The magical Christmas ballet recorded live from the Amsterdam Music Theatre 2011. The Dutch National Ballet's dynamic and exciting production of 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' with choreography by Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling. Based on Hoffman's 1816 fairytale about young Marie Stahlbaum's favourite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, which comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls. In 1892, Tchaikovsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov turned Alexandre Dumas père's adaptation of the story into the ballet The Nutcracker, which became one of Tchaikovsky's most famous compositions, and perhaps the most popular ballet in the world.