In line with what has, over the last ten years, become a tradition, the Accademia Teatro alla Scala Ballet School, directed by Frédéric Olivieri, will be taking to the stage of the Teatro Strehler in December.
The 2023/24 season will be characterised by the dreamlike atmosphere of one of the most famous ballets from the romantic Russian repertoire, which has always been a part of the Christmas period; The Nutcracker, performed to the music of Pëtr Il’ic Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Olivieri himself, based on the interpretation by Lev Ivanovič Ivanov, with the Teatro alla Scala staging by Roberta Guidi di Bagno.
Presented for the first time in 2011, the show expresses the fairytale atmosphere of the original ballet, which made its debut in 1892 at the Mariinskij theatre in Saint Petersburg, crowning the previous ballet triumphs of Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, as well as the flair of Marius Petipa. Taking over from Petipa, Lev Ivanovič Ivanov created a choreography based on the softer version by Dumas of Ernst Hoffmann’s dark tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The cast included Olga Preobrajenska, who went on to direct the Ballet School between 1921 and 1922 on the request of Toscanini.
A number of different casts alternate on stage, composed of more than 100 dancers who will be put through their paces with a series of technical and expressive challenges. Key moments include the Waltz of the Snowflakes, the Pas de Deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Her Cavalier, traditional Russian, Arabian and Chinese dances, and the Waltz of the Flowers.