Nutcracker ballet at the Cairo Opera House

CAIRO – 19 December 2017: The annual performance of the Nutcracker ballet at the Cairo Opera House, in association with the Cairo Ballet Company, will commence this year from Tuesday, December 26, until Saturday, December 30.

The ballet was originally directed by the late Abdel Moneim Kamel, with artistic direction by Erminia Kamel in Cairo. Every Christmas holiday for 20 years the ballet has been performed, the story takes place during this season and is an international tradition.

Alexandre Dumas adapted the ballet from E. T. A. Hoffmann’s short story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” in 1892. The story follows a little girl's dream on Christmas Eve, all her toys come to life at midnight, her Nutcracker toy transforms into a prince who defends all the other toys from an army of mice. The original ballet was choreographed by Marius Petipa with a famous score written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Abdel Moneim took special care to be faithful to the original ballet and to put a unique spin on his production, turning it into a cultural delight for Egyptians.