在中古的十九世紀俄羅斯，芭蕾只強調舞者的舞蹈曲線，沒人在乎芭蕾音樂，導致無人願意花功夫為芭蕾舞寫作像樣的音樂。其風格不受限，但沒有無趣，這種狀況到了柴可夫斯基時才出現變化，寫了三部很傑出的芭蕾舞配樂，逐漸扭轉芭蕾音樂不登大雅之堂的印象，舞劇音樂從此不再是附屬於芭蕾舞的伴奏，而是與舞蹈處於對等地位的藝術。

During medieval Russia in the 19th century, ballet solely emphasized the ballerina’s graceful movements with no emphasis on music. The result was that no one was willing to compose decent music for ballet. While there were no restrictions on style, they were not uninteresting until Tchaikovsky came and composed 3 exceptional pieces for ballet. This gradually shifted the unrefined impression of ballet music to elevate it as an art form on par with ballet, as opposed to simply being an accompaniment.

溫馨聖誕與胡桃鉗共度

在白雪紛飛的耶誕假期，觀賞溫馨的芭蕾舞劇《胡桃鉗》已經成為全世界一種習慣。1816年，德意志浪漫主義大師霍夫曼就以這種胡桃鉗人偶為題材，寫作一篇魔幻小說《胡桃鉗與老鼠王》，故事描述某個耶誕夜，瑪莉夢到成群結隊的老鼠出現在她房裡，7個頭的老鼠王逼迫瑪莉交出她的杏仁糖，否則就將胡桃鉗娃娃撕碎。此時胡桃鉗娃娃突然活起來，與老鼠王大戰，最終打敗老鼠王，獲勝的胡桃鉗帶著瑪莉共赴另一國度。柴可夫斯基根據大仲馬改編的版本《The Story of a Nutcracker》加譜了芭蕾舞的音樂，成為現時的所見的版本。

Enjoy the warmth of Christmas with The Nutcracker

Enjoying a showing of the ballet <The Nutcracker> has become a global tradition during the snowy Christmas Holidays. In 1816, German Romantic author Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffman wrote the gothic novella <The Nutcracker and the Mouse King>, a story where Marie dreamt of an army of mice appearing in her room during Christmas Eve. The 7-headed Mouse King forced Marie to hand over her sweets or he would bite the nutcracker to pieces. Suddenly, the nutcracker comes alive and engages the Mouse King in battle, ultimately defeating him and whisking Marie away to another kingdom. Tchaikovsky composed ballet music based on Alexandre Dumas’ adaptation <The Story of a Nutcracker>, which is the modern version we see today.