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The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Alan Cumming narrating "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King."
Andrew Young

Tue. Dec. 14 at 9 p.m. on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | This film is a re-imagination of the classic Nutcracker story, featuring the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and narrated by Alan Cumming.

Conceived by John Mauceri, this new work is a re-imagination of Tchaikovsky’s holiday favorite, "The Nutcracker." Based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 book, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Alan Cumming picks up the story where the beloved ballet ends.

In this version, Cumming recounts the origin story of how a prince got put into a nutcracker. Unlike the ballet, we also learn what happens when the young girl grows up, having saved the prince, and what they are doing today.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King features the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the direction of John Mauceri. This premiere showcases music from Tchaikovsky’s tone poems, orchestral suites, as well as from The Nutcracker ballet help tell this great – and complete – tale. One that begins, as all great stories do, with, “once upon a time…”

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