One of the first LP (long-playing) records I received as a little girl was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Although I wasn't an aspiring ballerina, I fell in love with this powerful, lustrous music and imagined vivid, exciting pictures and scenarios that filled my mind while I listened. When I saw the full-length ballet, I felt that the music had reached new heights with the beautiful costumes, dancers, lights, and settings.
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, based on the E. T. A. Hoffmann short story Nussknacker und Mausekonig, relates a little girl's dreams and fantasies encompassing a magical nutcracker, scary mice, and other alluring characters.
George Balanchine's analysis and thoughts on Tchaikovsky are transcribed by Solomon Volkov in Balanchine's Tchaikovsky: Interviews with George Balanchine. Balanchine's seminal work is still being performed by the New York City Ballet. Cultural and historical insights as well as diverse and experimental interpretations by choreographers Donald Byrd and Mark Morris are explored by Jennifer Fisher in the Nutcracker Nation. A behind-the-scenes photographic look at the ballet is presented in Angela Whitehill's Nutcracker Backstage: The Story and the Magic.
