Yuri Vámos
Szenenbild The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol 1
© Eduard Straub
Szenenbild The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol 2
© Eduard Straub
Szenenbild The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol 3
© Eduard Straub
Szenenbild The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol 4
© Eduard Straub

The Nutcracker –
A Christmas Carol

Ballet by Youri Vámos nach Charles Dickens
and E.T.A. Hoffmann
Music by Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky (1840-1893)
Choreographical assistance: Joyce Cuoco
Stage and costumes: Michael Scott
Lightdesign: Klaus Gärditz
Duration: 2 hours

World premiere 1988 Oper Bonn

A ballet evening richly steeped in colour, Christmas sparkle and stage magic for all ages. Such was what Youri Vámos and designer Michael Scott created with their interpretation of the ballet classic «The Nutcracker” to Peter Tchaikovsky's music. Vámos combines the source material of the piece, E.T.A. Hoffmann' s tale of the «Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, with Charles Dickens's «A Christmas Carol”. This combination supplies Clara and the Nutcracker-Prince with an opponent, the gnarled old moneylender Scrooge. He is a grasping and heartless crank who hates and despises Christmas. This goes so far that he dismisses his clerk Bob Cratchit on Christmas Eve. Now Bob cannot even afford to give his little daughter Clara the nutcracker doll she longs for. But in the same night Scrooge is haunted by horrible nightmares, and when he awakes next morning, he is a reformed character...


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Press reviews

In Youri Vámos's «Nutcracker” Dickens's misanthrope meets with E.T.A. Hoffmann's little dreamer, and so two characters that do not belong together grow together into a Christmas tale light as a feather, which was rewarded again and again with shouts of bravo and applause during the premiere in Düsseldorf.

Neue Rheinzeitung

A feast of the senses is what the ballet company of the Rheinoper gives Duisburg for Christmas. (...) Much applause, many bouquets for the rousing ballet première: a voyage of discovery, unfettered by everyday things, into the imaginary world of the Nutcracker.

Rheinische Post

One can scarcely imagine a more beautiful and colourful Christmas fairy-tale. A delight for the whole family.

Neue Ruhrzeitung

The secret of success: this «Nutcracker”, in love with decoration and cunning in its stage techniques, is a Charles Dickens. Every corner tells an anecdote, in this gently outlined world of legend even misery attains a picturesque appearance.

Westdeutsche Zeitung