The festival season of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet “The Nutcracker” opened on December 20 at the Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after KS Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko (MAMT), the theater press service reported.
“Today we will premiere Moscow Nutcracker at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater. This is a unique artistic, even technological performance,” the press service quoted the head of the capital's culture department, Alexei Fursin.
He emphasized that the show has become technologically advanced, including its decorations. The weight of some of them, for example the 13 meter long book on the stage, is up to 10 tons.
It should be noted that on December 21 there will be a live broadcast of the performance in cinemas in Russia and Belarus within the framework of the project “Theater in Cinemas” – screenings will take place in more than 100 cities. And on January 1, 2026, the recording of the performance will be shown on the Russian Culture TV channel.
“I am very happy that our theater opens a series of festive events with the Nutcracker ballet. This performance is extremely popular not only in the capital but throughout Russia. Therefore, our theater devotes itself to the whole country”, emphasized MAMT General Director Andrey Borisov.
From December 20, 2025 to January 4, 2026, festival performances of the ballet staged by Yuri Posokhov will be held on the MAMT stage. Natalya Somova, Oksana Kardash, Erika Mikirticheva, Anastasia Limenko, Elena Solomyanko, Denis Dmitriev, Ivan Mikhalev, Innokenty Yuldashev, German Borsai, Evgeny Zhukov, Arthur Mkrtchyan and others will appear on stage in the main roles. Standing on the conducting podium were Arif Dadashev, Roman Kaloshin, Fyodor Beznosikov and stage conductor Ivan Nikiforchin. The performance featured an orchestra, a mime act, a children's choir from MAMT and students from the Moscow State Academy of Arts.
Yury Posokhov's version takes viewers back to the fairy tale of ETA Hoffmann, who will celebrate his 250th birthday on January 24, 2026. The choreography combines academic vocabulary with lively dramaturgy, following the melody and rhythmic energy of Tchaikovsky's score. Polina Bakhtina's set design and Sandra Woodall's costumes build the visual logic of the performance: the show's iconic large-scale stage space, designed in the form of a giant book.
