From Swan Lake to The Nutcracker, his music continues to captivate audiences across generations and continents Thanks to ‘The Nutcracker’, this Russian composer gifted the world some of its most beloved Christmas melodies. His ‘Swan Lake’ became an unexpected symbol of the 1991 August Coup that signaled the Soviet Union’s collapse. His ballets packed theaters when impresario Sergey Diaghilev, who brought Russian ballet to the world stage, introduced them to Western audiences. And even those who