New events: the first half of November

Dear Guests,
The Mariinsky Theatre has announced the playbill for the first half of November. Next month will see the first major premiere of the season – on 10 November at the Mariinsky II there will be a performance of Hector Berlioz' opera Benvenuto Cellini staged by Alexei Frandetti, a recipient of Russia's Golden Mask theatre prize. Frandetti's version has been inspired by the era of Italian neo-realism in cinema – particularly the films of Federico Fellini. The sets have been designed by Vyacheslav Okunev and the costumes by Viktoria Sevryukova.

Aficionados of historical Russian opera will have the opportunity to see Mazepa (the orchestra to be conducted by Valery Gergiev) and Prince Igor, while fans of Italian verismo may look forward to Tosca and Madama Butterfly. In addition to works by Verdi – Simon Boccanegra and Aida – the playbill features the "lighter" L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti and The Love for Three Oranges by Prokofiev as well as Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte. Audiences will also see Dvořák's Rusalka and a recently-revived production of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann with Sergei Skorokhodov in the title role.

The playbill for ballet includes the classical Giselle and Le Corsaire, in addition to a series of performances of The Stone Flower (including postponed performances). Le Sacre du printemps will share an evening programme at the historic theatre along with Schéhérazade, where Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim will be appearing together. Not to be missed are Ilya Zhivoi's staging of The Seasons and Vladimir Varnava's Daphnis et Chloé.

In November, the Mariinsky Theatre has planned performances of audience-favourite The Seasons not just at the new theatre, but also at the Concert Hall: a series of Vivaldi's violin concerti are to be performed by the orchestra's soloists. For lovers of mass orchestral and choral opuses there is Orff's Carmina Burana, while for very young audiences there will be The Tale of Tsar Berendey with Sergei Barkovsky in the role of the Narrator. It should also be noted that the premiere of Alexei Pozin's opera for children Soldiers' Tales has been postponed until 21 November.