Nutcracker ballet 2026 in Leipzig, Dresden, Cologne, the Ruhr and Munich

The Nutcracker is danced in winter 2026/27 in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, the Ruhr area, Münster, Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Munich by five opera houses with their own ballet company and orchestra and by more than a dozen touring productions.

The Nutcracker performances at the Semperoper Dresden and the Aalto-Theater Essen are sold out (as of 7 November 2026). Seats are left at the Oper Leipzig on single December dates, at Theater Chemnitz for every date and at the Bavarian State Opera for 25 December and 1 and 6 January 2027; the touring shows still have seats almost everywhere, from €18.45.

A full Nutcracker performance lasts about two hours with one interval. Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Frankfurt are not part of this guide.

Checked 7 November 2026. Not published yet: the prices of the sold-out performances in Dresden and Essen, for most touring shows the running time, the age recommendation and whether an orchestra plays live, and the cinema prices for the Royal Ballet recording.

The Nutcracker 2026: dates in Cologne, the Rhine-Ruhr, Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Munich

The table lists the Nutcracker performances until February 2027 that we found at the houses and promoters in these regions, sorted by region and date, with the prices of 7 November 2026; the dates lead to the event on Evenitto.

The prices are those of the houses or of the ticket shops they link to, mostly with the booking fee; some touring companies quote lower “from” prices on their own sites than their ticket shops then show.

Opera house or touring company: which Nutcracker is which?

An opera-house Nutcracker is danced by the house's own ballet company, in its own choreography, with the house orchestra in the pit. A touring production travels with its company through civic halls, hotel ballrooms and spa halls; its music comes from an orchestra, a string quartet or a recording, depending on the tour and the venue.

The touring names sound alike and belong to different promoters. The Crown Ballet says it plays with an orchestra only “in selected houses”, the Royal Classical Ballet dances to a recording according to its promoter, and the International Ballet Company Italia appears in Mülheim “without orchestra”. Where the table says “not stated”, ask the promoter before you buy.

The Nutcracker in Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf 2026

The Urania Spiegelpalast in Cologne-Riehl shows the Nutcracker in 2026/27 as ballet with acrobatics and variety acts, at tables with a menu; the €38.50 seats have a strongly restricted view, and the Spiegelpalast gives no running time.

At the Theater am Tanzbrunnen, the 17:00 show on 2 December is a ballet fairy tale with a narrator for families, the 20:00 show a ballet in two acts. The Classico Ballet Napoli's date at the Volksbühne is on the promoter's list and on Eventim, not yet in the Volksbühne's own programme.

At the Opernhaus Bonn, the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre of Ostrava dances Youri Vámos's version, in which Clara and the Prince meet the miser Scrooge from Dickens's “A Christmas Carol”. The Aalto Ballett Essen dances the same version.

The Ballett am Rhein does not dance a Nutcracker in the 2026/27 season; from Wednesday 23 December 2026 it dances “Sleeping Beauty” at the Opernhaus Düsseldorf (Deutsche Oper am Rhein). At the Classic Remise a string quartet plays live on stage. The production at the CASTELLO is FranceConcert's, lasts 2 hours 10 minutes with an interval and also comes to Duisburg and Dortmund in January and February.

Without the ballet, the orchestras play the Nutcracker Suite:

• Kölner Philharmonie: on Monday 14 December 2026 the Staatskapelle Weimar after Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, €20–€68 (programme), and on Thursday 31 December 2026 at 18:00 the WDR Symphony Orchestra in its New Year's Eve concert, €12–€97.
• Tonhalle Düsseldorf: the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra in its “Sternzeichen” series on 11, 13 and 14 December 2026, €10–€75, few seats left (Tonhalle).

More on the season: Christmas in Cologne and Bonn and in Düsseldorf.

The Nutcracker in the Ruhr area and Münster 2026

The Aalto Ballett Essen premiered Youri Vámos's 1988 Nutcracker in Essen on Saturday 7 November 2026; all 13 performances are sold out. Ballett Dortmund, the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen and Theater Hagen have no Nutcracker in the 2026/27 season.

For Dortmund that leaves the Westfalenhalle in February and two concerts:

• Konzerthaus Dortmund: “The Nutcracker and I” on Friday 18 December at 19:30 and on Saturday 19 December 2026 at 15:00 and 18:00. The pianist Alexandra Dariescu plays 15 piano arrangements from the ballet while a ballerina dances behind a screen of hand-drawn animations; €16–€49, children under 17 €15 (Konzerthaus, dates on Evenitto).
• Dortmund Philharmonic: “Deep Dive” with excerpts from the ballet on Monday 14 December 2026, 19:00, at the Konzerthaus (Theater Dortmund).

In Duisburg, members of the Duisburg Philharmonic play the Nutcracker Suite with a reading from Hoffmann's story on Sunday 13 December 2026 at 11:00 in the opera foyer, €17, and again on Sunday 20 December (Duisburger Philharmoniker). At the Halle Münsterland the company appears as the United European Ballet; the promoter sells the same tour elsewhere as the International Ballet Company Italia. More on the season: Christmas in the Ruhr area and in Münster.

The Nutcracker in Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz 2026

The Nutcracker of the Semperoper Ballett in Dresden, in 2026 in Aaron S. Watkin and Jason Beechey's version from 2011, opens at night on the Dresden Christmas market. At the family performances on 23 and 25 December at 14:00 children pay €5; these are sold out too.

At the Oper Leipzig, Thursday 3 December 2026 at 17:00 is a family day: in the ticket shop you pick a child ticket first and then up to four adult tickets at the family price (3 December on Evenitto). The opera marks returned tickets as “Noch Restkarten”; on 7 November that was 2, 3, 11, 12, 16, 19 and 20 December (Oper Leipzig).

Theater Chemnitz brings back Sabrina Sadowska's Nutcracker, in which the family is called Esche, from Friday 27 November 2026, with the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie; the opera houses of Chemnitz and Leipzig are about an hour from Dresden. For children, the Dresdner Residenz Konzerte play an hour of music from the ballet with a narrator, not a ballet, in the Wallpavillon of the Zwinger:

• Saturday 21 November 2026, 14:00: a few seats left.
• Monday 28 December and Wednesday 30 December 2026, 14:00: €25, children up to 16 €15 (28 December on Evenitto).
• Saturday 2 January, Saturday 16 January and Saturday 30 January 2027, 14:00: €29, children €19 (Dresdner Residenz Konzerte).

More on the season: Christmas in Leipzig, in Dresden, the Christmas concerts with the Thomanerchor and the Christmas Oratorio and our guide to the Striezelmarkt and the Leipzig Christmas market 2026.

The Nutcracker in Munich 2026

The Nutcracker of the Bavarian State Ballet at Munich's Nationaltheater in 2026/27 is John Neumeier's version: Drosselmeier is a ballet master, and Marie's dream leads behind the scenes of a theatre instead of to the Land of Sweets.

The evenings of 12, 18, 21 and 28 December are sold out and 25 December has last tickets; on Friday 1 January and Wednesday 6 January 2027 the performances start at 18:00 (Bavarian State Opera).

At the Prinzregententheater, storytellers narrate the 15:30 shows. On 23 December and 7 January at 15:30 children get €20 off, by phone only. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding plays the second act as a concert on Thursday 17 December and Friday 18 December 2026 at 20:00 at the Herkulessaal, €25–€112 (BR Symphony Orchestra, 17 December on Evenitto).

Sold out? How to still get Nutcracker tickets

The sold-out Nutcracker performances of 2026 in Dresden, Essen and Leipzig leave three ways in:

• Semperoper Dresden: returned tickets appear in the webshop; the box office, which opens an hour before the start, may have returns and on sold-out evenings sells standing places in the 4th balcony (buying tickets).
• Oper Leipzig: for sold-out dates there is a ticket exchange and a waiting list in the opera's ticket shop.
• Aalto-Theater Essen: returns may be available at the box office.

Buy only from the house, the promoter or the ticket shop they link to. The dates that still have seats are in the table above.

How long is the Nutcracker?

The Nutcracker lasts about two hours with one interval at the opera houses, about 2 hours 20 minutes in Munich and 2 hours 15 minutes in Chemnitz; each house's length is in the second table. The Classico Ballet Napoli plays about two hours with an interval of about 20 minutes, the Royal Ballet recording in cinemas runs 140 minutes and the children's concert in the Zwinger about an hour.

What age is the Nutcracker suitable for?

The Nutcracker is recommended from age 6 in Leipzig, Chemnitz, Essen and Munich and from age 10 at the Semperoper; most touring companies give no minimum age, and the Grand Classic Ballet has child prices for ages 4 to 14. Shorter or explained formats for children:

• Leipzig: the opera's family day on 3 December at 17:00.
• Dresden: the Musical Fairy Tales in the Zwinger, about an hour.
• Cologne: the ballet fairy tale with a narrator on 2 December at 17:00 at the Theater am Tanzbrunnen.
• Dortmund: before “The Nutcracker and I” on 19 December at 15:00, a child-friendly introduction at 14:00, by registration with the Konzerthaus.
• Munich: the storytellers at 15:30 at the Prinzregententheater, the children's ballet on 20 December and the children's concert at the Gasteig with tunes from the Nutcracker on Saturday 19 December 2026 at 15:00 (50 minutes, for ages about 5 to 12, €19.50, reduced €14.50).

The Nutcracker in cinemas 2026

The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker from London, a recording of Peter Wright's production with Mayara Magri as the Sugar Plum Fairy (Royal Ballet and Opera), shows in German cinemas from Sunday 29 November 2026: 140 minutes in the original with subtitles, rated FSK 6, a recording and not a live broadcast (CineStar). The cinemas have not published prices yet. Dates at the cinemas we checked:

• Sunday 29 November 2026, 16:30: CineStar Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Hagen and Oberhausen.
• Tuesday 1 December 2026, 20:00: Cineplex Rundkino Dresden (Cineplex).
• Tuesday 8 December 2026, 20:00: Cineplex Leipzig.
• Sunday 20 December 2026, 11:00: Cineplex Cologne.

What is the most famous piece from the Nutcracker?

The best-known pieces from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker are the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, for which Tchaikovsky brought the celesta into the orchestra, and the Waltz of the Flowers, followed by the dances of the second act: the Spanish, Arabian and Chinese dances, the Russian Trepak and the Dance of the Reed Flutes.

The concert suite op. 71a, with eight numbers including the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Waltz of the Flowers and the Trepak, was played as early as March 1892, months before the ballet; it is what the orchestras in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Duisburg play in December 2026 (Wikipedia).

What is the Nutcracker about?

The Nutcracker is a ballet in two acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, first performed on 18 December 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, in a double bill with his opera “Iolanta”. It is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 story “Nutcracker and Mouse King”, in Alexandre Dumas's adaptation from the mid-1840s: on Christmas Eve a girl – Marie or Clara, depending on the version – is given a nutcracker, which fights the Mouse King at night and takes her to an enchanted kingdom. Marius Petipa wrote the libretto; when he fell ill, his assistant Lev Ivanov staged the ballet (Britannica).

Quick answers

When is the Nutcracker on in 2026? The Nutcracker runs in 2026/27 from late November to early January at the opera houses and until February with the touring companies; the Aalto-Theater Essen has played it since 7 November 2026 and the Urania Spiegelpalast in Cologne from 20 November.

Are there still tickets for the Nutcracker at the Semperoper? The Nutcracker at the Semperoper Dresden is sold out for 2026 (as of 7 November); returned tickets appear in the webshop, and the box office may have returns and standing places in the 4th balcony.

Where can I still get Nutcracker tickets with a live orchestra? The Nutcracker with a live orchestra still has seats in 2026/27 at the Oper Leipzig (returns on 7 November: 2, 3, 11, 12, 16, 19 and 20 December), at Theater Chemnitz, at the Bavarian State Opera (25 December, 1 and 6 January), with the International Festival Ballet in Duisburg (27 and 28 December) and with the National Ballet of North Macedonia in Mülheim (22 December); the Crown Ballet in Castrop-Rauxel, Wuppertal and Dresden and the FranceConcert production in Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Dortmund also have “with orchestra” in their titles.

How long is the Nutcracker? The Nutcracker lasts about two hours with one interval; John Neumeier's version in Munich about 2 hours 20 minutes.

What age is the Nutcracker for? The Nutcracker is recommended from age 6 in Leipzig, Chemnitz, Essen and Munich and from age 10 at the Semperoper Dresden.

How much are Nutcracker tickets in 2026? Nutcracker tickets in 2026/27 cost €18.45–€95.60 with the touring companies depending on the seat, €27–€106 at the Oper Leipzig and €10–€132 at the Bavarian State Opera; many promoters charge children less.

Is the Nutcracker shown in cinemas? The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker shows as a recording in German cinemas from Sunday 29 November 2026, at CineStar and Cineplex among others, 140 minutes in the original with subtitles.

More Christmas shows, family plays and children's theatre are on Evenitto under Christmas shows and ballet, Christmas at the theatre and Dance and ballet.

Cover photo: scene from the first act at the Kansas City Ballet, 30 November 2016, Brett Pruitt & East Market Studios / Kansas City Ballet, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; illustrative photo.