A few days ago when I sat down at this blog machine, the subject was stars. I indicated that we didn’t have any stars on top of our Christmas trees… but we do have a star in the family. That would be Emily. Among several other parts, Emily played Clara’s Angel in The Nutcracker today. Needless to say, she did a great job and easily earned her “star” rating.
The Nutcracker has been performed, usually during the holiday season, for many, many years, but I never paid much attention, or even attended a performance, until a few years ago.
Since I’ve attended a number of performances over the last few years, I’ve learned a little about the story… which, honestly, didn’t make a lot of sense to me the first time I saw it.
The Nutcracker is based on a fantasy story (“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”) by E.T.A. Hoffman. The music for the ballet version of the story was composed by Peter Tchaikovsky. The Nutcracker ballet premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, in Russia, on December 18, 1892.
The “story” is about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against the evil Mouse King. The original story by Hoffman showed humanity’s dark-sided nature and wouldn’t have been appropriate for children. The version we see every year is a light adaptation of the original story and was written by Alexandre Dumas — a French author.
The ballet, now a Christmas tradition, was first performed outside of Russia in England in 1934. It was first performed in the United States in 1944 at the San Francisco Opera Ballet.
Many years ago, when I first heard about the Nutcracker, I was confused — a nutcracker is an instrument used to crack nuts. We used to use them to crack pecans when I was growing up in Oklahoma. When I was young, the only nutcrackers I knew about consisted of two hinged metal arms — you put the nut between the arms and squeezed. Even though I had never heard of nutcrackers in the form of wooden carvings, like soldiers, knights, kings, etc. they date back to the 15th century. These carvings look like people with large mouths, that is opened by pulling a lever in the back of the carving. The idea was to put a nut into the mouth, press down and crack the nut. Today nutcrackers like this serve mostly as decoration… often displayed around Christmas time.
It seems that the carving of nutcrackers originated in Germany. According to German folklore, nutcrackers bring good luck to your family and protect your home. A nutcracker is said to represent power and strength, serving like a kind of watchdog guarding your family against danger. Long ago, rare or unusual nutcrackers were part of the social dining tradition — they served as whimsical conversation pieces as guests lingered at the table enjoying shelled treats such as pecans and hazelnuts.
When The Nutcracker became popular in the United States in the early 1950s, demand for nutcrackers increased tremendously. Today, many people collect nutcrackers and often display them around Christmas.
The most popular Nutcracker is the wooden nutcracker doll presented as a Christmas gift to Clara. The doll, dressed as a soldier, is crushed by Clara’s jealous brother. It is gently tucked under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, coming to life at the stroke of midnight — like magic.
And this year, like the past few years, Emily has been instrumental in making all this magic happen — I can’t say for sure it wouldn’t happen without her, but it’s sure a lot more fun watching it happen with her. So — you see, we don’t need stars on our Christmas trees — we have a much better star in Emily.
— 30 —