Anna Karenina in Geneva

The Mariinsky Ballet Company and Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will be on tour in Switzerland from 17 to 19 April. The theatre will be bringing one of the most popular and spectacular productions of recent years to Geneva – Alexei Ratmansky’s ballet Anna Karenina to music by Rodion Shchedrin which will be performed three times. The roles of Anna and Vronsky will be performed by stars of the Mariinsky Ballet Company Yekaterina Kondaurova and Konstantin Zverev on 17 April, Viktoria Teryoshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov on 18 April and Ulyana Lopatkina and Andrei Yermakov on 19 April. At the opening of the tour the orchestra will be conducted by Valery Gergiev, while at the subsequent two performances the conductor’s stand will be taken by Alexei Repnikov.
The tour will take place at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where during its recent tour of Europe the Mariinsky Theatre performed a concert programme of works by Igor Stravinsky featuring French actor Gérard Depardieu. Nadezhda Sikorskaya, the reviewer of Switzerland’s Russian-language newspaper Nasha Gazeta, wrote that “in Geneva, the tickets flew off the shelves like hot cakes even a month before the Mariinsky arrived.”

Director of the Swiss jeweller’s Adler Joailliers Franklin Adler, one of the tour project partners, stressed that “the Grand Théâtre de Genève is a unique institution, a symbol of music itself and of quality. The Mariinsky Theatre is one of the greatest companies in the world, one that enjoys international acclaim in both ballet and opera. The skills of Mariinsky Theatre performers dazzle audiences far beyond St Petersburg. For our business it was entirely natural to support both these theatres in order to give Geneva the opportunity to see a lavish adaptation of Anna Karenina under the baton of Valery Gergiev.”

Located in the Old Town near the conservatoire, museum and university, the Grand Théâtre de Genève opened in 1879 with Gioachino Rossini’s opera Guillaume Tell, which is considered to be a national symbol of Switzerland. Following a major fire the theatre was reconstructed and reopened in 1962 after major technical and equipment improvements to the stage. Each year the theatre produces around eight operas and two ballets.

The programme for the Mariinsky Ballet Company’s tour may be accessed via the website of the Grand Théâtre de Genève.