On 30 July Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin at the Mariinsky Theatre concluded the 2016-17 season which ran for forty-three weeks.
On the eve of the opening of the 2017-18 season the Mariinsky II will host several ballet events: Alexei Ratmansky's production of Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella on 6 and 7 September, the one-act ballets Carmen-Suite and Le Carnaval on 9 September and Carmen-Suite and the scene Le Jardin animé from the ballet Le Corsaire on 10 September. On 8 September at the Mariinsky II there will be a performance by the Beijing Sunshine Art Delegation creative ensemble.
The opening of the 2017-18 season at the Mariinsky II will come on 12 September – under the baton of Valery Gergiev soloists of the Mariinsky Opera and the Mariinsky Orchestra will present a premiere from the 2016-17 season – Francesco Cilea's opera Adriana Lecouvreur.
The Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will open on 11 September with a performance by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. The programme includes Alexander Mosolov's Factory. Machine Music and Anton Bruckner's Third Symphony.
Performances will begin at the historic Mariinsky Theatre on 23 September.
Results of the 2016-17 season in figures
• Performances and concerts were held at all seven venues: the historic Mariinsky Theatre, the Concert Hall and the Mariinsky II and its four chamber halls;
• There were one thousand four hundred and thirty-six performances and concerts in total with a combined attendance rate of over 90%;
• Twenty-four opera premieres, including five in the series Six Little Operas for Children (aged 3+), five in the series Six Little Operas for Children (aged 7+) and five in the series Six Little Operas for Adults, as well as four ballet premieres;
• Nine festivals in St Petersburg, the IX Music Festival To Mstislav Rostropovich in Samara, the XVI Moscow Easter Festival marking one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky, which was held in seventy-seven Russian towns and cities covering twenty regions, and the II International Far East Festival Mariinsky (Vladivostok), which runs until 13 August;
• New projects for new audiences – the programme The Mariinsky for Children: in the 2016-17 more than a hundred thousand young spectators attended various performances and cultural and educational programmes at the theatre, and the new festival of children's music and theatre workshops The Mariinsky for Children: Children at the Mariinsky presented audiences with productions by four children's musical theatres and workshops in St Petersburg;
• Concerts by prize-winners of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Hamburg TONALi competition;
Season premieres
• Richard Strauss' opera Salome was staged at the Mariinsky II by director Marat Gatsalov, marking his debut as an opera director;
• Giuseppe Verdi's opera I vespri siciliani (Stage Director – Arnaud Bernard) was performed by Ildar Abdrazakov, Maria Guleghina, Vladislav Sulimsky, Migran Agadzhanyan and Mariinsky Opera soloists;
• Francesco Cilea's opera Adriana Lecouvreur staged by Isabelle Partiot-Pieri was performed for the first time at the Mariinsky II during the XXV Stars of the White Nights music festival. The lead roles were performed by Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Yusif Eyvazov and Alexei Markov;
• Two operas for children and their parents were staged at the Concert Hall by Mstislav Pentkovsky: Brundibár by Hans Krása and The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigory Frid;
• Under the direction of Larisa Gergiev, soloists of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers presented two major stage premieres – Sergei Banevich's opera The Story of Kai and Gerda, revived at the Mariinsky Theatre by Alexei Stepanyuk, and Alexander Kuzin's production of Rodion Shchedrin's opera Not Love Alone. There was a concert performance of the world premiere of Boris Grabovsky's opera Woe from Wit and the St Petersburg premiere of Alexander Tchaikovsky's opera Chess King;
• The first ballet premiere of the season, commemorating two significant events – the 90th birthday of Yuri Grigorovich and one hundred and twenty-five years since the birth of Sergei Prokofiev, came with Sergei Prokofiev's The Stone Flower staged by Yuri Grigorovich;
• The XVII International Ballet Festival Mariinsky opened with a premiere of the ballet Paquita to music by Édouard Deldevez, Ludwig Minkus and Riccardo Drigo and staged by Yuri Smekalov with the reconstruction and staging of Marius Petipa's choreography (the Grand Pas from Act III) by Yuri Burlak;
• Ballet premieres at the XXV Stars of the White Nights music festival included Ilya Zhivoi's The Four Seasons to music by Max Richter (after motifs by Antonio Vivaldi;
• The final major premiere of the Stars of the White Nights festival and the 2016-17 season at the Mariinsky Theatre was Boris Tishchenko's ballet Yaroslavna. The Eclipse with choreography by Vladimir Varnava;
• The Creative Workshop of Young Choreographers, which was held this year for the fifth time, became an international project including works by international (Guilherme Maciel and Garrett Smith) and Russian ballet masters (Olga Vasilieva, Maxim Petrov, Ilya Zhivoi and Vladimir Varnava). The workshop saw the premiere of the project Dreamers;
• The subscription Little Operas for Children, which this season was split into two age categories – children aged 3+ and children aged 7+, included premieres at the chamber venues of the Mariinsky II: Gennady Gladkov's The Town Musicians of Bremen, Grayr Khanedanian's Adalmina's Pearl, Benjamin Britten's The Little Sweep, Yuri Levitin's Wash'em Clean, Dmitry Shostakovich's The Silly Little Mouse, Rustam Sagdiev's The Turnip, Svetlana Nesterova's The Treasures of the Magic Well, Leonid Klinichev's The Little Prince and The Wooden House and Sergei Banevich's The Brave Hare;
• As part of the subscription Little Operas for Adults there were premiere performances of Yuri Butsko's Diary of a Madman, Leonid Klinichev's Zinaida, Grigory Korchmar's Newlyweds, Mikael Tariverdiev's Expectation and Grigory Frid's Letters of Van Gogh.
Marking one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky
The Mariinsky Theatre dedicated 2017 to Igor Stravinsky. In the 2016-17 season at the Mariinsky Theatre's venues in St Petersburg and Vladivostok there were performances of his ballets and symphony music, and many of the composer’s works were included in the Mariinsky Orchestra's tour programmes.
On 2 December the Year of Stravinsky opened at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre with the world premiere of the symphonic work Funeral Song. On 17 June, Igor Stravinsky's birthday, all of the theatre's venues performed the composer's music – during the day at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre an ensemble of Mariinsky Orchestra musicians under Ivan Stolbov and performers from the Mariinsky Children's Studio performed L'Histoire du soldat, and in the evening under Valery Gergiev there was a grand Stravinsky Gala concert featuring Pavel Milyukov (violin), Sergei Redkin (piano), Zarina Shimanskaya (piano), Eduard Kiprsky (piano), Alisa Dukhovlinova (piano), Irina Vasilieva (soprano), Nadezhda Serdyuk (mezzo-soprano), Alexander Timchenko (tenor) and Gennady Bezzubenkov (bass). The Mariinsky Theatre hosted performances of the ballets The Firebird and Pétrouchka, while the Stravinsky Foyer of the Mariinsky II saw music by the composer performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Festivals
• The IX Music Festival To Mstislav Rostropovich ran in Samara on 3 and 4 October 2016. Valery Gergiev conducted soloists of the Mariinsky Opera, the Academy of Young Opera Singers, the Chorus and Orchestra;
• The IV International Organ Festival presented acclaimed musicians: Thierry Escaich, Gunnar Idenstam, Benjamin Righetti, Daniil Protsyuk, Ansgar Wallenhorst and Thomas Ospital;
• For the first time at the chamber venues of the Mariinsky II there was the festival Virtuosi of the Flute. Flute music from different eras and styles – from the Baroque to contemporary works – was performed by Mariinsky Orchestra soloists. There were master-classes by one of the greatest Russian flautists – Denis Bouriakov;
• The XI International Piano Festival. Participants included Mira Yevtich, Anastasia Volchok, Anna Denisova, Nicholas Angelich, Sergei Babayan, Abisal Gergiev, Andrey Gugnin, Lucas Debargue, Stanislav Korchagin, Roman Martynov, Nikolai Medvedev, Vladimir Milošević, Nuron Mukumi, Boris Petrushansky, Pavel Raikerus, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, Daniil Trifonov, Vladimir Tropp, Jean-Baptiste Fonlupt, Moye Chen, Seong-Jin Cho and Lucas and Arthur Jussen. For the second year, the festival included the project From Children to Children, during which the chamber venues of the Mariinsky II hosted performances by young virtuosi;
• The II International Choral Festival Maslenitsa in Song saw the involvement of ensembles from Russia, Slovenia, Norway, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and France. One key event of the festival came with the premiere of the children's opera Brundibár by Hans Krása staged by Mstislav Pentkovsky and featuring the Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra, the Children's Chorus of St Petersburg TV and Radio and the chorus of the Mariinsky Children's Studio;
• The XVII International Ballet Festival Mariinsky hosted stars from the Bolshoi Theatre, English National Ballet and Het Nationale Ballet. The festival's guest company was the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre;
• The first harp festival The Silver Lyre was held in memory of Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina, thanks to whom many projects of the Mariinsky Theatre have been made possible;
• In developing our work with children's audiences we established a new project – The Mariinsky to Children festival of children's musical theatres and studios, as part of which artists from four of St Petersburg's children's musical theatres presented their works;
• The Mariinsky NEXT festival of children's and youth orchestras was held for the third time, and it saw the participation of ensembles from nine music schools, art schools, colleges and training schools of St Petersburg;
• The XVI Moscow Easter Festival, which ran from 16 April to 9 May, was dedicated to the one hundred and thirty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Igor Stravinsky and visited seventy-seven Russian towns and cities in twenty Russian regions;
• The anniversary XXV Stars of the White Nights Music Festival lasted 59 days. While it was running at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Mariinsky II and the Concert Hall there were two hundred and five events including one ballet and two opera premieres;
• The II International Far East Festival Mariinsky in Vladivostok is currently running in Vladivostok, from 15 July to 13 August. During the month there will be over forty performances and concerts at seven Far East concert venues – in Vladivostok, Ussuriysk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, as well as in Pyeongchang and Tongyeong (South Korea) and Harbin (China).
One of the key trends in the theatre's activities is its cultural and educational projects. We have organised the free weekly concerts Open Wednesday at the Mariinsky and Arts Schools Visiting the Mariinsky Theatre. We have successful continued the subscription series The Academy of Young Theatre-Goers and Piccolo at the Mariinsky and the cultural and educational programmes A Lesson in Practical Theatre Studies, The Mariinsky Theatre – The Soul of St Petersburg, A Theatre Lesson at the Mariinsky and We Are an Orchestra. For adult audiences the theatre offered lecture programmes – A Sunday Foreword and lectures focussing on outstanding musicians and performers of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Tours at the Mariinsky Theatre's venues:
• The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra;
• The Moscow State Academic Chamber Chorus;
• The Symphonica ARTica orchestra;
• The Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble;
• The Nizhny-Novgorod Academic Symphony Orchestra;
• The All-Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra;
• The Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre Named after People's Artist of the USSR G. Ts. Tsydynzhapov;
• The State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia);
• The Omsk Academic Symphony Orchestra;
• The Pratum Integrum orchestra;
• The Wiener Sängerknaben;
• The Chinese TV and Radio Orchestra of Shaanxi Province;
• The Astana Opera theatre;
• The Chanticleer vocal ensemble;
• The Utopia & Reality chamber chorus;
• The ensemble Le Poème harmonique;
• The Intrada vocal ensemble;
• The State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan;
• The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra;
• The Symphony Orchestra of the Karelian State Philharmonic;
• The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra;
• The Sibelius Academy Cello Ensemble;
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center;
• The Russian-German Academy of Music;
• Philharmonix;
• The State Borodin Quartet
Mariinsky Theatre tours
In the 2016-17 season the Mariinsky Theatre (chorus, opera company, ballet company and orchestra) toured to twenty-two countries across the globe, and the theatre's performances were seen in eighty Russian towns and cities and in forty abroad. Lead soloists of the theatre's ballet company presented the finest repertoire productions at theatre venues in cities in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, Austria and China.
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