The Nutcracker by the Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe is Bridget Breiner’s interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, offering an intimate take centred on family tensions. The action is set in the United States in the early 20th century. The Stahlbaum family has lost its fortune, and Clara Marie inherits only the nutcracker doll from her eccentric godfather, Drosselmeyer. Intense pas de deux, lifts and virtuoso turns accompany the score, performed live by the Orquestra Simfònica del Liceu under the direction of Georg Fritzsch. A Christmas story about what remains when almost everything is lost.
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In this version, the Mouse King bears a suspicious resemblance to the auctioneer who clears out the Stahlbaums’ house. His army is unusual, too: the mouse soldiers are played by women dancing on pointe.
Bridget Breiner, who was born in Connecticut, was a principal dancer with Stuttgart Ballet and has won the German Der Faust award twice. From 2019 to 2024, she served as director of ballet at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
The original ballet premiered in St Petersburg in 1892, based on Alexandre Dumas’s adaptation of Hoffmann’s story.
