Herr Drosselmeyer then produces
three life-sized dolls, who each take a turn to dance. When the dances are done,
Clara approaches Herr Drosselmeyer asking for her gift. It would seem that he is
out of presents, and Clara runs to her mother in a fit of tears.
Drosselmeyer
then conjures up a toy Nutcracker, in the traditional shape of a soldier in full
regalia. Clara is overjoyed, but her brother Fritz is jealous, and breaks the
Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer chases him off and mends the toy.
The party ends and the Stahlbaum
family goes to bed, but Clara is concerned about her Nutcracker, and comes out
to the Christmas tree to see it. She falls asleep under the tree with the
Nutcracker in her arms. When the clock strikes midnight, Clara hears the sound
of mice. She wakes up and tries to run away, but the mice stop her. Or perhaps
Clara is still in a dream: the Christmas tree suddenly begins to grow to
enormous size, filling the room. The Nutcracker comes to life, he and his band
of soldiers rise to defend Clara, and the Mouse King leads his mice into battle.
Here Tchaikovsky continues the miniature effect of the Overture, setting the
battle music predominantly in the orchestra’s upper registers.
A conflict ensues, and when Clara helps the Nutcracker by
throwing her slipper at the Mouse King, the Nutcracker seizes his opportunity
and stabs him. The mouse dies. The mice retreat, taking their dead leader with
them. The Nutcracker then is transformed into a prince. (In Hoffmann's original
story, and in the
Royal Ballet's 1985 and 2001 versions, the Prince is
actually Drosselmeyer's nephew, who had been turned into a Nutcracker by the
Mouse King, and all the events following the Christmas party have been arranged
by Drosselmeyer in order to break the spell.)
Clara and the Prince travel to a
world where dancing Snow Flakes greet them and fairies and queens dance,
welcoming Clara and the Prince into their world. The score conveys the wondrous
images by introducing a wordless children’s chorus. The curtain falls on Act I.
Act II
Clara and the Prince arrive at the
Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Sugar Plum Fairy and the people of the Land of
Sweets dance for Clara and the Prince in the dances of Dew Drop Fairy, the
Spanish dancers (sometimes Chocolate), the Chinese dancers (sometimes Tea), the
Arabian dancers (sometimes Coffee), the Russian dancers (sometimes Candy
Canes--their dance is called the Trepak), Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles
(sometimes Taffy Clowns, or Court Buffoons in Baryshnikov's production), the
Reed Flutes (sometimes Marzipan shepherds or Merlitons), the Sugar Plum Fairy,
and the Waltz of the Flowers. The dances in the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy are
not always performed in this order.
After the festivities, Clara wakes up under the Christmas
tree with the Nutcracker toy in her arms and the curtain closes. (In
Balanchine's version, however, she is never shown waking up; instead, after all
the dances in the Kingdom of Sweets have concluded, she rides off with the
Nutcracker/Prince on a
Santa Claus-like flying sleigh, complete with
reindeer, and the curtain falls. This gives the impression that the "dream"
actually happens in reality, as in Hoffmann's original story. The
1985
Royal Ballet version seems to imply the same thing,
since at the end, Drosselmeyer's nephew, who had really been transformed into a
nutcracker, reappears in human form at the toymaker's shop.)
