MARIINSKY THEATRE’S THREE RESIDENT COMPANIES – KIROV OPERA, BALLET and ORCHESTRA – WILL PRESENT NEARLY  60 PERFORMANCES IN SEVEN WEEKS

Mariinsky Theatre’s historic Ring cycle returns June 10 - 15: Russia’s first Ring production in nearly a century  lauded by German, American and other international press

Festival opens with three days of events dedicated to composer MikhaiI Glinka’s 200th Anniversary,  including  premier of a new production of A Life for the Tsar

Kirov Opera to present first White Nights performances of new productions, including Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snowmaiden , Shostakovich’s The Nose  and Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila as well as more than 20 other productions;

Stars of the Kirov Opera will appear in signature roles, including  Olga Borodina in Samson et Dalila; Anna Netrebko in La Traviata;  Vladimir Galuzin in Otello and Queen of Spades

The Kirov Ballet will present 25 productions;  Balanchine celebration from June 2 – 7;

Valery Gergiev, Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre and Artistic Director and Founder of the "Stars of the White Nights Festival", has announced this summer’s schedule of more than 60 performances and other events in St. Petersburg’s beloved festival “Stars of the White Nights”, which will start in the beautiful city on the Neva on Sunday, May 30 and run through Sunday, July 18.

Held in Russia’s former imperial capital of St. Petersburg since 1993, the festival has an enchanting atmosphere much enhanced by the city’s location, architecture and other cultural institutions, including the Hermitage, Catherine Palace, the Russian Museum, among many other museums, midnight boat rides on the Neva, and much more.  Last year’s festival, which lasted an unprecedented three months and featured visits by some of the world’s most esteemed orchestras and ballet companies, celebrated the city’s 300th anniversary.  This year’s festival – the twelfth – opens with a three-day  “mini-festival” celebration of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka’s 200th anniversary, which is on June 1.  Glinka (1804-1857), one of Russia’s greatest 19th-century composers and the founder of Russia’s national music movement, influenced all later Russian composers.  In addition to its presentation of an immense number of productions, this year’s festival also offers two other “mini-festivals” that focus on Rimsky-Korsakov and George Balanchine.  

The Kirov Opera will present 20 of its finest productions, including the Opera’s premiere of its new production of A Life for the Tsar (May 30 and 31) designed by Dmitry Chernyakov and the White Nights Festival premieres of three productions, which had or will have their Mariinsky premiere’s during the 2003 – 2004 season.  These include Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snowmaiden (June 8 and June 27) designed by George Tsypin (yet another collaboration between Maestro Gergiev and George Tsypin); Shostakovich’s The Nose designed by Zinovy Margolin; and Saint-Saens’ Samson et Dalila designed by Emmanuel Favre.

One of the most anticipated events of the summer will be the Kirov Opera’s acclaimed new production of Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle (June 10 – 15), which received its premiere here in 2003 and has since been presented twice in Baden-Baden, Germany.  The Mariinsky’s is the first Russian production of the “Ring” in nearly a century and the first to feature an all-Russian cast singing in German.  “The Russians stepped out of the ‘Ring’ as champions,” wrote the Berlin Tagesspiegel, which went on to say: “It was made clear that the Wagner community should have considerably fewer difficulties in procuring a suitable cast of musicians and actors from now on.” 

Germany’s influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) gave further applause:

“The production is held together entirely by Valery Gergiev and his orchestra. His ‘Ring’ teems with dramatic vigour, a momentous flow, thrilling climaxes, and yet its delicate color palette and thematic malleability infuse it with calm restraint, exposing moments of lyrical melancholy. Gergiev demonstrates his Walküre is nothing short of the highest caliber. Not only does he inspire in his audience the desire to listen to this rendition repeatedly but also to the rest of the Wagner tetralogy.  As such Gergiev may have paved the way for Baden-Baden to become valid competition for Bayreuth.”

Even the New York Times praised the Gergiev-Tsypin production of the “Ring” at Baden-Baden:

“Aside from being mostly a real pleasure to sit through during four evenings, the Wagner “Ring des Nibelungen” cycles presented by Valery Gergiev and his Kirov Opera at the Festspielhaus here were historically significant.  Epochal, even.  They confirmed the strength of the Kirov company outside Russian repertory, opened up a sudden new reservoir of Wagner singers. …This was a ‘Ring’ to match the four or five most important stagings since the middle of the last century.”

The Kirov Ballet will mount a Balanchine Festival within “White Nights” to honor the centennial of the St. Petersburg-born American choreographer with nearly a dozen of his most beloved creations.  One of the world’s most revered choreographers, Balanchine arrived in the United States in 1933 and is credited with changing the image of ballet in the 20th century.  He went on to establish both a ballet school and the New York City Ballet.  A Gala Tribute will be given on June 7, with Balanchine’s Four Temperaments, Divertissement, La Valse and Ballet Impérial.  The Kirov Ballet will also present works by Balanchine predecessors Marius Petipa, Fyodor Lopukhov and Vaslav Nijinsky and perform many other works from extensive and historic repertoire.  The Vaganova Ballet Academy will perform in a Gala to honor the 125th anniversary of its founder, Agrippina Vaganova, an influential dancer who lived from 1879-1951 and who taught generations of Russian dancers.  The Vaganova System took the best of the old imperial style and blended it with more athletic movement both to keep ballet “classic” while moving it into the modern era.

The Kirov Orchestra will be conducted by its music director, Valery Gergiev, for the opening night Glinka Gala on Sunday, May 30. The orchestra will also be heard in concert performances of two Rimsky-Korsakov operas, May Night (June 9, conducted by Tugan Sokhiev) and Mlada (June 14, Gergiev), and in additional performances including a concert on June 26, with guest artist Yefim Bronfman playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Other fully-staged opera productions to be revived in St. Petersburg this summer will bring such international stars as Ferruccio Furlanetto in Boris and Don Carlo; Anna Netrebko in La traviata; Olga Borodina in Samson et Dalila; and Vladimir Galuzin in Otello and Queen of Spades. 

Opera productions:
Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (new production/Mariinsky Theatre premiere), Ruslan and Lyudmila
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Rimsky-Korsakov: Golden Cockerel, May Night, Mlada, Sadko, Snowmaiden (new production/White Nights Festival premiere)
Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila (new production/White Nights Festival premiere)
Shostakovich: The Nose (new production/White Nights Festival premiere), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, The Gamblers
Tchaikvosky: Eugene Onegin, Mazeppa, Queen of Spades
Verdi: Don Carlo, Otello, La Traviata, [Requiem]
Wagner: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung

Ballets by George Balanchine:
Apollo, Ballet Imperial, Concerto Barocco, Divertissement, Donizetti Variations, Four Temperaments, Jewels, Prodigal Son, La Sonnambula, Serenade, La Valse
 
Other ballets (partial list):
La bayadère, Cinderella, Le corsaire, Don Quixote, Etudes, Giselle, Manon, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake; “Tribute to Stravinsky”, with Les Noces, Le Rossignol and Sacre du printemps

‘New’ opera productions

Monday, May 30, 31
Glinka
A LIFE FOR THE TSAR
White Nights’ Premiere
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director and Production Designer: Dmitry Chernyakov

Tuesday, June 8
Rimsky-Korsakov
THE SNOWMAIDEN
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Alexander Galibin
Production Designer: George Tsypin

Monday, June 21
Shostakovich
THE NOSE
Conducted by Valery Gergiev
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Yuri Alexandrov
Production Designer: Zinovy Margolin

Sunday, June 27
Rimsky-Korsakov
THE SNOWMAIDEN
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Alexander Galibin
Production Designer: George Tsypin

Tuesday, June 29
Glinka
A LIFE FOR THE TSAR
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director and Production Designer: Dmitry Chernyakov

Friday, July 9
Saint-Saëns
SAMSON ET DALILA
With: Olga Borodina
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Charles Roubaud
Set Designer: Emmanuel Favre
Costume Designer: Katia Duflot

The English-language part of the Mariinsky Theatre’s official web site is     http://www.mariinsky.ru/en

The English-language part of the Mariinsky Theatre’s official web site is     www.mariinsky.ru/en