Prologue
The man who is sitting in the armchair in front of the bureau is a lonely storyteller. He has dedicated all his life to composing good stories, which bring generosity and dignity, creation and joyfulness, love and beauty to the world. Inspired by the idea of his new fairy tale, which should celebrate the triumph of good over evil and the sublime over the worst, he immediately starts on his literary work. The storyteller casts himself for the part of Drosselmeyer who is a kind, wise person generously loving the whole world and chooses Marie, von Stahlbaums’ daughter, as a heroine of his fairy tale. He believes that this story will become the main work in his life.
Act I
Scene 1
In the evening on Christmas Eve, the local elite is gathering at Counsellor Stahlbaum’s house for a party. The Counsellor’s children, Marie and Franz, are having fun with other children of their age.
Drosselmeyer, beloved by all, mysteriously appears at the Christmas party to become a focus of attention.
Among the other surprises and gifts prepared by him for Christmas, as a fun activity he presents to the guests a puppet sideshow telling the story of the Prince’s unclouded love for the Sugar Plum Fairy, both of whom live in the magic Kingdom of the Sweets called Confiturenburg. The sideshow tells the guests of the treacherous Mouse Queen Krysilda who hounds the Sugar Plum Fairy for her beauty, riven with jealousy. The brave Prince stands up for his beloved, and for that reason the malicious Krysilda turns the Prince into an ugly Nutcracker. Confiturenburg gets dead.
The sideshow is over, and the party goes on. Only Marie cannot have fun and feels sad, having sympathy for the personages of the Drosselmeyer’s story.
This does not escape Drosselmeyer’s attention. To distract Marie from sad thoughts, he gives her a mechanical toy Nutcracker to which she must be attentive from that time onwards.
Carried away with his playing, Marie’s brother Franz knocks the toy down and breaks its arm. Marie’s despair is unbounded, and she runs to Drosselmeyer for help. He calms her, promising her a wonderful Christmas night.
The party comes to an end. When the guests go away, all the members of the Stahlbaum family sink into a sleep.
At nightfall, the mouse horde, led by the Mouse King, crowds the dining-room.
The clock chimes midnight. Overcome with anxiety for the Nutcracker, Marie is unable to fall asleep and returns to the dining-room where the mice bar the way to the Nutcracker. The scared girl has no qualms about succoring her toy friend. She is ready to sacrifice herself to rescue him, but after Drosselmeyer’s appearance the mice vanish in the dark.
Drosselmeyer stills her fears, telling her about the wonderful world. The dining-room is transformed with the wave of Drosselmeyer’s magic wand. The armchairs fly up, and the pieces of furniture shift from place to place, and, miraculously, in Marie’s sight, the dressed Christmas tree starts to move apart the walls and the ceiling and grows to an unmerciful height. Marie is veritably dazed with what has happened.
Scene 2
Marie stays alone with the vitalized toy soldiers whose troops are led by the fearless Nutcracker to make war against the Mouse King’s formidable army. In the heat of the battle, the Mouse King tries to capture the Nutcracker. Now, to save the Nutcracker, Marie casts a burning candle at the Mouse King, striking him and his army into scare.
Scene 3
The battle is over, and the Nutcracker suddenly turns into a handsome Prince. It proves that due to Marie’s faithfulness and bravery, she has broken the evil spell of Krysilda to retrieve the Prince’s noble image.
Scene 4
In gratitude the Prince invites Marie to join him on a journey through the dreamlike winter forest, and the magic ferry transports them to Confiturenburg.
Act II
Scene 5
The scene is laid in the storyteller’s room where he continues to compose his Christmas fairy tale.
Scene 6
In Confiturenburg everything is ready for the return of the Prince and Marie.
With the magic wand, which was presented to her by Drosselmeyer, Marie awakens the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Prince’s beloved, the King, the Queen and all other inhabitants of the magic land.
To commemorate the victory of Marie over the malevolent Krysilda, the feast is hold in the Kingdom of the Sweets.
In the full pride of the feast, Drosselmeyer appears suddenly, as usual. Marie is infinitely grateful to him for the dreamlike journey. She blesses him for his teaching her to do marvels inseparable from good.
The fairy feast comes to an end, and it is time for Marie to say good-bye to her world of childhood, to the world of day-dream and fantasy. The time has come for her to return to the real world where she is expected to do good works, which should make the world a better place to live.
Epilogue
The storyteller finishes his narrative. He believes that the girl Marie from the fairy tale, which has been composed by him, will necessarily come in this world and – just like he does – will generously share her heart of gold with this world to make it better, kinder and more beautiful.
Here the curtain drops, and the candle on the storyteller’s bureau flickers out.
Now he gives place to the beautiful girl Marie…
