Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker premiered in 1892.
Its first performance took place on December 18, 1892, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The ballet was presented as a double premiere with Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta, conducted by Riccardo Drigo. In the Russian calendar then in use, the date was December 6, which explains occasional differences in historical references.
The two-act ballet was based on Alexandre Dumas’s adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s 1816 story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Marius Petipa prepared the libretto, while Lev Ivanov completed much of the choreography after Petipa became ill.
The original production received mixed reviews and was not an immediate sensation. Tchaikovsky’s shorter Nutcracker Suite, premiered about nine months earlier, became popular sooner. The full ballet gained worldwide fame later, especially through 20th-century productions and its strong association with Christmas.