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The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol
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January 2026 | ||||||
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The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol | Ballet
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Christmas without Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is hard to imagine. In the 2025/2026 season, the State Opera will present the beloved ballet The Nutcracker – A Christmas Story, directed and choreographed by Youri Vàmos, this time with new stage and costume design.
The Nutcracker is an inherent part of Christmas. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s phenomenal ballet enjoys great popularity among audiences worldwide. In the 2025/26 season, the Czech National Ballet will perform Yuri Vámos’s adaptation The Nutcracker - A Christmas Carol at the National Theatre, as well as at the State Opera.
The production at the State Opera will, however, differ from the original version by featuring new sets, to be designed by Martin Černý, and costumes, to be created by Barbora Malenínská. Vámos’s choreography, direction and poetry will remain the same. Ballet lovers will thus be afforded more opportunities to see The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol. The National Theatre and State Opera performances will be identical in all but visual terms.
Program and cast
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto: Youri Vàmos after E. T. A. Hoffmann, Charles Dickens
Choreography: Youri Vàmos
Sets: Martin Černý
Costumes: Barbora Maleninská
Light design: Klaus Gärditz
State Opera Orchestra
Czech Philharmonic Children’s Choir
Prague State Opera
The State Opera today
The State Opera (formerly the State Opera Prague, between 1948 and 1992 the Smetana Theatre, and originally the New German Theatre) has been a part of the National Theatre since 2012. The Opera and Ballet ensembles give repertory performances at the State Opera.
History
The Prague State Opera resides in the building which on January 5, 1888 was opened as a Prague German stage with the performance of Wagner’s opera, The Mastersingers of Nürnberg. In the 19th century, Prague Germans performed in the Estate’s Theater in alternation with a Czech company. Desire for their own theater led to negotiations in 1883 for the construction of a new theater building for the German Theater Association. Over the next three years, a blueprint was drawn up and handed over to the Vienna atelier of Fellner and Hellmer. Also sharing in the design was the architect of the Vienna Municipal Theater, Karl Hasenauer, while Prague architect Alfons Wertmüller took part in the construction. Financing came from private collections. With its spacious auditorium and neo-Rococo decoration, this theater building is among the most beautiful in Europe.
Access:
By car
On Wilsonova street, from the left lane close to the State Opera building take the slip road to the Slovan above-ground garage. The parking fee is 40 CZK/h.
By tram
By daytime tram No. 11 to the stop “Muzeum”, through the underpass beneath Legerova street in the direction of the NationalMuseum, at the crossroads turn right along the NewBuilding of the NationalMuseum.
By daytime trams Nos. 3, 9, 14 and 24 or night trams Nos. 51, 52, 54, 55, 56 and 58 to the stop “Václavské náměstí”, then by foot uphill on the left side of the Wenceslas Square to the traffic lights across Wilsonova and Vinohradská streets. Then turn left along the NewBuilding of the NationalMuseum.
By metro
To the “Muzeum” station, lines A and C (green and red), and then by foot along the NewBuilding of the NationalMuseum.
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