First, the music is glorious! It’s solidly in the Romantic style with great melodies, an international flavor and creative orchestrations.
But the story is lame and the featured dances, especially in the second act, are uneven and compositionally unbalanced.
Still, it’s a bread-and-butter title for many ballet companies often earning as much as 40% of a company’s annual budget because of its popularity.
However, it was not successful at its premiere and was critically panned. Tchaikovsky adapted his score into a 20-minute orchestral suite which became a popular light-hearted piece played by many orchestras.
The ballet premiered on New Years Eve in 1892 on a program that also featured Tchaikovsky’s opera, Iolanta. As a result, the ballet didn’t begin until late in the evening with the second act running past midnight. Perhaps that affected the initial negative responses.
In the mid-1950s, George Balanchine presented a new production at the NYC Ballet and it became a hit for holiday audiences. Many ballet companies adapt the story for their presentations most of which feature lots of children. Not to sound like a mercenary, but this helps ticket sales since whole families will attend the performances. Plus, it’s a lot of fun!
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