The Nutcracker Ballet

The nutcracker ballet was part of a two part commission from russia's imperial theatres in saint petersburg, the other part being a one act opera. The three men had previously worked together on the sleeping beauty with zevloski commission in the work, writing the libretto and being heavily involved in the costume and set design. And petima coreographing the ballet and providing detailed instructions to tchakowsky on the music. With both ballets, petipa provided very precise instructions about how many measures of what kind of music was needed for each of them.