On 22 December the Mariinsky Theatre will celebrate the life of Modest Petrovich Musorgsky – a great Russian composer and one of the most dazzling, unusual and powerful figures in Russian music. Today, the Mariinsky Theatre is the only theatre, the concert and stage repertoire of which includes all of the composer’s opuses for opera (including in different versions); the theatre’s soloists and soloists of the Academy of Young Opera Singers often perform his chamber and vocal music, while under the baton of Valery Gergiev there are performances of the symphonic fantasy Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition.
The Musorgsky-180 concerts will form a kind of guide to the composer’s artistic legacy, which even today remains a draw for both musicians and audiences with its narrative depth and particular, at times unique, outlook on the genres to which he turned.
The gala concert at the historic theatre will focus on Musorgsky’s vocal and orchestral works. Together with the masterpieces that crowned his art – the operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina – there will be performances of such repertoire rarities as Salammbô and Sorochintsy Fair. Arias and scenes from them will be presented by outstanding masters of the company: Olga Borodina, Yevgeny Nikitin, Sergei Alexashkin and Vladimir Vaneyev as well as the tremendously powerful leader of the Mariinsky Orchestra – Valery Gergiev.
The second programme Musorgsky-180. Brass Version will proffer an original interpretation of renowned concert works by the Mariinsky Brass Ensemble. The ensemble regularly staggers audiences with its passionate versions of familiar works. This programme will feature arrangements for brass instruments including Night on Bald Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition and Dawn on the Moskva River (the introduction to the opera Khovanshchina).
Works by Musorgsky are also to be performed at concerts of the International Piano Festival, while on 25 December at the historic theatre the folk musical drama Khovanshchina (orchestration by Dmitry Shostakovich) may be seen in the monumental production by Leonid Baratov.
For the anniversary concerts, in the foyer of the historic theatre and the Mariinsky-II there will be an exhibition entitled Musorgsky. Life. Art. The Mariinsky Theatre, which is to feature unique exhibits from the theatre’s archives: stage costumes, sketches, rare documents, photographs and props that reflect the amazing history of the life of Musorgsky’s works.
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