16 Nov 03 Nutcracker
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/104652
poached by the cops
Christmas is coming and with it the dreams and fantasies of children, packaged in wrapping paper and bright ribbons to be put beneath the Christmas Tree with trains and teddy bears.
On a blustery cold night, children are heard singing snatches of carols and bits of ballets while little girls imitate the footwork of the Sugar Plum Fairy while waiting for the late night metro on the way home from the theater with their parents.
Certainly, the Nutcracker, is Hoffmann's most beloved work is the Nutcracker, performed across the world in the Tschaikovsky ballet with choreography by Marius Petipa. Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann published the story of the Mouseking and the Nutcracker (Der Mauskoenig und Der Nussnacker) in 1816. Hoffman was born in the year of the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and died in 1822, overlapping the birth of HC Andersen (1805-1875) and Dickens (1812-1870). His influence can be felt in American Literature through Washington Irving (1783-1859) whose Sketchbook was published in 1819 with the story of Sleepy Hollow which also uses the motif of dream / sleep as a framework to hang a story.
Hoffman was a master of stagecraft from story and playwright to the directorship, using his multi-faceted skills as a desgner, writer and composer. He wrote stories, fairytales and literary essays on contemporary composers in addition to five novels and novella. At the end of his life, he became a lawyer in the Prussian Supreme Court.
The theme of the Nutcracker, the battle royale, reflects Napoleonic Europe with the business of soldiering and building formidable military fortifications, including the notorious Theresienstadt better known as the concentration camp of Terezin, in Czech Republic, originally built to stave off a Prussian invasion.
The success of the Tschaikovsky ballet was inevitable with the combination of the score with the choreography by Marius Petipa. In 1890, Tschaikovsky was commissioned to write the ballet for the Maryinsky Theater based on the French version, Casse-Nioselle, by Dumas fils. he was fifty years old and just completed the successful Sleeping Beauty then in performance in St Petersburg. On December 17, 1892, The Nutcracker Ballet presented a dress rehearsal before Tsar Alexander III, who declared it to be sumptious. On December 18, 1892, it opened with Eduard Napravnik, conductor; Riccardo Drigo, The Nutcracker and Antoinetta Dell'Era, the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Moscow Ballet
http://www.nutcracker.com/nut_history.html
ballet history
Since then it has been a Christmas tradition the world over. In 1986, the Pacific Northwest Ballet presented a film version of Nutcracker using Maurice Sendak's staging and costumes. The book is a popular gift and found on Amazon.
Sendak / PNB at npr
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/dec/nutcracker/011217.nutcracker.html
interview for national public radio with links to PNB
The Nutcracker itself though originates from the region of Sonnenberg and Erzberge near the Bohemian border where there are mines. In winter when the mines closed because of the intense cold, miners turned to wood carving to earn income. The nutcracker soldier reflected the military occupation and historical environment of the Napoleonic era. The nutcrackers were exported from the region asn sold all over Europe. The word, "nussknacker" first appeared in the German dictionary, begun in 1830, compiled by the Grimm Brothers. Surprisingly, they didn't exploit the Hoffmann story for their own inventions. The commercial, mass made production of the nutcracker was established in the region in 1872, twenty years before the Tschaikovsky ballet and today can be bought in the Christmas markets across Germany.
Kirjastro: ETA Hoffmann
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hoffman.htm
Intro to ETA Hoffmann
http://www.petra.demon.co.uk/Hoffmann/introduction.html
http://www.petra.demon.co.uk/Hoffmann/index.html
ETA thesis work
Dr.Heinrich: Hoffmann , King Nut Cracker or The Dream of Poor Reinhold 1845
http://www.polybiblio.com/ursus/94446.html
book history
Story of a Hard Nut
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/hoffmann/nut_e.html
Das Märchen von der harten Nuß
aus "Nußknacker und Mausekönig"
E.T.A. Hoffmann
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/hoffmann/nut.html
German original
Andersen and other Fairytales illus by Segur
http://segur.artpassions.net/
http://www.artpassions.net/
the Index to Art Passions
Can I link to your site?
You can link to any .html page on my site. In fact, I'd like that. Please do not link directly to images. Please do not mirror an entire page on your website.
Please acknowledge her request
do not link directly to images, the rest of use should also like to enjoy the tremendous love of labor involved.
Nutcracker
http://users.htcomp.net/weis/nutcrintro.html
multiple page site dedicated to the Nutcracker
Nutcracker Ballet
http://www.nutcrackerballet.net/
site for info regarding the ballet including links for US Ballets
A historical overview of the American productions of Nutcracker
http://pwp.value.net/~cchris/Nutcracker.html
critical review
Balanchine choreography on film 1993
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107719/
National Ballet of Canada
http://www.national.ballet.ca/Productions/Seasons/2003fall/nutcrackerHistoricalNote.php
Dover Publications
http://store.doverpublications.com/by-subject-holidays-christmas-nutcracker.html
cut-outs and paraphanalia
brief hist of nutcrackers
http://www.justnutcrackers.com/nutcrackers/nutcrackerhistory.html
Nutcracker history
http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/nutcrack.htm
nutcracker history
CHRISTMAS STORIES
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21 Dec 03 Little Match Girl
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/105331
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/12/little-match-girl.html
14th Dec 03 Fir Tree by HCA
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/105215
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/12/fir-tree.html
23 Nov 03 Humperdink's Children Hansel u Gretel Making Gingerbread B
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/104793
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/humperdinks-children-hansel-u-gretel.html
23 Nov 03 Humperdinck's Children making Gingerbread A
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/104795
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/humperdincks-children-making.html
5 Dec 2004 Kidnapped Santa
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/112042
1 December 2004 Winter Festival Event
http://www.suite101.com/event.cfm/277
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