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Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie

Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie

The Hard Nut - World Premiere

Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie

23, rue Léopold, Brussels — Belgium

Works Performed

The Hard Nut

Music - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

World premiere of The Hard Nut.

13 shows: January 12-13, 15-16, 18-20, 22-27

The Hard Nut synopsis by Mark Morris.

Synopsis

Act I

Dr. and Mrs. Stahlbaum’s annual Christmas Eve Party. Their children, Fritz, Marie, and Louise wait in the den. Party dances: polka, hokey-pokey, hesitation, stroll, bump, waltz. Friend of the family Drosselmeier brings animated toys that he’s made. He gives a Nutcracker to the children. Fritz breaks it. the children fight. Dr. Stahlbaum changes the subject. The guests go home. The family goes to bed. The housekeeper cleans up.
Marie can’t sleep and comes downstairs to see if the Nutcracker is resting comfortably. At midnight she is frightened by rats. Everything in the room grows to giant size. G.I. Joes, led by the Nutcracker, battle rats led by their mutant King. Marie kills the King with her slipper. She falls, unconscious. The Nutcracker is transformed into a young man. Marie is tucked in. A worried Drosselmeier makes his way through the blizzard.

Act II

Marie is in a fever. Drosselmeier comes to see if Marie is resting comfortably and tells her one of his stories:

The Hard Nut

Once upon a time a King and a Queen had a beautiful baby girl named Pirlipat.  The Queen’s old enemy the Rat Queen threatened to ruin little Pirlipat. The nurse and the cat were left to guard the baby at night.  While the nurse and cat slept, the Rat Queen destroyed Princess Pirlipat’s face.  The Royal Family was horrified by the sight of their formerly beautiful daughter.  The Rat Queen explained that the Princess would regain her beauty only after a young man cracked the hard nut, Krakatuk, with his teeth and stepped backwards seven times.  The King commanded Drosselmeier to find the hard nut or face decapitation.  Drosselmeier set off in search of the hard nut.  He traveled the world for fifteen years before finding it back at home.

The ugly teenage Pirlipat watched as one young man after another attempted to crack the hard nut.  The last one to try was Drosselmeier’s own nephew.  He succeeded.  On his seventh step backward he stepped on the Rat Queen, killing her.  Pirlipat became beautiful and rejected the young Drosselmeier as he started to become ugly – like a nutcracker…

At this point Marie interrupts the story and offers her love to young Drosselmeier. Mrs. Stahlbaum acknowledges her daughter’s new maturity with a flower dance.  Everyone in the world joins Marie and young Drosselmeier in celebrating their love.  The two go away together forever.

Epilogue

Louise and Fritz are sent to bed.

Musicians