The Newport Nutcracker at Rosecliff

When:  November 23, 25-27, 29 - December 2, 2022

Where: Rosecliff | 548 Bellevue Avenue, Newport

Ticket Price: Silver $135 | Gold $185 | Premium $225

All tickets will be on sale starting September 29

Follow our young protagonist through the fabulous rooms of Rosecliff Mansion as she celebrates the holiday season with her family, battles with the Mouse King, dances with the Snow Queen, and travels with her beloved Nutcracker to the magical Land of Sweets!

Select Holly or Ivy cast performance dates to the right.

“Ivy” & “Holly” refer to the cast that is performing that show.

Tickets: Silver $135, Gold $185, Premium $225

****Tickets available for partons 6 years and up****

The first act of this unique performance is an experiential journey through the rooms of the historic Rosecliff mansion—guest walk and stand to watch the story unfold. Some unassigned seats are available.

The second act unfolds in the Land of the Sweets, in the grand ballroom. Guests are assigned table seating.

The performance is approximately 2 hours in length including the intermission.

Please note: Premium Seating includes the center tables (low tops & high tops), for the best sightlines. Gold seating is next, and silver seating includes the outermost tables

All Sales are final & non-transferable

Taken from Island Moving Company

More About the Nutcracker

The Nutcracker, Russian Shchelkunchik, ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The last of his three ballets, it was first performed in December 1892.

The story of The Nutcracker is loosely based on the E.T.A. Hoffmann fantasy story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against the evil Mouse King. Hoffmann’s story is darker and more troubling than the version that reached the stage; the Imperial Russian Ballet choreographer Marius Petipa chose to follow a light adaptation of the story written by Alexandre Dumas père.

Tchaikovsky began work in February 1891, continuing his efforts while on an American tour later that year for the opening of Carnegie Hall. His homeward journey took him through Paris, where he discovered a new instrument: the celesta, whose clear, bell-like tone was perfectly fitted to The Nutcracker’s fairy-tale ambience. In the celesta’s ethereal notes, Tchaikovsky recognized the “voice” of his Sugar Plum Fairy, and he immediately wrote to his publisher, asking that the instrument be acquired for the performance.

Selections from The Nutcracker were first performed as an orchestral suite in March 1892. The ballet proper debuted in December of that year. It was presented at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre on a double bill with Tchaikovsky’s one-act opera, Iolanta. In a letter to a friend, Tchaikovsky himself remarked, “Apparently the opera gave pleasure, but the ballet not really; and, as a matter of fact, in spite of all the sumptuousness it did turn out to be rather boring.” He thought little of it, describing it as “infinitely worse than Sleeping Beauty.” The reference was to the second of his three ballets; the first had been Swan Lake.

Yet responsibility for the failure was not, apparently, wholly the composer’s. Petipa had fallen ill, and the choreography was instead devised by his less-inspired assistant. Additionally, the scenery and costumes were panned as tasteless, and the performance of the ballerina who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy was widely criticized. The newspapers reviled Tchaikovsky, and he did not live to see the piece succeed. Despite the failure of its initial performance, The Nutcracker has become the most frequently performed of all ballets and has served as an introduction to classical music for many young people. Because the first act is set at a Christmas party, the ballet is often presented at Christmastime.