The Nutcracker

I've decided as my final practical work to recreate 2 costumes from The Nutcracker.

Basic InformationThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet  performance. The story is an adaptation of the german writer Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann's book "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816). The premier of the performance is on 18 December, 1892, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St.Petersburg, Russia. Although the first performances weren't very successful, The Nutcracker became really popular during the second half of the 20th century. The information included relates to the first performance of The Nutcracker.

Choreography: Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music:  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 
Costume designer: Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Narration:
Main characters : 

• Ciara - the housewife who fall in love with The Nutcracker, 
• The Nutcracker - the Christmass gift which is brought to life, 
• Drossemayer - the misterious magician

Act I:
The first act represents an excerpt of the family preparations for Chrismass of Ciara, her brother Fritz, her parent and many other relatives. The magician Drosselmayer enters the scene to bring his gifts to everyone from the family. The gift for Ciara is The Nutcracker, a nutcracker toy with a look of a soldier. When all the family went to sleep exhausted from the celebrations, Ciara went goes to see her gift and then the family is attcked by evil meece sent by the Mouse King. The Nutcracker grows into the size of a real man and stars battling the meece with his army of ginger soldiers.

In the second scene the meece are defeated. Ciara and The Nutcracker are performing their moonlight dance surroundated by dancing snow flakes.

Act II::
Ciara and The Nutcracker go on a magic journey to the Land of the sweets on a nutshell driven by dolphins where The Nucracker is crowned into a prince because of his act of bravery. In his honor the Plum Fairy brings sweet gift from all around the world to celebrate the new prince. Each group of gifts perform a dance. Among the girst are chocolate from Spain and tea from China and the apoteosis is represented by a beehive of flying bees.

Roles:

The production is extremely large in terms of the number of performers depending on the variantion theatre choreographer, etc. Here are some of the roles which I found on the internet

• Dr. Stahlbaum
  • His wife
  • His children, including:
  • Clara, his daughter, sometimes known as Marie
  • Fritz, his son
  • Louise, his daughter
• Guests
• Parents dressed as incroyables
• Drosselmeyer
  • His nephew (in some versions) who resembles the Nutcracker Prince and is played by the same dancer
• Dolls (spring-activated, sometimes all three dancers instead):
  • Harlequin and Columbine, appearing out of a cabbage (1st gift)
  • Vivandière and a Soldier (2nd gift)
• Nutcracker (3rd gift, at first a normal-sized toy, then full-sized and "speaking", then a Prince)
• Owl (on clock, changing into Drosselmeyer)
• Mice
• Sentinel (speaking role)
• Hare-Drummers
• Soldiers (of the Nutcracker)
• Mouse King
• Snowflakes
• Angels
• Sugar Plum Fairy
• Clara
• Nutcracker Prince
• 12 Pages
• Eminent members of the court
• Spanish Hot Chocolate dancers
• Arabian Coffee dancers
• Chinese Tea dancers
• Russian Candy Cane dancers
• Danish Marzipan Shepherdesses dancers
• Mother Ginger
• Polichinelles
• Dewdrop
• Flowers
• Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier

Here are costumes sketches for the originals version in 1892 which I found throught the internet:

I chose The Nutcracker not only because it was part of the project briefs but it also provides a great different character some of them representing people, other animals and insects and also even not living items (such as the snowflakes). 

sources:
Anon., 2013. E.T.A. Hoffman [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._A._Hoffmann [Accessed 30/04/2014]
Anon, 2013. Ivan Vsevolozhsky [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vsevolozhsky [Accesed 30/04/2014]