Music Festival Stars of the White Nights will commence on 27 and 28 May at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, heralding the most anticipated event of the theatre season. This annual festival promises a dazzling array of major ballet and opera premieres, outstanding guest performances, repertoire rarities, unique musical programs, and timeless classics featuring world-renowned stars
16 May, with a concert by the combined symphonic orchestra of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres, conducted by Valery Gergiev. The festival kicked off on 25 April in Vologda
From 25 April to 16 May the XXIII Moscow Easter Festival will take place. This season marks the first time in the festival’s history that it will include artists from the Bolshoi Theatre – a joint symphonic programme presented by the combined symphony orchestras of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres. For the first time the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will also join the event on a large scale, presenting the Far Eastern Easter Festival from 9 to 14 May in Sakhalin Region, Primorsky and Khabarovsk krais (regions). The festival will maintain its traditional extensive geography and rich programmes – Symphonic, Choral and Carillon. The main principles of the festival remain unchanged: charitable, educational and enlightening activities
On 7 May a new series of guest performances by the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia will open at the Mariinsky Theatre. This time, the Moscow company will present two ballets in St Petersburg – Spartacus by Khachaturian, staged by Yuri Grigorovich, and Jewels set to music by Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, staged by George Balanchine. The previous exchange ballet tours between the theaters took place more than twenty years ago, in March 2003