XVIII Music Festival Stars of the White Nights

The Stars of the White Nights music festival today ranks among the world’s top ten great music forums. It is one of the most popular and grandiose festivals in the world in terms of concept and scale. The man behind its inception in 1993 was Valery Gergiev, Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre. According to the maestro, he envisioned the first festival as a “musical gift” to the city from everyone at the Mariinsky Theatre and from the soloists who consented to perform at it. From the first year, the running the festival has emerged to be a characteristic “address” to the finest examples of musical culture, including rarely performed and undeservedly forgotten pieces. In sixteen years, the Stars of the White Nights festival has grown to cover not ten days but three months. Highly renowned conductors and soloists consider it a particular honour to perform at the Stars of the White Nights. Each year the festival programme comprises the very finest opera and ballet productions Each year the festival programme includes the theatre’s finest opera and ballet productions, a vast range of symphonic works, masterpieces of chamber music and new theatre premieres. In past years, the festival playbill has included programme series of classic composers: symphonies by Prokofiev, symphonies and concerti by Beethoven and opera, ballet and symphony music by Tchaikovsky. Other monumental events at the Stars have included a production of Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen and the series All Shostakovich Symphonies and All Mahler Symphonies. With the passing of each and every year, the Mariinsky Theatre pushes back the borders of the festival, performing in Moscow and towns in the North-West Region as well as staging performances in natural, open-air settings.