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Playbill Calendar
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The X International Mariinsky Ballet Festival
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From 15 to 25 April the Mariinsky Theatre will be running its anniversary tenth International Ballet Festival – one of the highlights of the world’s ballet season which draws balletomanes from across the globe to St Petersburg.
| | | The festival will see performances by Alina Cojocaru
(Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), David Hallberg and Daniil Simkin
(American Ballet Theatre), Polina Semionova (Staatsballett Berlin),
Mathieu Ganio (Opéra de Paris), leading Bolshoi Theatre soloists
Natalia Osipova, Svetlana Zakharova, Maria Alexandrova and Andrei
Uvarov and lead Mariinsky Theatre Diana Vishneva, Ulyana Lopatkina,
Alina Somova, Viktoria Teryoshkina, Yekaterina Kondaurova, Igor
Zelensky, Leonid Sarafanov, Andrian Fadeyev and Vladimir Shklyarov.
| | | In line with tradition, the festival opens with a premiere. This year it will be Rodion Shchedrin’s ballet Anna Karenina
with choreography by Alexei Ratmansky, making it the ballet master’s
latest work for the Mariinsky Theatre. In the premiere performances
the lead roles will be performed by Diana Vishneva (15 April) and Ulyana Lopatkina (16 April),
two outstanding Mariinsky Theatre ballerinas with different artistic
temperaments and performing styles. They will be partnered by Andrian
Fadeyev (15 April) and Yuri Smekalov (16 April).
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Ratmansky’s Anna Karenina has been
a ballet hit throughout Europe in recent years. Initially staged by
the choreographer for the Danish National Ballet, it has subsequently
been performed by other great ballet companies throughout the world; it
has also received the prestigious Benois de la danse prize.
Another premiere of the festival will be the legendary Shchedrin-Bizet Carmen Suite
with choreography by Alberto Alonso. The production is being staged at
the Mariinsky Theatre with the participation of Maya Plisetskaya,
the first performer of the role of Carmen in this ballet. The Mariinsky
Theatre premiere on 19 April will be performed by Ulyana Lopatkina. | | | One of the festival’s highlights will be the Evening of Young Choreographers on 23 April,
where three young contemporary choreographers – Edwaard Liang, Emil
Faski and Yuri Smekalov – will present their one-act ballets, created
specially for the Mariinsky Ballet Company’s leading soloists –
Yekaterina Kondaurova, Viktoria Teryoshkina and Leonid Sarafanov.
| | | Yet another highlight of the festival will be
a performance featuring by stars of the world’s greatest ballet
companies together with Mariinsky Theatre partners in a programme of
duets from the Mariinsky Theatre’s “gold reserves”. In Romeo and Juliet with choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky, on 17 April Polina Semionova (Staatsballett Berlin) will be performing alongside Vladimir Shklyarov (Mariinsky Theatre); in La Bayadère on 18 April,
the lead roles will be danced by Viktoria Teryoshkina and Igor Zelensky
(Mariinsky Theatre) and Maria Alexandrova (Bolshoi Theatre); on
the evening of 19 April the title role in George Balanchine’s Apollo will be performed by Mathieu Ganio (Opéra de Paris); on 20 April Natalia Osipova (Bolshoi Theatre) will be performing Giselle together with Leonid Sarafanov (Mariinsky Theatre); Swan Lake on 21 April will feature the duo of Svetlana Zakharova and Andrei Uvarov (both Bolshoi Theatre); and on 24 April Alina Somova (Mariinsky Theatre) and David Hallberg (American Ballet Theatre) will be performing the lead roles in The Sleeping Beauty.
| | | Outstanding past masters of the Kirov Theatre Tatiana
Vecheslova and Vakhtang Chabukiani are to be honoured with
a performance of Giselle on 20 April and La Bayadère on 18 April.
| | | During the festival, there will be master classes by
Michel Denart, Principal Coach and Ballet-Master at the Opéra de Paris,
and Grigory Chicherin, Principal Coach at the National Ballet Academy
in Amsterdam.
| | | The festival draws to a close on 25 April with
a gala concert featuring soloists of the Mariinsky Ballet Company and
guest soloists including David Hallberg, Daniil Simkin and Alina
Cojocaru among others.
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VTB - General Sponsor of the X Mariinsky International Ballet Festival
In line with tradition, the festival is being run with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
The production of the ballet Anna Karenina has been made possible thanks to the support of the Deutsch-Russische Ballettstiftung.
The Astoria is the recommended hotel for festival guests. |
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