Tchaikovsky, "The Nutcracker"

Snowflakes ...


Vsevolojsky proposed The Nutcracker of Nuremberg based on the book L’Histoire d’un Casse Noisette (The Story of a Hazelnut-cracker) by Dumas père, itself based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) was born in Königsberg, East Prussia to a family with strong ties to the legal profession. Originally his middle name was Wilhelm, but he changed it to Amadeus in honor of Mozart. He went on to study law at the University of Königsberg. Despite his course of studies, Hoffmann was mostly interested in the arts, music, painting and literature. He became a civil servant and was very successful, but his personal life took control and he was forced to move from posting to posting on account of one local scandal or another. He was transferred from Königsberg to Glogau, to Posen to even lesser Plock and eventually to Warsaw with the influence of a friend. All the while he composed music and painted.In Warsaw, Hoffmann founded an orchestra and composed his first important piece, the incidental music to Kreuz an der Ostsee. With the arrival of Napoleon's rule, Hoffmann had to try and make a living in Warsaw as a professional musician. Refusing to take an oath of allegiance to France, he was deported to Berlin where he almost starved to death. He worked various odd jobs until, in 1808, he was offered the post of musical director in Bamberg, Southern Germany, a cultural shrine at the time. In Bamberg he was very active in the theater and also wrote his best music, the opera Undine. He also began to write literature.Leaving Bamberg in 1813 on account of the lost love of a 16 year old girl, Hoffmann’s career moved between Dresden and Leipzig, depending on the location of the opposing armies of The Napoleonic Wars. He drank heavily and it is said that he sold the rights to his first book, Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier for a cellar of wine.The final period of Hoffmann’s life began with his being recalled to Berlin to official duties, again with the help of Hippel. There he became chairman of the Kammergericht (Prussian Supreme Court) and continued to produce his fiction and criticism. Forever a part of his life, heavy drinking and overworking made Hoffmann’s living hard. He contracted digestive difficulties, degeneration of the liver and neural ailments, the treatment for which was applying red hot pokers to the base of his spine. Eventually on June 25, 1822 he died having just finished dictating the story Recovery. As a critic, Hoffmann was highly respected. He wrote under the name of Kreisler, he was one of the first to recognize the talent of J.S. Bach and he championed Beethoven.Hoffmann’s influence extended beyond literature into opera and dance where his works have inspired, among others, Coppélia, and Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann in addition to The Nutcracker.

Read more history of The Nutcracker here.