As part of a tour by the Moscow Easter Festival, on 27 April – the Day of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – at the region’s main music venue there were two concerts by the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. This was the Mariinsky Orchestra’s second visit to Yakutsk

On 30 April Anastasia Matvienko will be making her debut in the title role in the ballet Anna Karenina

On 25 April at the Mariinsky Theatre the lead female role in Schéhérazade will be performed by Viktoria Tereshkina for the first time with Vladimir Shklyarov making his debut as the Slave. On 27 April Viktoria Brilyova will make her debut in this role alongside Olga Belik who will be making her debut as one of the Odalisques. 27 April will also see debuts in Chopiniana by Nadezhda Batoeva and Alisa Sodoleva, while Anastasia Matvienko will be making her debut in the title role in The Firebird

22 April will see several debuts in Giacomo Puccini’s opera Gianni Schicchi

Mariinsky Theatre prima ballerina Viktoria Tereshkina has been nominated for the Benois de la Danse prize for her performance of the role of Carmen in the ballet Carmen-Suite, while Timur Askerov has been nominated for the role of Basilio in Don Quixote

On 22 April mezzo-soprano Zlata Bulycheva will be performing the role of Emilia in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Otello for the first time (production by Vasily Barkhatov)

Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov are to make their debuts with American Ballet Theatre. On 29 May at the Metropolitan Opera in New York they will be performing the lead roles in Natalia Makarova’s production of the ballet La Bayadère

On 20 April tenor Stanislav Leontiev will be performing the role of Ferrando in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte for the first time