06.06.2018

Richard Wagner’s Works at the XXVI Stars of the White Nights Festival

Three nights at the XXVI Stars of the White Nights festival will be dedicated to Richard Wagner’s operas. Gala concerts will take place at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre under the baton of Valery Gergiev and Plácido Domingo.

In June, Valery Gergiev will conduct two major gala concerts. June 7 will see the performance of excerpts from Tristan und Isolde. The world-famous Wagnerian soprano Heidi Melton is invited to perform the female lead in the production. Melton added the role of Isolde to her repertoire in 2015. In 2016 she sang the part of the Irish princess at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and then went on to perform the same part at the English National Opera. The role of Tristan is rightfully considered to be one of the most complex ones in the global operatic collection. Just like a year ago, it will be performed by the Mariinsky Opera soloist Mikhail Vekua.

The second Wagner night will be hosted by the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre on 19 June. The Mariinsky Opera and the Mariinsky Orchestra soloists under the baton of Valery Gergiev will perform fragments from Siegfried and Götterdämmerung of the Der Ring des Nibelungen tetralogy.

On 7 July, the Wagner gala concert will be conducted by Plácido Domingo. The Mariinsky Opera and the Mariinsky Orchestra will perform excerpts from Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre. The night will mark Plácido Domingo’s first-time performance of Richard Wagner’s music with the Mariinsky Orchestra. ‘As I am invited to  Bayreuth to conduct Die Walküre, I am now engaged in self-training. On my next visit to St Petersburg, I will sing in La traviata and conduct a gala concert, which will include excerpts from Die Walküre. Now I am here to work with this fantastic orchestra, which I was entrusted with by Valery Gergiev. I think that conducting Wagner’s music performances outside of Bayreuth is more difficult, because Wagner created a truly phenomenal orchestra pit there. It is incredibly hard to have such acoustics at an ordinary theatre,’ said maestro Domingo during his visit to St Petersburg.

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