Music :
Piotr Ilyitch Tchaïkovski

Choreography :
Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov

New production created for the Paris Opera - Garnier - on december, 19th 1985.

The Nutcracker was created on the 18th December 1892 at the Maryinski Theatre in Saint-Petersburg.

Rudolf Nureyev staged The Nutcracker for the first time in November 1967 for the Royal Swedish Ballet following the request of Erick Bruhn.

This version was to be revived several times in London, Milan, Buenos Aires and Berlin.

The original libretto by Alexandre Dumas was completely revised by Nureyev who gave his version of The Nutcracker a psychoanalytic dimension: Drosselmeyer and the Prince are one and the same person, representing the ideal man dreamt up by the heroine, ready to leave her childhood and become a teenager.

In 1988, Rudolf, produced a filmed production of the ballet with Elisabeth Maurin in the role of Clara, and with Laurent Hilaire playing Drosselmeyer.

It was on the film set for The Nutcracker in the studios in Bry sur Marne that Rudolf Nureyev appointed Elisabeth Maurin principal dancer.