The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale, November 24 to December 3, 2026

The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, in Paul Chalmer's choreography, plays Teatro Nazionale in Rome, at Via del Viminale 51 on the corner of Via Agostino Depretis (00184 Rome), from November 24 to December 3, 2026, performed by the students of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Ballet School: the first performance is Tuesday, November 24 at 11:00, then Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 at 19:00, Saturday 28 at 18:00, Sunday 29 at 16:30, Tuesday, December 1 at 11:00, Wednesday 2 at 19:00 and Thursday, December 3 at 11:00. The theater is a few minutes' walk from the Repubblica Teatro dell'Opera stop on metro line A and from Termini station. Buses 70 and 71 run along Via Depretis, and lines H, 40, 60, 64, 70, 71 and 170 along Via Nazionale. Tickets are sold on the official Teatro dell'Opera di Roma website and at the foundation's box office, where prices by section are also published.

Language: a performance based on dance, music or visual acts; no English version is announced, any spoken parts are in Italian.

It's the Teatro dell'Opera production designed for young people and families: the Christmas ballet par excellence, danced by those learning the craft in the foundation's school, in a hall born as a cinema in the 1920s and entrusted to the Opera at the end of the last century. Sets are by Andrea Miglio, costumes by Anna Biagiotti, and the production is by the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale at a glance: dates, times, credits

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Ballet School's Nutcracker has eight performances at Teatro Nazionale between November 24 and December 3, 2026, with three morning shows, four evening or afternoon shows and one on Sunday. The official page presents it as a ballet in a prologue and two acts after a tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Performance calendar

Tuesday, November 24 at 11:00 is the first performance. Then come Wednesday 25 and Thursday November 26 at 19:00, Saturday 28 at 18:00 and Sunday 29 at 16:30. The second week resumes on Tuesday, December 1 at 11:00, continues Wednesday 2 at 19:00 and closes on Thursday, December 3 at 11:00.

Morning performances

Three of the eight performances start at 11:00 on a weekday: the slot opera houses usually set aside for school audiences, though the show page doesn't specify it. If you can take a morning off, or for grandparents with preschool grandkids, they're the chance to see the ballet in a less crowded hall than in the evening.

Credits

Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Choreography by Paul Chalmer. Sets by Andrea Miglio. Costumes by Anna Biagiotti. Performed by the students of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Ballet School. Produced by the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. The official page doesn't list a live orchestra or a conductor: that information isn't published.

Which performance to choose

Saturday at 18:00 and Sunday at 16:30 are the most convenient performances for families, and for that reason the first to fill up. Wednesday and Thursday at 19:00 work if you're coming from the office. Decide early, because the Nazionale holds far fewer people than the Costanzi.

The Nutcracker: the story of Tchaikovsky's ballet

The Nutcracker is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet op. 71, composed between 1891 and 1892 and first performed on December 18, 1892 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The story comes from Alexandre Dumas père's The Tale of the Nutcracker, from 1845, itself a reworking of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, from 1816.

Petipa, Ivanov and the imperial commission

The ballet was commissioned by the director of the Russian Imperial Theaters, Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky. Tchaikovsky closely followed the instructions of choreographer Marius Petipa, who then handed the choreography over to his assistant Lev Ivanov. The Italian composer Riccardo Drigo conducted the premiere, and the cast included the Italian Antonietta Dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Pavel Gerdt as the prince.

A debut without success

The St. Petersburg premiere wasn't a success: a fact that's surprising today, given how popular the title became. The role of Clara went to a little girl from the Mariinsky ballet school, a choice that has tied this ballet to dance school students from the very start. It's exactly the tradition the Rome production belongs to.

The suite came before the ballet

The concert suite, hugely popular today, was prepared by Tchaikovsky himself in early 1892 as a preview of the ballet, when the full orchestration wasn't finished yet. He conducted it in St. Petersburg on March 7, 1892, to triumphant success. So the public knew the music before the dance.

Later versions

After Ivanov's choreography, the ballet was rethought many times: notable are Alexander Gorsky's revision in 1919 and, later, Lopukhov's. Since then every company has its own Nutcracker, and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's bears the signature of Paul Chalmer.

The celesta and the most famous pages of the score

The instrumental novelty of The Nutcracker is the celesta, a keyboard instrument Tchaikovsky had discovered in Paris and wanted in the orchestra at all costs. He used it in some passages of the second act, linking it to the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

The celesta appears in the opening scenes of the second act, in the pas de deux with the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and in the final apotheosis. It's the crystalline sound almost everyone recognizes without knowing where it comes from: for a child, discovering in the theater the instrument that makes those notes is a small revelation.

Fear of rivals

Tchaikovsky feared that rival Russian composers might beat him to using the celesta, and he also used it in the symphonic poem The Voyevoda, op. 78, written at the same time as the ballet. The very first to use it had been Charles-Marie Widor in 1880.

Listen beforehand

The suite lasts about 20 minutes and is the quickest way to prepare a child for the performance: recognizing the march, the character dances and the Waltz of the Flowers in the hall turns the show into a game of spotting tunes.

Paul Chalmer, the choreographer of Rome's Nutcracker

Paul Chalmer, born in Ottawa in 1962, is the choreographer of this production and one of the artists most closely tied to the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma: the bio published by the foundation notes that in 2023 The Nutcracker was his eighth production for the Rome theater.

Training in Canada and Stuttgart

Chalmer studied at the National Ballet School of Canada with Betty Oliphant, Daniel Seillier and Erik Bruhn, danced Albrecht in Giselle for his graduation performance and joined the corps de ballet of the National Ballet of Canada. In 1980, out of admiration for John Cranko, he moved to the Stuttgart Ballet, where he became a principal dancer and performed Romeo, Lensky, Siegfried, Lucentio and James.

A career as a principal dancer

In 1985 Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo hired him as a principal dancer, partnering Ghislaine Thesmar. He then danced as a principal with English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, London City Ballet, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and Teatro alla Scala. His partners included Carla Fracci, Lynn Seymour, Natalia Makarova, Eva Evdokimova, Marcia Haydée, Luciana Savignano and Elisabetta Terabust.

From ballet master to director

In 1999 he was ballet master at the Semperoper in Dresden, and in 2000 at Leipziger Ballett with Uwe Scholz. From 2005 to 2010 he directed the Leipzig ballet, presenting his own versions of the classics alongside choreography by Balanchine, Tetley, MacMillan, Robbins, Goecke, Bigonzetti, Spuck and Scholz. In 2011 he was on the jury of the Prix de Lausanne.

His creations for Rome

For the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Chalmer created Lungo viaggio in 2000, The Sleeping Beauty in 2002, La gitana in 2005, La vestale in 2006, A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2008 and Chopin racconta Chopin in 2010. In 2014 his Sleeping Beauty was revived at the Costanzi, and in 2019 he created La Sylphide. Outside Rome he has created, among others, The Talisman, winner of the 1997 Premio Massine, a Swan Lake for MaggioDanza, a Cinderella for the Teatr Wielki in Poznań, a Nutcracker in Bydgoszcz in 2015 and The Picture of Dorian Gray in 2022.

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Ballet School on stage

The performers of this Nutcracker are the students of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Ballet School, the foundation's school that trains professional dancers. The official website has a section devoted to the school, with pages on training, students, auditions and the director.

Why see the students

A ballet danced by students has a different energy from an adult company's: less showy virtuosity, more freshness, and the feeling of watching a handover. For a child who studies dance, it's concrete proof that this stage isn't out of reach.

Tied to tradition

At the 1892 premiere, the role of Clara already went to a little girl from the Mariinsky school. Putting the school's students on stage in this title means keeping a habit as old as the ballet itself.

The rest of the dance season

If you get hooked, you can follow the adult company in Swan Lake at the Costanzi from December 17 to 31, 2026, in Mahler's Third Symphony in February, in MOTUS at the end of March and in Echoes at Teatro Nazionale from April 20 to 24, 2027. The Teatro dell'Opera also offers a Tutto Danza subscription and Dance Passports.

A curious fact about The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale, November 24 to December 3, 2026

The most surprising curious fact concerns the order in which the world got to know this music. The Nutcracker is today the Christmas ballet par excellence, yet the St. Petersburg public first heard the concert suite, on March 7, 1892, conducted by Tchaikovsky himself, and only nine months later, on December 18, saw the ballet at the Mariinsky. The suite was a triumph, while the ballet, at its premiere, was not a success. The composer had prepared the preview when the full orchestration wasn't finished yet, and the first numbers orchestrated were precisely those meant for the suite.

The second curious fact is instrumental. The celesta, which gives the Sugar Plum Fairy her voice, was a complete novelty for a ballet orchestra: Tchaikovsky had seen it in Paris and feared his Russian colleagues would use it before him. When you sit in the Nazionale and hear those crystalline notes, you're hearing, in a sense, a small coup by the composer.

The third concerns the hall. Teatro Nazionale was born in 1925 as the Supercinema, with an orchestra pit because the program alternated films with variety shows. A century later, that hall built for the big screen hosts the most classic ballet in the repertoire, danced by kids the same age as the 1892 Clara.

Teatro Nazionale: the Rome Opera's second venue

Teatro Nazionale is the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's venue on Via del Viminale, on the corner of Via Agostino Depretis: born as the Supercinema in 1925, it was acquired by the City of Rome at the end of the 1990s and entrusted to the Fondazione Teatro dell'Opera. It's a few minutes' walk from the Costanzi.

A 1920s cinema

The owner, Commendatore Urbano Rattazzi, gave the project to architects Arnaldo Foschini and Attilio Spaccarelli, assisted by engineer Giacomo Giobbe. The venue was built inside an existing building, with a hall measuring 36 by 30 meters and an original capacity of 2,500 seats between the stalls and the galleries.

Liberty style and the pit

The interior decoration was in Italian Liberty style, with gilded stucco, paintings, stone and fabrics. The orchestra pit shows that the hall hosted variety and vaudeville shows alongside cinema. After the war it was used for a single purpose: cinema.

Its calling today

In the foundation's program the Nazionale hosts the most agile titles: school ballets, musical theater, contemporary operas. In the 2026/2027 season, after The Nutcracker, it hosts Bernstein's Peter Pan from December 18 to 23, the ballet Echoes in April and the opera Code: Unknown in May. The foundation's general page is the one for the Rome Opera House.

Something nobody tells you about The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale, November 24 to December 3, 2026

What's rarely said is that in Rome, in fall 2026, there are several Nutcrackers, and they're not the same show. On November 27 there's one at Auditorium Conciliazione, from December 4 to 6 Brancaccio LAB's at Teatro Brancaccio, from December 17 to 20 the Balletto di Roma's at Teatro Olimpico. The Teatro Nazionale one has two features the others lack: it's a production of the city's opera foundation and it's danced by the students of its school. If you're after the ballet for the value of the institution and the training, choose this one. If you want an adult company, look elsewhere, or wait for Swan Lake at the Costanzi.

The second rarely mentioned thing is the calendar. Three of the eight performances are at 11:00 on a weekday, and the others are packed into a few days between late November and early December, before the city even turns on its Christmas lights. It's an Advent Nutcracker more than a Christmas one: if you're traveling to Rome in late November it's a rare chance, because most holiday shows only start in mid-December.

The third is practical: the Nazionale was born as a cinema, with stalls and galleries. For small children the stalls give a more direct view, but in the middle rows of a gently sloped hall, who sits in front of you matters a lot. A cushion from home isn't a bad idea.

Tickets for The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale

Tickets for The Nutcracker are sold on the official Teatro dell'Opera di Roma website, in the Box Office section, and at the foundation's box office. Prices by section are published on the Prices page of the official website.

Discounts and Carta Giovani

The Teatro dell'Opera publishes a discounts page and offers the Carta Giovani Opera youth card. For a show also designed for young people, it's the first page to check before buying.

Subscriptions

The foundation's options include a subscription dedicated to Teatro Nazionale, the Fantasia, Week End and Tutto Danza subscriptions, and a Youth subscription. If you're thinking of returning to the Nazionale for Peter Pan or Echoes, it's worth weighing them before buying a single ticket.

Contacts

For information the foundation's box office answers at 06 48160255 and 06 4817003 and at ufficio.biglietteria@operaroma.it.

My advice for seeing The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale, November 24 to December 3, 2026

My advice is to choose the performance based on the age of who's coming. With children under six, go for Sunday at 16:30 or Saturday at 18:00: times when attention holds and the evening ends early. With older kids who study dance, the 19:00 evening shows on Wednesday and Thursday have a more attentive, less restless audience. The 11:00 performances, if your day allows, are the quietest for adults who want to enjoy the music without hurry.

Second point: arrive well ahead of time. The Teatro dell'Opera rules don't allow you to reach your seat once the show has started, and with children the time for coat check, bathroom and settling in is always longer than expected. Half an hour before is the reasonable minimum.

Third: prepare for the performance at home. Listen to the suite, tell the story of Clara, the nutcracker and the Mouse King, explain that in the theater you don't talk during the music. A child who knows what to expect follows the ballet with far more involvement.

Fourth: after the show, a walk to Piazza della Repubblica or a snack in the Monti district rounds off the day with no need for other plans.

How to get to Teatro Nazionale for The Nutcracker

Teatro Nazionale, at Via del Viminale 51 on the corner of Via Depretis, is reached on metro line A to the Repubblica Teatro dell'Opera stop or on foot from Termini station, and buses 70 and 71 stop on Via Depretis.

By metro

Line A stops at Repubblica Teatro dell'Opera, on Piazza della Repubblica: from there you walk down toward the Viminale in a few minutes. If you arrive at Termini station, where lines A and B meet, you can reach the theater on foot.

By bus

Lines 70 and 71 run along Via Depretis, and lines H, 40, 60, 64, 70, 71 and 170 along Via Nazionale. For the route from your starting point, the ATAC journey planner is handy, especially on weekends, when frequencies change.

By car and taxi

The area between Via Nazionale, the Viminale and Termini is central and busy, and the theater doesn't list its own parking: driving only makes sense if you leave the car at a park-and-ride lot along metro line A. A taxi is the easiest option for families with small children, especially for the trip home.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

Everyone knows The Nutcracker comes from Hoffmann. It's mentioned less often that the road from the German tale to the Russian ballet runs through Paris: Tchaikovsky and Petipa worked from Alexandre Dumas père's The Tale of the Nutcracker, from 1845, which had reworked and softened Hoffmann's 1816 tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The Teatro dell'Opera page speaks of a ballet after a tale by Hoffmann, and that's correct, but the fairy tale audiences know is the one filtered through the French pen, better suited to an imperial stage.

The second rarely mentioned fact concerns the premiere: it was conducted by an Italian. Riccardo Drigo, an Italian composer, took the podium at the Mariinsky on December 18, 1892, and another Italian, Antonietta Dell'Era, was the first Sugar Plum Fairy. The most Russian ballet in the repertoire, in short, was born with two Italians among its leads.

The third concerns the choreography. Marius Petipa's name is linked to The Nutcracker, but it was his assistant Lev Ivanov who created the steps, based on the master's instructions. It's a distinction that applies to many modern productions too: every Nutcracker is a new choreography on the same score, and the Rome one bears the signature of Paul Chalmer.

House rules at Teatro Nazionale

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma rules apply in all its venues: umbrellas, hats, bulky bags, helmets, cameras and recording devices must be left at the coat check, and phones switched on, photos and filming are banned in the hall.

Food, drink and smoking

Food and drinks are allowed only at the theater bars, and smoking is banned everywhere. With children, have a snack before going in, or at the bar during the intermission.

Latecomers

Once the show has started you can't reach your seat. For weekend performances, between traffic and looking for parking, leave a generous margin.

Lost and found

For lost items the foundation lists the number 06 48160284. The full rules are on the General Information page of the official website.

The right photo to take at The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale, November 24 to December 3, 2026

Photos in the hall are banned by the Teatro dell'Opera rules, and rightly so: a flash during a pas de deux can throw off a young dancer. So the right photo is taken before and after.

The first is at the entrance on Via del Viminale, on the corner of Via Depretis, with the theater's sign and the show poster. For a child it's the simplest and loveliest memory: the first time at the theater, in front of the billboard. Take it when you arrive, in daylight for afternoon shows or with the sign lit for evening ones.

The second is inside, in the foyer or from the gallery, before the lights go down: the Liberty-style hall of the former Supercinema, with its decorations and the curtain closed, is the image that tells the story of the place. Then the phone goes off.

The third is taken on the way out, on Piazza della Repubblica, a few minutes' walk away: the lit square, with the Baths of Diocletian in the background, rounds off the day. In late November darkness comes early, and after the afternoon shows the square is already lit.

Some important events that happened here

The history of Teatro Nazionale begins in 1925, when the Supercinema opens on Via del Viminale. The client is Commendatore Urbano Rattazzi, the design is by architects Arnaldo Foschini and Attilio Spaccarelli with engineer Giacomo Giobbe. The hall is carved out of an existing building: 36 by 30 meters, 2,500 seats between stalls and galleries, Liberty decoration with gilded stucco, paintings, stone and fabrics.

Between the two wars the program alternates films with variety and vaudeville: that's why the hall was built with an orchestra pit, a detail that decades later would let it host live shows again. After the war the Supercinema becomes just a cinema, one of the big screens in the center of the capital.

The turning point comes at the end of the 1990s, when the City of Rome acquires the hall and hands it to the Fondazione Teatro dell'Opera as an additional venue. Since then the Nazionale has been the foundation's second home, alongside the Costanzi: it hosts the Ballet School's productions, musical theater and contemporary operas. In the 2026/2027 season the hall opens its year-end program with The Nutcracker, before hosting in December the first Italian staged performance of Bernstein's Peter Pan.

Who has been part of The Nutcracker's story and Teatro Nazionale

Some of the defining names in dance have passed through the history of The Nutcracker. Marius Petipa, who drew up its plan, Lev Ivanov, who created the choreography, Riccardo Drigo, who conducted the premiere, and Antonietta Dell'Era, Pavel Gerdt, a very young Olga Preobrajenska as Columbine and the young Nikolai Legat, among the 1892 cast. After them, Alexander Gorsky and Lopukhov created new versions.

The career of this production's choreographer includes Erik Bruhn and Betty Oliphant, his teachers in Toronto, John Cranko, who brought him to Stuttgart, and the great ballerinas he partnered, from Carla Fracci to Natalia Makarova, from Lynn Seymour to Marcia Haydée, from Luciana Savignano to Elisabetta Terabust. His path also includes Uwe Scholz in Leipzig and the Prix de Lausanne.

Every year the Teatro Nazionale stage also hosts the Teatro dell'Opera's most agile titles: this season, after The Nutcracker, Bernstein's Peter Pan with Luca Micheletti and Roberto Latini, the ballet Echoes and the opera Code: Unknown. And from November 24 the Ballet School students take the stage: among them, most likely, some of the dancers Roman audiences will find a few years from now on the Costanzi stage.

Around Teatro Nazionale: Viminale, Repubblica and Monti

Teatro Nazionale is between Via del Viminale, Via Depretis and Via Nazionale, a few minutes from Piazza della Repubblica, Teatro Costanzi and Termini station. It's an area built after 1870 for the new capital, but within a 10-minute walk there's a great deal to see.

Repubblica and the Baths

Heading up toward Piazza della Repubblica you come to the Baths of Diocletian, the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri and the Aula Ottagona. With children, a morning at the Baths museum before an afternoon show is a good pairing.

Via Nazionale and Palazzo delle Esposizioni

Walking down Via Nazionale you reach Palazzo delle Esposizioni and, further down, the Monti district, with its narrow streets and spots for a snack or dinner after the show.

Santa Maria Maggiore

On the other side, across Via Cavour, you reach the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in a quarter of an hour: in late November it's a fitting stop to get into the holiday spirit.

Where to eat before and after The Nutcracker

Around Teatro Nazionale you'll find what the center offers: bars, pizza by the slice and snack bars between Termini and Via Nazionale, and more refined trattorias and restaurants in the Monti district.

Before a morning performance

For the 11:00 performances, breakfast at one of the bars on Piazza della Repubblica or Via Nazionale is enough, followed by lunch after the show in the Monti district, a few minutes' walk away.

Before an evening performance

With a 19:00 start, have a hearty snack before and dinner after. Monti is the natural direction if you want to sit down without rushing: book ahead, because on weekend evenings tables go fast.

With kids

Pizza by the slice and neighborhood bakeries are the most practical option with little ones, especially between an afternoon show and heading home.

The Nutcracker with kids

The Nutcracker is the best ballet for a first time at the theater: the story is simple, the music is full of recognizable themes, the characters are clear. Danced by the school's students, it also has the advantage of showing children performers only a little older than they are.

The right age

The show page doesn't list a minimum age. From five up, a prepared child follows the ballet easily. Below that age, choose the afternoon performances and seats near the aisle, so you can step out without disturbing anyone.

Getting them ready

Telling them the plot first, playing the suite, explaining that dancers don't speak and that the music tells the story: these are small touches that change the experience. Clothes matter too: dressing up a little more than usual shows that the theater is a special occasion.

During the show

The rules ban food in the hall and phones switched on. The intermission is the time for the bathroom and a snack at the theater bar.

Accessibility at Teatro Nazionale

The show page doesn't give specific information on accessible seating at Teatro Nazionale: the right move is to contact the foundation's box office before buying, at 06 48160255 and 06 4817003 or at ufficio.biglietteria@operaroma.it.

When booking, explain your needs: a seat in the stalls, assistance, the most convenient entrance. The Nazionale hall was born as a cinema, with stalls and galleries, and for people with mobility issues the stalls remain the simplest choice. With strollers, ask ahead where to leave them.

Late November in Rome: shows around The Nutcracker

Late November is when Rome gets into the full theater season, without the holiday crowds yet. The days are short and the evenings cool and often damp: a warm jacket and a folding umbrella are the bare minimum.

The other Nutcrackers in town

If you want to compare versions, there's The Nutcracker at Auditorium Conciliazione on November 27, Brancaccio LAB's at Teatro Brancaccio from December 4 to 6 and the Balletto di Roma's at Teatro Olimpico from December 17 to 20.

The Teatro dell'Opera in December

After The Nutcracker, the foundation brings Swan Lake to the Costanzi from December 17 to 31 and Bernstein's Peter Pan to the Nazionale from December 18 to 23: two good reasons to come back to the same area a few weeks later.

Frequently asked questions about The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale

When is The Nutcracker on at Teatro Nazionale in Rome?

The Nutcracker plays Teatro Nazionale from November 24 to December 3, 2026, in eight performances: November 24 at 11:00, November 25 and 26 at 19:00, November 28 at 18:00, November 29 at 16:30, December 1 at 11:00, December 2 at 19:00 and December 3 at 11:00.

Who dances The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale?

The Teatro Nazionale Nutcracker is danced by the students of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Ballet School, in Paul Chalmer's choreography, with sets by Andrea Miglio and costumes by Anna Biagiotti. It's a Teatro dell'Opera di Roma production, to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Where is Teatro Nazionale in Rome?

Teatro Nazionale is at Via del Viminale 51, on the corner of Via Agostino Depretis, 00184 Rome. The nearest stop is Repubblica Teatro dell'Opera on metro line A, Termini station is within walking distance, and buses 70 and 71 run along Via Depretis.

Where can I buy tickets for the Rome Opera's Nutcracker?

Tickets for The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale are sold on the official Teatro dell'Opera di Roma website and at the foundation's box office. Prices by section are published on the website's Prices page, and for information the box office answers at 06 48160255 and 06 4817003.

Is The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale suitable for children?

The Nutcracker is one of the ballets best suited to children, and the Teatro Nazionale production, danced by the school's students, is designed with young people in mind too. The official page doesn't list a minimum age, and for little ones the Saturday 18:00 and Sunday 16:30 performances are the most convenient.

Who is Paul Chalmer, the Nutcracker's choreographer?

Paul Chalmer, choreographer of The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale, was born in Ottawa in 1962, was a principal dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet and in Monte Carlo, and directed the Leipzig ballet from 2005 to 2010. For the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma he has created many ballets, from The Sleeping Beauty to La Sylphide.

Can you enter the hall after the show has started?

No: the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma rules, which also apply at Teatro Nazionale, don't allow you to reach your seat once the show has started. With children, arrive at least half an hour early, so you have time to leave coats and bags at the coat check.

Final advice on The Nutcracker at Teatro Nazionale

The Teatro Nazionale Nutcracker has a quality no other Roman Nutcracker this season can claim: it's the production of the city's opera foundation, danced by the students of its school, in the choreography of an artist who built part of his career at the Teatro dell'Opera itself. In our view it's the best way to take a child to see a ballet for the first time in Rome: an intimate hall, a story everyone knows, young performers to identify with. Choose a weekend performance with little ones, arrive early, listen to the suite at home and end the day on Piazza della Repubblica.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? The English-language guides to visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.