The Mariinsky Theatre on tour in Spain

The Mariinsky Theatre’s series of performances at major European music festivals continues with a tour to Spain. The culmination of the XXVII International Arts Festival, held each year at the castle in Peralada on the Costa Brava, will come with a concert by the Mariinsky Theatre, dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner to commemorate one of the most significant music anniversaries this year. The concert programme includes the finest works from Wagner’s operatic legacy – Act I of the opera Die Walküre and the scene of Isolde’s death from Tristan und Isolde. A recording of Die Walküre released on the Mariinsky label on 11 February this year received high praise from respected critics and music publications, a  Diapason d’or award, anOpera Diamond award and five stars from Audiophile Audition magazine. The first release in Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, the full recording of which is to be completed in late 2014, reconfirmed maestro Gergiev’s reputation as an authoritative interpreter of the German opera genius’ works. The concert in Spain will see appearances in the main roles by leading Mariinsky Opera soloists such as Mlada Khudoley (Sieglinde), Avgust Amonov (Siegmund) and Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding). The scene of Isolde’s death will be performed by Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest Wagnerian singers of the present day. The concert begins at 20:00 on 2 August. 

Over the next two evenings the Mariinsky Theatre will be a special guest at Europe’s oldest music festival, the Quincena Musical in San Sebastián. On 3 August Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra in a programme featuring the overture to Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, Johannes Brahms’ Second Symphony and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. At the festival, this virtuoso work by Tchaikovsky, its music posing a serious challenge for the soloist, will feature Alexandre Bouzlov, one of the most talented young Russian cellists today who has already won great acclaim at leading concert venues throughout the world.

On 4 August there will be a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 21 in C Major and Dmitry Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony (Babi Yar). In Mozart’s concerto the piano solo will be performed by Spanish musician Ignasi Cambra, currently a student of the renowned teacher and musician Professor Alexander Toradze. In Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony, written to verse by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the solo will be performed by leading Mariinsky Opera bass Mikhail Petrenko, a prize-winner at several prestigious international competitions.