On 31 December the Mariinsky Theatre concludes the calendar year with Rodion Shchedrin's opera A Christmas Tale under Valery Gergiev (Mariinsky II), the concert Encore! featuring participants of the International Piano Festival, a semi-staged performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel (Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre) and two performances of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker (the historic Mariinsky Theatre). The ballet The Nutcracker will also be presented on 31 December at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. In 2018 all Mariinsky Theatre venues in St Petersburg and Vladivostok re-open on 2 January, the branch in Vladivavkaz resuming performances on 3 January.
• There have been performances and concerts at eleven venues: the historic Mariinsky Theatre, the Concert Hall, the Mariinsky II and its four chamber halls, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre (Great and Small Halls) and the stages of the branch in Vladikavkaz – the State Academic Philharmonic of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the National State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania;
• Over 1,800 performances and concerts have been presented;
• Audiences have included visitors from ninety-eight countries including Australia, the USA, Canada, Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and various countries in Europe, Africa and South America;
• Twenty-four opera and six ballet premieres;
• Thirteen festivals in St Petersburg, Vladivostok, Vladikavkaz and Samara, as well as the XVI Moscow Easter Festival which visited seventy-seven towns and cities in Russia;
• The programme The Mariinsky for Children saw over 100,000 young spectators attend various performances and educational projects run by the theatre.
Premieres of 2017
• Richard Strauss' opera Salome was presented at the Mariinsky II (directed by Marat Gatsalov, marking his debut as an opera director);
• Giuseppe Verdi's opera I vespri siciliani (directed by 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 presented for the first time at the Mariinsky II as part of the XXV Stars of the White Nights festival. The lead roles were performed by Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Yusif Eyvasov and Alexei Markov;
• Following a lengthy absence, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre revived Hector Berlioz' opera Benvenuto Cellini staged by Vasily Barkhatov (full revival of the 2007 production);
• Two operas for children and their parents were staged at the Concert Hall by Mstislav Pentkovsky: Hans Krása's Brundibár and Grigory Frid's The Diary of Anne Frank;
• Soloists of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers under Larisa Gergieva presented two stage premieres: Rodion Shchedrin's opera Not Love Alone staged by Alexander Kuzin and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Der Schauspieldirektor staged and designed by Gleb Cherepanov. There was a world premiere (concert performance) of Boris Grabovsky's opera Woe from Wit and a St Petersburg premiere of Alexander Tchaikovsky's opera Chess King;
• The XVII Mariinsky international ballet festival opened with the premiere of Paquita to music by Édouard Deldevez, Ludwig Minkus and Riccardo Drigo in a production by Yuri Smekalov, with the reconstruction and staging of Marius Petipa's choreography (Act III Grand pas) by Yuri Burlaka;
• The Creative Workshop of Young Choreographers, held this year for the fifth time, has become an international project featuring works by international choreographers (Guilherme Maciel and Garrett Smith) as well as Russian ballet-masters (Olga Vasilieva, Maxim Petrov, Ilya Zhivoi and Vladimir Varnava). The workshop saw the launch of the project The Dreamers;
• 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 of Antonio Vivaldi) and Vladimir Varnava's Yaroslavna. The Eclipse to music by Boris Tishchenko;
• In the 2017-18 season Vladimir Varnava staged a production of the ballet Pétrouchka, the premiere commemorating one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky;
• The chamber halls of the Mariinsky II hosted the premieres of operas for young audiences Adalmina's Pearl by Grayr Khanedanian, The Little Sweep by Benjamin Britten, ¬Wash'em Clean by Yuri Levitin, The Silly Little Mouse by Dmitry Shostakovich, The Treasures of the Magic Well by Svetlana Nesterova and Murych the Cat by Sergei Banevich;
• The subscription Short Operas for Adults saw productions of Diary of a Madman by Yuri Butsko, Zinaida by Leonid Klinichev, The Newlyweds by Grigory Korchmar, Expectation by Michael Tariverdiev and Van Gogh's Letters by Grigory Frid;
• The main premiere at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre was Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty with choreography by Marius Petipa, revised by Konstantin Sergeyev (1952) and Eldar Aliev (2016). The first performances featured guest ballet dancers from Japan;
• At the National State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (the Mariinsky Theatre's branch in Vladikavkaz) there were premieres of Sergei Banevich's operas for children The Brave Hare, Murych the Cat and The Snow Queen, directed by Givi Valiev.
Festivals
In 2017 the Mariinsky Theatre's already-established traditional festivals saw the addition of new titles, among them the Northern Lyre harp festival, dedicated to the memory of Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina (1 – 5 April) and the festival of musical theatre workshops The Mariinsky for Children: Children at the Mariinsky (1 – 7 May). The various venues of the branch of the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladikavkaz held the I International Caucasus Festival The Mariinsky – Vladikavkaz. The programme of the forum included key events featuring outstanding musicians and opera and ballet stars (23 – 29 September).
•20 – 26 February. The II International Choral Festival Maslenitsa in Song saw the participation of ensembles from Russia, Slovenia, Norway, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and France. One key event of the festival came with the premiere of Hans Krása's children's opera Brundibár staged by Mstislav Pentkovsky;
• 30 March – 9 April. The XVII Mariinsky international ballet festival presented stars from the Bolshoi Theatre, English National Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet. The festival's guest company was the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre;
• 16 April – 9 May. The XVI Moscow Easter Festival marked one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky and visited seventy-seven Russian towns and cities – there were one hundred and eighty-two concerts of symphony, choral, chamber and bell-ringing music in towns from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok;
• 1 – 22 May. The Mariinsky NEXT festival of children's and youth orchestras was held for the third time, featuring ensembles from nine music schools, arts lyceums and colleges;
• 26 May – 23 July. The anniversary XXV Stars of the White Nights festival of music ran for fifty-nine days and at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Mariinsky II and the Concert Hall brought together outstanding instrumentalists and stars of opera and ballet. During the festival there were two hundred and five events including two opera and two ballet premieres;
• 15 July – 13 August. Over the month of the II International Far East Festival Mariinsky there were more than forty performances and concerts at seven concert venues in the Far East: in Vladivostok, Ussuriysk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, as well as in Pyeongchang and Tongyeong (South Korea) and Harbin (China);
• 16 – 29 September. The V International Organ Festival presented concerts by Thierry Escaich, Alexei Parshin, Thomas Trotter, Peter Kofler, Marina Väisä, Karol Mossakowski and David Cassan;
• 15 – 16 October. The programme of the X Music Festival To Mstislav Rostropovich, held on an annual basis in Samara, presented three concerts, one of them charitable;
• 1 – 23 October. At one of the venues of the Vladikavkaz branch of the Mariinsky Theatre – the National State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania – came the XII International Arts Festival Visiting Larisa Gergieva;
• 14 – 30 December. On 30 December a concert by Sergei Bayayan, Mira Yevtich and Andrei Gugnin accompanied by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will close the XII International Piano Festival, which will have included over thirty concert programmes at Mariinsky Theatre venues in St Petersburg and Vladikavkaz.
Marking one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky ,br>At the Mariinsky Theatre, 2017 passed under the aegis of Igor Stravinsky. At Mariinsky Theatre venues in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Vladikavkaz there were performances of his ballets and symphony music, and many of the composer's works were included in the Mariinsky Theatre's tour programmes. Igor Stravinsky's anniversary was marked by the XVI Moscow Easter Festival, the XXV Stars of the White Nights music festival and performances by the ballet company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre (Vladivostok), which toured for the first time to the historic Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. The culmination of the Year of Stravinsky at the Mariinsky Theatre came with events surrounding the composer's birthday – on 17 June his music was performed at all Mariinsky Theatre venues in St Petersburg. Premieres commemorating one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky included L'Histoire du soldat with artistes from the Children's Studio of the Mariinsky Theatre and the ballet Pétrouchka choreographed by Vladimir Varnava.
Celebrating Rodion Shchedrin's 85th birthday
Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre are continuing to celebrate the brilliant Russian composer and friend of the theatre – Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin, who turned eighty-five this year. Rodion Shchedrin's anniversary year was marked by special events in St Petersburg, Moscow, Tula, Vladivostok and Munich. On 16 December, the composer's actual birthday, celebratory events featuring performers from the Mariinsky Theatre took place not just in St Petersburg, but also at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre (Vladivostok) and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow). For the composer's anniversary, the Mariinsky Theatre prepared the on-line exhibition Shchedrin at the Mariinsky, which allows visitors to follow the composer's artistic life at the Mariinsky Theatre: from the first production staged there – the opera Dead Souls (1978) – to the contemporary period of the maestro's collaboration with the Mariinsky Theatre. To visit the exhibition, please go to: mariinsky.ru/about/exhibitions/shchedrin
Educational projects
One of the most important directions of the Mariinsky Theatre's activities remains its cultural and educational projects. In 2017 the theatre successfully continued its free weekly concerts Open Wednesdays at the Mariinsky and Arts Schools Visiting the Mariinsky Theatre, the subscriptions The Academy of Young Theatre-Goers and Piccolo at the Mariinsky and the cultural-educational programmes A Lesson in Practical Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre - the Soul of St Petersburg, A Theatre Lesson at the Mariinsky and We Are an Orchestra. A strong accent of the playbill of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre lies with the project Holidays at the Mariinsky. The series of lecture programmes offered by the theatre include the free weekly meetings A Sunday Foreword and lectures dedicated to outstanding musicians and performers of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Mariinsky Theatre tours
The tour geography for this year includes appearances in over twenty countries, including major tours of towns and cities in the USA, Canada and the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as one hundred and eighty-two concerts at the Moscow Easter Festival in seventy-seven Russian towns and cities – from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. In 2017 the Mariinsky Theatre toured to cities in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, China, The Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, the USA, Uzbekistan, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea and Japan. The ballet company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre performed for the first time in Harbin (China), Seoul (South Korea) and St Petersburg (at the historic Mariinsky Theatre).
Over the course of the year, Valery Gergiev also toured with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Oxford Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scalla, the Esperanza Azteca Youth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, the combined youth orchestra of the Codarts University for the Arts and the Conservatorium in The Hague and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Münchner Philharmoniker, which Valery Gergiev has directed since the start of the 2015-16 season, has appeared under the maestro in cities in Austria, Germany, China, Romania and the USA.
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