"The Nutcracker" in audio

I have experienced two Nutcracker audio books, both different variations of the story, but very similar in presentation. And both by Caedmon Audio, as well!

The earliest is Story of the Nutcracker, read by Claire Bloom. The back cover gives a brief history of the story, crediting Hoffman, Dumas, and the creators of the ballet. Janet Schulman is the writer of the adaptation presented on the album, which is a very faithful one. Instead of just having a basic condensation of the plot, Schulman's take allows the characters to develop just as they do in Hoffman's book. This adaptation is also available as a book, illustrated by Renee Graef.

In addition to staying true to Hoffman's tale, Schulman also works in some of the entertainments from the ballet, including the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Arabian coffee dancer.

Claire Bloom gives a wonderful reading, backed with music from the ballet. The mix is perfectly edited together. It's a wonderful listening experience, and perfect for anyone interested in the original story.

The other recording is a straightforward reading of the book by Christopher Plummer. The book is Ralph Manheim's excellent translation of Hoffman's original. Again, it is mixed with the music from the ballet, mixed to highlight it.

Plummer gives the story a life of its own. Marie is fittingly dreamy, while when Fritz enters, he reads in a pompous tone, emulating to how seriously Fritz takes his army play. Drosselmeyer is not as mysterious as he could easily be, but is a warm and inviting German nut. I found his reading of the story of Princess Pirlipat immersive.

I highly recommend both recordings!

Щелкунчик (1973)

Russia's animation output never ceases to amaze me. I'd been exposed to some Oz animation and it was fine. But in 1973, they turned out their own adaptation of the Nutcracker. Nothing Disney-worthy, but let's look at it.

Schelkunchik (which translates simply to "Nutcracker") contains no dialogue, and mainly Tchaikovsky's music, though some is from also from his Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. This is truly a fine marriage of music and animation. It opens with a soldier mouse searching with a searchlight. He eventually finds a nutcracker on a Christmas tree and smiles, and heads out. Whatever mission he was on has been completed.

Fast forward to Christmas morning. Many children rip open their presents, and use the Nutcracker to crack nuts. Meanwhile, through a window, a chambermaid watches curiously as the children enjoy a lush pastime she apparently never got to. The Nutcracker is soon abandoned as a rich dinner is served.

At night, the chambermaid enters the room to clean up after the party. She mops up, but then quietly begins to dance. The mop joins her, and she finds the Nutcracker on the floor. Admiring him, she gives him a kiss that brings him to life. He greets her, but then realizes he's made of wood. He looks at his reflection in the window and is dismayed at what he sees.

The Nutcracker tells his story: he was a prince, and shortly after his birth, his parents had a party for him. The party is invaded by a cruel three-headed mouse queen and her three-headed son. They are rude, and seem to offer to become friends, offering the baby prince a wrapped gift. The queen unwraps it, revealing it to be ... nothing. The baby cries. The king asks the mice to leave, but they refuse. He sends guards who are petrified and shattered by the mouse queen. The king draws a sword, but the queen eats it out of his hand, so he enters a secret chamber hidden in the wall by his throne to get some poison. The mouse prince closes the door after the king, but the baby's cradle rocks onto his tale. Injured, he cries to his mother who looms over everyone threateningly. She is about to cast a curse, when the king arrives through a hole in the floor the mice had made. He poisons her, which causes her to burst, but her tail flies through the air, striking the baby prince, transforming him into a Nutcracker. Distraught, his mother catches him up and cries over him. The mouse prince grabs his mother's crown and leaves, shaking his fist. Everything in the throne room is frosted over, and the Nutcracker is transported to a Christmas tree.

And now, soldier mice begin to enter the hall and the Mouse King, apparently the mouse prince now grown to an adult, enters. The chambermaid tries to guard the Nutcracker, but the Mouse King uses his magic and shrinks her to his size. The Nutcracker calls the other toys and ornaments to battle, and they fight, the mice being drowned with candy, but the Mouse King uses his scepter to disintegrate all in his way. The Nutcracker is caught and about to be destroyed. The chambermaid throws her wooden clog at the Mouse King, knocking off his crown, which destroys him, creating a mysterious vapor that kills all the mice.

The chambermaid's clog becomes a beautiful shining slipper. The Nutcracker picks it up, and as he does so, his wooden body crumbles, revealing a handsome young prince underneath. He puts on the shoe on her foot, and her other clog transforms into its mate. Then her dress transforms into a beautiful gown, and as the Prince offers her his hand, they are transported through dance back to his old home. The throne room thaws, and the king and queen are thrilled to see their son a normal human being again, and with a beautiful girl at his side. The Prince and his soon to be Princess join in a mesmerizing dance.

Back under the Christmas tree lies the broken shell of the Nutcracker and a pair of wooden clogs.

Now, this is a very loose adaptation of the story. Aside from the Nutcracker and the Mouse King and his mother, none of Hoffman's characters appear. The chambermaid takes the role of Marie, and the children at the party more or less fill the role of Fritz, and in some ways, Marie. The story of Princess Pirlipat is telescoped into a story of how a prince was turned into the Nutcracker.

The thing is, even though it is very loose, it is so well done and the telescoped plot makes so much sense, I actually love it! It's on my list of favorite adaptations.

THE NUTCRACKER by Warren Chappell

The Nutcracker has been adapted for picture books many, many times. Some based on Hoffman's original story, some the ballet.

One that stood out to me even as a child was an adaptation by Warren Chappell. This was first published in 1958. It's a rectangular volume, wider than it is high, in a green cover with silver stamping. The dustjacket tells the Nutcracker nut that this isn't going to pretend to be the original. It tells you it's adapted from Dumas' adaptation of Hoffman right off!

Chappell's adaptation is a very faithful adaptation. It feels more like an abridgement than an adaptation though it isn't. It makes for a lively retelling.

However, the big features of the book are still to be explained. First, there are the wonderful illustrations by Chappell. His line art and color pages bring the story whimsically and beautifully to life. Even his seven-headed Mouse King is well-done, though he is so massive, one wonders how he's even a threat.

But that's not all! Actual sheet music for Tchaikovsky's score appear on the pages, illustrated. When I was a kid and got the book from the library, I recall asking a music teacher at school to play from it. (She did.)

Quite an excellent book. Not only is it a good adaptation, it's also a really attractive little book.

The Nutcracker Ballet

"[Music] reveals an unknown kingdom to mankind: a world that has nothing in common with the outward, material world that surrounds it, and in which we leave behind all predetermined conceptual feelings in order to give ourselves up to the inexpressible." — E.T.A. Hoffman

 And now it's impossible to talk about the legacy that Hoffman's Nutcracker has had without mentioning Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet version. When you mention the Nutcracker story, this is what people think of first usually. (Unless they're crazy Hoffman nuts like me.)

Photo of the original 1892 production

The most famous bit of the ballet is Tchaikovsky's score. When the ballet bombed at first, a 20-minute suite kept the music alive until the ballet was revived, becoming annual traditions all over the world.

The Nutcracker ballet was originally in a double bill with Iolanta. Marius Petipa adapted Dumas' rewriting of the book for the ballet and also was the original choreographer. Tchaikovsky wrote the score to accompany it. It was not one of his fondest works.

The original production was staged in 1892, a week before Christmas. From what I can tell, the basic plot of the ballet as it is normally done was there, dictated by the names of the pieces of score. The children eagerly await the Christmas party, where gifts from Drosselmeyer and arrivals of many guests are the highlights. Clockwork people by Drosselmeyer and the Nutcracker are major points. Music highlights the cracking of nuts before a hostile Fritz breaks the Nutcracker. The girl, who was renamed Clara in the ballet, takes care of the Nutcracker and returns to the drawing room to see him at night.

Photo of the original 1892 production

Magic happens when it gets late as Drosselmeyer appears on the clock, and to accommodate the plot, Clara grows smaller, shown by the Christmas tree growing to an immense height. Mice and toys begin to fight, the Nutcracker leading the toys. The King of Mice (who, depending on what is possible for the producers, may have seven heads or just one highlighted by a crown or sash or something else) fights the Nutcracker, and almost overpowers him, but Clara throws her shoe at the King, and, depending on what the choreographer has decided, it inexplicably kills him, or allows the Nutcracker to turn the tables, killing the King of Mice.

Set design from the original 1892 production

In a wooded scene, the Nutcracker turns into a prince and he and Clara go to a land of sweets where the Nutcracker Prince recounts his story and then dancers depicting various sweets or drinks or spices dance for the Nutcracker Prince and Clara, usually climaxing with the hostess, the Sugar Plum Fairy, dancing with either her Cavalier or the Nutcracker. (In some productions, Clara takes the place of the Sugar Plum Fairy, sometimes even becoming that character.) In the ending, the Nutcracker Prince and Clara leave to continue their journey or to go home, or Clara awakes and the ending is left ambiguous as to whether it was a dream or not.

Set design from the original 1892 production

There have, of course, been many variations of the ballet over the past 119 years. Some keep to this basic format, like George Balanchine's famous versions. Others try to reimagine the story for various reasons. As the format of ballet doesn't allow for much exposition, these are more or less forced to portray what they can on stage. The story of Princess Pirlipat is almost impossible to tell in the ballet, though the Pacific Northwest Ballet attempted to do a pantomime version in the party with music not from the original suite.

Mother Ginger and her children, 1892 designs

Other versions have the story become a metaphor for Marie (or Clara, productions change the name as they want) going from a young girl to a young woman, to some very sensual interpretations. Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker's second act features the heroine trying to get the Nutcracker back from her fairyland romantic rival!

But when the story gets down to basics, it's a reasonably faithful adaptation of the story. Yes, there's a big jump from the battle to the defeat of the Mouse King, but given the storytelling limits of ballet, it works. And the music is just beautiful. It really captures the story and fits it perfectly. More information about variations on the ballet may be found here.

Original 1892 costume design

The ballet has become a holiday staple for ballet companies, all with some variants on the story and huge differences in choreography. Many large companies even have their productions professionally filmed and released on home video, television, or even films. I had two of the latter on video tape: George Balanchine's The Nutcracker featuring Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker Prince, and The Nutcracker: The Motion Picture by the Pacific Northwest Ballet, featuring set designs by artist Maurice Sendak. (These designs were retooled as illustrations for Ralph Manheim's translation of the original Hoffman book.)

So, as it might be tempting to dismiss the ballet as an overly popular rival to Hoffman's original story, it's a wonderful holiday tradition well worth preserving.

Histoire d'un casse-noisette

I was surprised to find that Alexandre Dumas had rewritten Hoffman's story. I mean, he's the guy who wrote The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Counte of Monte Cristo. Histoire d'un casse-noisette (translated The Story of the Nutcracker) was published in French in 1844. I can only imagine this was done because there had been no French translation of the German story.


The famous Nutcracker ballet actually used Dumas' text over Hoffman's, as it was in French, and the writer of the original libretto was the French choreographer Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa. In English, however, a translation of Dumas' retelling is harder to find than Hoffman's. I found a digital version of the book on Internet Archive, a French 1921 edition with the 1846 illustrations by Bertall (Charles Albert d'Arnoux). Finally, I discovered that Penguin books had published it in tandem with a translation of the original Hoffman.

Dumas' adaptation, retelling, revision, translation, what have you, opens with him telling how he was asked for a tale by children. The only "tale" he can think of is Hoffman's The Tale of the Nutcracker. Yes, he credits Hoffman openly, so no foul on him.


Dumas' narrative flows very much like Hoffman's original, beat for beat. However, while Hoffman opened the story describing the children's POV of their parent's Christmas Eve preparations, Dumas introduces the place, characters, and even describes the differences between German and French Christmas customs for families. Also, Hoffman's Stahlbaum family becomes Dumas' Silberhaus family. No mention is made of older sister Louise.

In addition, the rivalry between the Nutcracker and Mouse King is clarified earlier on. The Nutcracker taunts the Mouse King, asking if he's come to accept the challenge that had been laid down. The Mouse King says he's avenging his mother.

The tale of Princess Pirlipat is told in a single, long session, and instead of fat, this particular translation of Dumas describes bacon as being used in the sausages the queen makes that Madame Mouserinks wants to eat. Though bacon has a fat in it, I can hardly imagine it would serve the correct purpose in sausage making as fits the story. (The lack of fat making the sausages dry and coarse.) Upon checking, the word "fat" appears to be what Dumas intended. The travels of the clockmaker are expanded upon briefly as well, and Dumas notes that the expression "That's a hard nut to crack" (which seems to be obscure now), stems from Pirlipat's story.

Dumas adds other little details here and there, such as Drosselmeyer's nephew being named Nathaniel, and the Mouse King being a bit sillier in his threats, but still, he doesn't really deviate from Hoffman's story.


Overall, over the two, I prefer the original Hoffman. While Dumas did a fine job of making sure the story would be understood well, his over-explanation and attempt to streamline the story takes away the dreamy qualities of Hoffman's fantasy.


The Penguin translation I mentioned doesn't do Dumas (or Hoffman) any favors, only giving us a bare translation that is not enjoyable to read.

For an example of Dumas' additional details, here's the paragraph analogous to the one I posted in yesterday's blog.

After one year, the fiance came back for his wife in a little carriage of mother of pearl inlaid with gold and silver, drawn by horses that were not bigger than sheep, and a priceless worth, they had not seen their like in the world, and it took them to the palace of Marzipan, where they were married by the chaplain of the castle, and or twenty-two thousand little figures, all covered with beads, dazzling diamonds and jewels, danced at their wedding. So that at the present moment, Marie is still queen of the beautiful kingdom where you can see all the bright forests of Christmas, and rivers of orangeade, almond and rose essence and palaces of translucent sugar finer than snow and clearer than ice, and finally, all manner of things wonderful and miraculous, provided you have quite good eyes to see them.

And now I leave you with more of Bertall's illustrations. 

The Nutcracker and the King of Mice

E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the King of Mice was written in 1816. Given the legacy it has had, it is hard for us to realize the story was written as a dark fantasy.

The young Stahlbaum children, seven year old Marie and her older brother Fritz, eagerly await their Christmas presents from their parents and godfather Drosselmeyer, although they usually only enjoy their godfather's clockwork gifts for a brief time before they are put away. Fritz grows tired of a clockwork castle Drosselmeyer has created, preferring his toy army. Marie is quieter and more appreciative. She finds a wooden nutcracker soldier. The family enjoys cracking nuts until Fritz uses the biggest and hardest nuts that break off some of the Nutcracker's teeth and ruins his jaw.

The Nutcracker is left in Marie's care and she is allowed to stay up a little late to ensure the Nutcracker is seen to. When she begins to head to bed, she sees the owl on top of the clock has turned into Drosselmeyer. Mice swarm into the room, and Marie crashes into the glass toy cabinet. The toys in the cabinet come to life, Fritz's soldiers being led by the Nutcracker to battle against the mice and their seven-headed king.

It appears the toys are winning, but the mice keep coming, and the Mouse King is fighting with the Nutcracker one on one. Marie takes her slipper off and throws it at the Mouse King, but as she does, she goes unconscious.

The next morning she awakes in her bed, bandaged, with orders to stay in bed (with medicine the way it was in those days, a cut would need to be observed over time for infection). Fritz and Drosselmeyer visit after Marie is well enough to sit up in bed for a time. Drosselmeyer has repaired the Nutcracker, and Marie demands to know why he didn't help the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer says a mysterious rhyme and then proceeds to tell her the Nutcracker's story, which is broken into three parts that he tells over three days.

In an unnamed kingdom, a king and queen had a daughter named Pirlipat, who was hailed as the prettiest baby. But she was always kept guarded. Before her birth, the queen was making her special sausages for a special banquet, but as she was doing so, Madame Mouserinks, queen of the mice, appeared and demanded some of the fat. The queen offered her some, but other mice came and ate almost all of the fat, leaving very little for the queen to make her sausages with, making them too dry and coarse. The king expressed his outrage by having a clockmaker create mouse traps to rid the castle of mice. The clockmaker did his job well, killing every mouse except Madame Mouserinks.

Madame swore to get even with them by cursing their new baby. Despite a watch of six maids with six cats, Madame made good on her vow and cursed the princess, making her hideously ugly. The clockmaker and court astronomer are called to find a cure for her (which involves a scene where we're told they examined her by taking her apart, rather disturbing), and they discover that if a young man who has never shaved or worn boots breaks the krakatook nut with his teeth and feeds it to Pirlipat, she will be restored. However, the krakatook nut is the rarest nut in the world and they spend fifteen years looking for it and a man who fits the description.

Homesick, the clockmaker wishes to visit his brother in Nuremberg. When he tells his brother of his troubles, the brother laughs, because not only does he have a krakatook nut, his son fits the requirements to crack it and give it to the princess! They hurry to the castle, where the young man cracks the nut with his eyes closed and takes seven steps backwards, breaking the curse. On the seventh step, he steps on Madame Mouserinks. With her dying breath, she turns him into a nutcracker, saying that her seven headed son (disturbingly created from her seven dead sons) will defeat the Nutcracker, who can only be restored if he wins unconditional love of a young woman.

Marie realizes her Nutcracker must be the clockmaker's nephew, and the clockmaker himself is none other than Drosselmeyer. That night, the Mouse King arrives and threatens to chew the Nutcracker into splinters if she doesn't give him some of her things. She agrees, but when he begins to repeat his demands, she worries she will have nothing left soon. When she tells the Nutcracker this, he comes to life and tells her he needs a new sword so he can defeat the Nutcracker. When she explains this to Fritz, he happily provides a sword for the Nutcracker. (This redeems Fritz for his poor treatment of the Nutcracker earlier.)

That night, the Nutcracker fells the Mouse King in combat, and takes Marie through her father's coat to a ship and they sail to a land made of candy, where all the things Marie sacrificed are now immortalized as actual characters. She looks into the water while sailing to his castle and sees a beautiful princess that she thinks must be Pirlipat. Nutcracker assures her that it couldn't be Pirlipat. A princess who would shun a young man who had sacrificed so much for her couldn't be that pretty. The beautiful princess is Marie herself.

At his castle, Nutcracker is greeted by his sisters, who are crying for joy at his return. Nutcracker and Marie are entertained by people preparing food, and Marie is even asked to grind rock candy. Marie finds herself being lifted away dreamily, and finally awakens in her own bed. Her parents don't believe her tale of the Nutcracker. When she shows them the Mouse King's crowns the Nutcracker gave her, her father says they're from his old watch. She is forbidden to speak of her experiences again.

When Marie has grown older, she finally declares her love for the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer overhears and dismisses it as nonsense. Marie faints, but when she awakens, she discovers they have a guest: Drosselmeyer's nephew from Nuremberg. After charming the family with his manners and nut-cracking, he assures Marie he returns her love, and we are told they are married afterward and go to live in his kingdom.

Despite how it was supposed to be a dark fantasy in 1816, today, the story reads beautifully and charmingly. I loved it as a kid. I have two versions of the book: Ralph Mannheim's translation (I did say it's a German story, right?) illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and a "retelling" that was little more than a slightly abridged translation by Warren Chappel. Both of them manage to be more than flat translations, infusing the story with an actually fun writing style. However, some satire got lost in translation, which made the story better. Here's the end of the story, roughly translated by Google and myself:

After a year he had them, as they say, picked up in a golden carriage drawn by silver horses. At the wedding were twenty-two thousand of the most brilliant dancing figures ornamented with pearls and diamonds. And Marie will still be forever the Queen of the country where there are everywhere shiny Christmas forests, transparent marzipan castles, and you can behold the most glorious wonderful things, if you only have eyes to afterward.

 Yeah... It gives you the impression that a land of Christmas trees and candy castles might get disgusting. (As a jaded adult, I agree.) Here's how Ralph Manheim translated it:

In a year and a day he called for her in a golden carriage drawn by silver horses. At the wedding, two and twenty thousand of the most brilliant figures adorned with pearls and diamonds danced, and Marie is believed to be still the queen of a country where sparkling Christmas woods, transparent marzipan castles, in short, the most wonderful things, can be seen if you have the right sort of eyes for it.

See the more gentle phrasing?

Whatever the phrasing, it's still a wonderful story about love and the fascination children can have with Christmas and make believe. Hoffman writes in a dreamy fashion, never telling you that Marie's visions of the Nutcracker are true or not until the very end. He manages to perfectly capture the excitement of the children for their Christmas presents, and his characterization of Fritz is an oft-ignored gem. Drosselmeyer's mysterious manner can be charming or downright creepy when needed. Marie's wide-eyed innocence and childish faith in her amazing visions of the Nutcracker and his kingdom are convincing.

And the Nutcracker story has proved to be quite inspirational.

(The images are illustrations by Artuš Scheiner from an edition published in Prague in 1924. It seems they were scanned by josefskrhola on Flickr.)