The Nutcracker Ballet at the Slovak National Theater
The Nutcracker Ballet is a return to the traditional and greatest award-winning version of the masterpiece of the Russian choreographer Vasily Vajnonen. In an epic production full of artistically rich paintings as well as technically demanding variations, children’s viewers embark on a fairytale journey through a Christmas story performed by soloists, the Slovak National Ballet Choir and the students of the E. Jaczova Dance Conservatory.
The main inspiration for Tchaikovsky, who put his own childhood memories into the score, was the world of children, the world of purity, joy and boundless fantasy. His music, which has earned the title of “childhood symphony”, is full of amazing melodies and dreaminess and together with the Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty is one of the highlights of the world ballet.
The Nutcracker had its first premiere in the Slovak National Theater in 1928 (choreography of by Achilles Viscusi), and since then the Slovak National Theater has never let it go. Egon Bischoff and Ursula Heinrich-Petzold studied the version of Vasily Vajnonen with the SND Ballet. Its renewed premiere took place in 1992 when it was staged by Jozef Dolinský together with Egon Bischoff. The authors of the choreography and direction of the current production of the Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker by Vasily Vajnonen are Rafael Avnikjan and Jozef Dolinský.
