- Opening date
- December 6, 1892
- Comments
- "The Nutcracker" is a two-act ballet with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (op. 71) and was originally performed on 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". The 1892 performance was conducted by Riccardo Drigo with Antonietta Dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, and Timofey Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer. Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions.