The audience demands an encore...

In the Rhine-Main region between 5 and 10 February Valery Gergiev conducted some three hundred artists of the Mariinsky Theatre including the orchestra, chorus and opera and ballet companies. The tour drew the admiration of Axel Zibulski, culture editor of the  Offenbach-Post. In his review of the opera and concert part of the tour at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, he commented that “the Mariinsky Theatre is truly a pearl among pearls,” while Zibulski refers to the ballet leg of the tour in Darmstadt as “a perfect illusion of a fairytale world en pointe,” the climax of which came with Swan Lake; in his view “it would be hard to imagine a more distinct classical work.”

In his review for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gerhard Rohde commented that with this tour “Russia demonstrated its amazing vocal talents.” The critic focused on the “long, heartfelt ovations after every performance at the Alte Oper,” noting that the Mariinsky Theatre’s visit “must be repeated soon in accordance with the wishes of the public.” In The Enchanted Wanderer the orchestra under Valery Gergiev “unfolded Shchedrin’s score with delicacy and striving and resonant timbres, while the three soloists – Sergei Aleksashkin, Krisitna Kapustinskaya and Andrei Popov – gave the images impressive and impeccable vocal features.” The critic was also impressed by the choice of soloists in Boris Godunov and, in particular, Yevgeny Nikitin who in the lead role appeared as a “tense operatic character” “with expressive gestures, eloquent body movements and singing in which he conveyed all the subtleties of the role to a fantastic degree.” In the concert performance of The Queen of Spades he was “enchanted” by Maria Guleghina as Liza with her “powerful and clear-sounding soprano voice” while “Irina Bogacheva as the old Countess acted and sang as if she were appearing in some dazzling theatre play – stunning!”

The Frankfurter Neue Presse saw “expressiveness in which the chorus and orchestra brilliantly followed principal conductor Valery Gergiev”:

In the  Frankfurter Rundschau Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich also confirmed that the “central event of the carnival in Hesse” was “Russia’s great culture.” Valery Gergiev’s efforts “to dust down interpretations of the Russian repertoire are tremendous,” and “his unusual thirst for work is exemplary” – “as well as the vast world of Russian music, he has also assimilated more tracts of the international music repertoire than most of his colleagues in the west.” The critic placed emphasis on the “ensemble of grandiose singers” including Irina Bogacheva, Maria Guleghina, Aleksandrs Antoņenko and Yevgeny Nikitin.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung interestingly noted that “at the end of their variations several performers even had to come back onstage because of the applause.” “The audience fell in love” with Olesya Novikova in  The Sleeping Beauty: “her performance demonstrated those fundamental qualities typical of the Mariinsky ballet school” and, first and foremost, “the inner expressiveness of the dancer’s body, acting beyond the realms of technical perfection.”

Frankfurter Rundschau’s Katja Sturm compared classical ballet with sweets and jewels. The Mariinsky Theatre brought “a veritable treasure chest of the old maestro Marius Petipa and from there drew out clouds of tulle that enveloped the elfin creatures who as usual danced in sequences of solos, pas de deux and corps de ballet scenes.”

In a different review for Frankfurter Rundschau, Sylvia Staude called Viktoria Teryoshkina a “delightful Odette” and a “triumphant Odile – with a coquettishly cunning grin and insolently dazzling mien.”
In The Sleeping Beauty she noted the incredible lightness of the leaps and the silent landings of Alexander Sergeyev, Vasily Tkachenko, Konstantin Zverev and Alexei Timofeyev, while “Olesya Novikova was so stable in terms of technique and so enchanting, even her radiant smile was there from the start to the very end of the performance.” The author summed up that “The Mariinsky makes history accessible,” because this is a “tradition that must, without doubt, be preserved” and “thanks to unbroken links we are left with an incredibly precious legacy.”