One of the world’s most popular classical ballets is a story of a girl taken by her Christmas toy on a journey through a fairyland of wonders where anything is possible... The fairytale novella ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ was written in 1816 by the German poet and author E. T. A. Hoffmann. The ballet rendition of the story was conceived by the imagination of Marius Petipa, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky was commissioned to compose the music, following the success of The Sleeping Beauty. The premiere was held at St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre in 1892.

The present production of the Kraków Opera has been created by Emil Wesołowski, a prominent Polish choreographer, with ties to the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw for the past 30 years, as a dancer, head of the ballet company, and director of stage productions. The audience will be guided through the magical worlds of the show by Marek Grabowski’s painterly stage design, using state-of-theart technologies, and our workshops have produced about two hundred costumes designed by Maria Balcerek. Performed by the Krakow Opera Ballet, the dance show can be equally enjoyed by children and adults.

Composer: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

ballet-féerie in two acts
libretto by Marius Petipa and Ivan Vsevolozhsky based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann
adapted by Emil Wesołowski

The performance held online on the PLAY KRAKÓW platform.