The Nutcracker was written original by E.T.A. Hoffman. Tchaikovsky, composing the music, and Marius Petipa, originally choreographing dances, turned the Nutcracker into a fairy-tale ballet. This ballet was first shown a week before Christmas 1892 in Russia. Later on, George Balanchine choreographed a newer version of the Nutcracker, which was shown in New York City, 1954.
The Nutcracker starts off with two children, Marie and Fitz, preparing for the Christmas Eve party. Once all of the guests have arrived, the party starts off with dancing and games. Out of nowhere, Marie’s godfather appears and brings with him his nephew and three large presents. Drosselmeier, the godfather, then introduces his nephew to Marie. While all the children
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But, she is soon frightened because large mice that are led by an evil mouse king begin to chase her. All the other toys come to life and help her fight off the evil creatures. The toys eventually defeat the mouse king and the mice carry him off. After this, Marie peacefully goes back to bed and drifts away to a snowy forest where the nephew, her Nutcracker Prince, awakens her with a present: a gold crown. They watch the snowflakes dance and then travel to encounter the Sugarplum Fairy. One by one, the Sugarplum Fairy introduces all of the specialties and cultures of her land: hot chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, Chinese tea, the candy canes, the marzipan, the little dolls, Dew Drop, and her flowers. The Sugarplum Fairy welcomes Marie and her prince and has him tell everyone about his adventures. Afterwards, all of the specialties perform for them while they sit in a throne with candy and sweets. After everyone performs, the Sugarplum Fairy and her prince dance together and they all perform once more for their guests. Marie realizes it is time to depart from the enchanted land and they say goodbye to everyone. Marie knows that she will always remember the Sugarplum Fairy, the enchanted land, and her Nutcracker
Cinderella is about a beautiful young girl that is mistreated by her step family. They give her the worst chores, make her sleep in a very dirty room up in an attic, and even give her the name “Cinderella” because they say she is always playing in the cinders of the fire. Cinderella is different though because despite being mistreated, she is still very nice and warmhearted. She represents how you should act in a world full of hate. If you are nice to everyone despite their rudeness and hate you will be rewarded in the end. Since Cinderella was so nice to her step sisters throughout her whole life, when she wanted to go to the ball her fairy godmother granted her wish. Cinderella got to go to the ball and looked absolutely beautiful, beautiful enough to catch the attention of the prince. While at the ball she was still very nice to her stepsisters, giving them food and telling them how nice they looked. When the stepsisters got home from the ball that night, they explain how lovely the mysterious princess was and how they thought she was so beautiful, not knowing that the mysterious princess was Cinderella. Cinderella played it off like she knew nothing of the princess but agreed with them that she must have been very beautiful. The next day came around and the stepsisters returned to the ball the
Faerie Tale follows the tale of the Hastings family and their move to a rural mansion in New York. The Hastings family includes; Phil Hastings, a screenwriter working on a novel and his wife, retired actress, Gloria Hastings, Phil's daughter, Gabbie, a wealthy heiress from Phil's previous marriage, and twin boys, Sean and Patrick, who are particularly targeted by the “bad thing” in the story. The “bad thing” is a minion of the evil faerie king who is attempting to re-enter the mortal world before the “moving” closes the temporary portal between worlds on midnight on Halloween. Throughout the story different characters help the Hastings in different ways. Most helpful are the Irish immigrant Barney Doyle who eventually tells Sean how to save Patrick from the faerie realm, and Mark Blackman, an author who provides information along the way every time a new secret about the mansion is revealed. In the end the Erl King is killed only to be replaced by the fairy that kills him, revealing the cyclical nature of the fairy realm and how the creatures are not truly immortal but trapped in a predestined loop that forever repeats the same story; the queen and king to be fall in love, a child is stolen, it is fought over resulting in a demi-war between two factions, with the new king to be sometimes killing the evil king to become a good king or siding with evil king to become an evil king and killing the queen. Various “plot twists” can occur but the faeries know that the end result will always be the crowning of a new king and queen through the shedding of blood.
Both Petipa and Tchaikovsky still did not like the story and refused to work on the project. Petipa did not think the story was right for ballet dancing. He did not feel that Marie, the main character, was a strong enough character to dance. He did try to write a scenario for the ballet, but he could not think of anything past the scene of what we know of as the kingdom of snow. After Petipa gave up, Vsevolojsky begged and persisted with Petipa to try again. He convinced Petipa and this time he created a new character called the Sugarplum fairy. This character was not in either of the original stories. She was to be the main character, rather than Marie, and she would be the ruler of the Kingdom of Sweets. Petipa felt that this character could dance the big scenes better than the character Marie.
Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" came first chronologically out of the three scenes mentioned. When introducing the piece, Deems Taylor states that Tchaikovsky actually detested this piece. When I began to listen to “Nutcracker Suite” and study the images on the screen, I noticed the various plants and animals dancing all represented a specific season, summer, fall, winter, spring. The images included fairies and forest nymphs gliding throughout the nature of the forest. The fairies began lighting up the flowers and placing dew on the plants which represented summer. Next, there were tiny, dancing mushrooms that surprisingly looked slightly angry. Then, flowers that appeared to look like ballerinas began dancing. Next, underwater goldfish began to dance very gracefully. I enjoyed watching the fish because I thought it was slightly amusing. Shortly after, there was a dance of more flowers...
The fairy tale begins with a miller betrothing his daughter to the first suitable man who comes along. The man choosen happens to live deep in the forest, and fills the daughter with dread everytime that she sees him. One day, the suitor demands that his bride come visit him at home. When she tells him she does not know the way, he says he with spread the path to his house with ashes. Nodoubt this fictional element is meant to invoke sadistic images of Nazi Germany and the use of ashes of cremated concentration camp inmates for road construction. The daughter does follow the path with great unease, however, as she follows the path she marks it with peas. She finally comes to the house, and is promptly warned by a bird that she is entering a house of murderers. The girl enters and house and finds it almost entirerly deserted. However, in the basement she finds an old women who repeats the bird’s warning. The crone then prphesizes that the girl will marry death and her bridegroom only seeks to kill her, cut her pieces up, and eat her. As the two prepare to escape, the bridegroom and his band of theives return with maiden [virgin]. The old woman hides the girl behind a large barrel. From her hiding place, she whitnesses the thieves give the maiden three glasses of wine to stop her heart. They then rip her clothes off, and hack the body into pieces with axes. On of the murders notices the girl wears a gold band, but cannot pull it off her finger. He cuts off thefinger which flies from the table and lands in the girls lap. Before the thieve can look for it, the crone offers them some wine, which she has laced with a sleeping potion. The thieves fall prey to the potion and sleep deeply. The g...
Alluring, amiable to the heart, and lighthearted, A Christmas Carol has a conveying melody that makes it an extolling and prominent story since 1843 when published. The prose, written exquisitely and elegantly, pleases the audience of all ages. The story revolves around The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future visiting the unsympathetic Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Scrooge learns that he needs to change in order to save his future. On Christmas Day, he becomes an exceptional and offering man that not only saves himself, but Bob Cratchit’s crippled son. Charles Dickens, the author of the novella, delivers such a compelling message to his audience. He discloses to the entranced audience through words that tell, even in a brutal
The version in the United States is known as Cinderella. Cinderella's mother dies when she is young and her father remarries. The woman he gets married to has two daughters. They become Cinderella´s new evil stepsisters. Her sisters are jealous because she is very pretty and petite. They treat her very poorly. She is to do chores around the house and attend to every need of her stepmother and stepsisters. The Prince is having a ball and requests that every available lady in the kingdom attends. Cinderella is told by her stepmother that she can not attend the ball unless she finishes her chores. She finishes her chores and
Meeting the Ghost of Christmas Past begins the first stage of Scrooge’s transformation: regretting his actions. When Scrooge is shown his younger self alone in his classroom on Christmas, he regrets chasing a Christmas caroler away from his door. The Spirit skips ahead a few years to show him a happier time. His sweet little sister Fan arrives to take him home, and this is his first Christmas in a long time that is spent with family. Unfortunately, Scrooge doesn’t see it that way; seeing this scene makes him “uneasy in his mind” as he thinks about the way he treats his nephew Fred. Instead of treating him like his only family member, Scrooge denies invitations to Christmas dinner every year and is rude whenever Fred speaks to him. He doesn’t have time to dwell on this for long, however; Scrooge has many other important things to think...
When Hermia and Lysander run off into the woods, where Helena follows for she hopes that she can change Demetrius’ mind upon choosing Hermia as his wife and Demetrius also follows knowing that Hermia and Lysander have run there. In these woods live a group of fairies and a group of men who are practicing for a play they are to perform. In the group of fairies there includes the fairy king Oberon, his queen Titania, and his servant Puck. Oberon and Titania are not on the best of terms over an Indian prince given to Titania by the prince’s mother. With this Oberon sends Puck to go forth and retrieve a flower that is spread over a sleeping persons eyelids, when the person awakes they will fall in love with the first person that is seen upon awakening. When Puck retrieves the flower Oberon tells him to spread the flower over Titania’s eyes, but also to spread it on Demetrius’ eyes after seeing how he treats Helena. Puck spreads the flower on Titania’s eyes, but accidentally spreads the flower on Lysander’s eyes thinking this is the Athenian man that Oberon was referring to.
Even though fairy tales don’t always end the way we want them to, we usually expect them to end with prince charming saving a princess. However, according to the Grimms Brothers version, “The Frog King,” the princess actually saves the prince. An innocent naive princess comes across a frog that once was a prince. Therefore, the only way he can overcome this curse is to ask a princess to fully have her assurance into becoming his companion. The moral of this fairy tale is express how appearances are deceiving. We don’t fully have an understanding what true beauty looks like until it is standing in front of us. The three main symbols that emphasize the true beauty in this fairytale is the frog, the fountain, and the golden ball.
Walt Disney’s Cinderella is adapted from the original fairy tale written in 1697 by Charles Perrault. There are some key differences between Walt Disney’s Cinderella and Charles Perrault’s Cinderella. In Charles Perrault’s tale, Cinderella’s father is not dead, but the father is controlled by the stepmother. Cinderella’s younger stepsister is much more polite than the older stepsister, who calls Cinderella Cinderwench. The king in Perrault’s tale hosts a two day Ball, which Cinderella attends with the help of the fairy godmother. During Cinderella’s preparation for the first night of the Ball, Cinderella helps the fairy godmother find a coachman when the fairy godmother could not find one. Cinderella’s glass slipper comes off on the second night of the ball. Similar to Walt Disney’s Cinderella, the prince in Perrault’s story announces to marry a woman whose foot will fit in the glass slipper. Unlike the Walt Disney’s tale, Cinderella is not locked up in the attic and the stepmother does not physically attempt to stop Cinderella from trying the slipper. Instead, the step sisters ridicule Cinderella when Cinderella suggests trying on the glass slipper. Cinderella wears the slipper and takes out the other slipper from a pocket which Cinderella puts on the other foot. Suddenly, the fairy godmother appears and transforms Cinderella’s ragged outfit to a magnificent gown. After the transformation, the step sisters recognize Cinderella as the unknown beautiful princess who attended the Ball and beg for forgiveness. Cinderella forgives the step sisters and marries the step sisters to the great lords of the castle. The prince marries Cinderella, however, Perrault does not mention about the prince and Cinderella living happily ever after.
It tells the story of Princess Aurora, King Florestan's daughter. The fairies have been invited to Aurora's christening, and each one in turn dances and gives a magic present. However, the wicked fairy, Carabosse, interrupts the ceremony and is furious that she wasn't invited. She announces that one day Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. Everyone is horrified, but the Lilac fairy still has her present to give. She modifies the spell so Aurora will not die, but will fall asleep and be woken only by a prince's kiss. At her 16th birthday party, princess Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle brought by Carabosse in disguise and, with the whole court, falls asleep for 100 years. Prince Florimund, with the help of the Lilac fairy. Makes his way through the enchanted forest to awaken Aurora with a kiss. At Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund's wedding, the fairies dance and celebrate with Puss in Boots and Red Riding Hood.
The Glass Slipper Fairytales, the short stories that most children hear as they go to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumph over evil, a prince charming that constantly comes to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
This over exaggeration of the human imagination is what makes fairytales stand alone in their own category of fictional stories. Valerie Gokturk describes a fairytale as, “having magical things happen…talking animals… inanimate objects talking.” This can be seen through the Cinderella story as Cinderella is treated poorly by her new step-family, so in response she turns to frequently visiting her passed mother. Upon request, the father of Cinderella brings her a hazel twig to place on the mother’s grave. With the twig placed on the ground, a magical element comes into play as a hazel tree grows and produces birds that grant Cinderella wishes. This sense of magic is further seen as the tree produces a series of exquisite dresses that Cinderella wears to the prince’s ball. No tree of non-magic origin would be able to fully grow in such a short period of time, not to mention being able to spawn flawless dresses. The birds are seen as having a magical essence as Cinderella talks to them, instructing them to pick out the lentils out of the ash in the fireplace. This event can be seen as slightly more plausible; however, the fact that the birds can communicate with Cinderella places the series of events that unfold in a magical category. With the utilization of talking birds as well as a magical tree, it is clearly shown that the story of Cinderella has the essential element of magic that allows it to
Each person in the world has heard of Cinderella, no matter what kind of version it may be. Cinderella is the one fairy tale story that has been popular and will always be the one tale that has to be told to children. Words and story lines might be twist and turn, but in the end the knowledge of the story will be learned in similar ways. As we all know when one story is told another is created, when one is at its best then another is at its worse. One version will always be better than another, but no matter what version it might be the story will be told.