This is the best version of the Nutcracker I have ever seen or heard. Stupendous! Bravo!

One of the best Nutcrackers!

Simply wonderful. Not perfect but I think this would have been Tchaikovsky's preference out of the 2016 selections. Loved the colors, the staging, the choreography and the dancing. The timings between the dancers and the orchestra were mostly spot on and well interpreted. It's well-known that Petipa, the choreographer, dictated very specifically the music, down to the bars and tempo for each composition, to Tchaikovsky before he started composing. While all subsequent productions through the years have been subject to various re-arrangements, interpretations and other changes with no particular standards amongst them, and that is perhaps as it should always be to keep it fresh, all of them have also had to start with Tchaikovsky's score and Petipa's libretto, which provide a great deal of exacting precision and structure, and work from there to provide something original. To my eye and ear, Semperoper has beautifully remained true, for the most part, to Tchaikovsky's work and Petipa's structure while successfully finding some originality of its own. I can't believe the Malakhov version was chosen over this one.

Best.