil.
The Petipa Russian Classical Ballet was founded in 2007.
“Talent and loyalty to the classical traditions of Russian ballet” is the artistic motto of the company. Its main goal is twofold: on the one hand the company seeks to preserve the classical traditions of Russian ballet and, on the other hand, it looks for new, more contemporary forms of the choreographic art and explores new directions and possibilities of choreography.
The basis of the company's repertoire includes masterpieces of classical ballet such as Adam’s Giselle, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, Minkus’ Don Quixote, Bizet-Shchedrin’s Suite Carmen to mention but a few. A special page of the repertoire is Tchaikovsky’s three
ballets – Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty.
Today the company has over 40 ballet dancers. They are graduates of the best choreographic schools in Russia and the former USSR, namely in Moscow, Leningrad-St. Petersburg, Perm, Novosibirsk, Kiev to mention a few.
The theatre has toured in many countries of the world including Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Luxembourg, China, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, the USA, the UAE and some others.
The artistic director of the company, Valentin Grischenko believes that ballet is not just a show, but an art demanding special sensitivity from both the performer and the spectator. In preserving the traditions of Russian classical ballet, the theatre makes a contribution to the development of this art all over the world.
The ballet is performed to recorded music