PORTLAND — The Portland Ballet will present “The Victorian Nutcracker” — set in Victorian era Portland with stage sets and costumes based on rooms in the Victoria Mansion — in early December.

Lawrence Golan, music director of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, returns to Maine to conduct the orchestra, which features many Portland Symphony members. He is a former concertmaster of the PSO.

The Victorian Festival Singers, under the direction of Andy Chipman with Gil Pertola and Abby Hutchins, will sing in the lobby and for the “Snow Scene.”

This year’s performance fatures new choreography by Associate Artistic Director Nell Shipman for the “Battle Scene,” where the Nutcracker and his soldiers take on the Mouse King and his army of mice. CORPS Director Joseph Morrissey has choreographed the intricate “Ribbon Candy” variation, and Katrina Smedal has choreographed a new “Chinese Tea” variation, featuring a dancing dragon.

Performances will be at 2 and 7.30 p.m. Saturday Dec. 8; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, at Merrill Auditorium. For tickets, $24-$54, call 842-0800 or visit www.porttix.com.