In celebration of the 180th anniversary of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's birth, Moscow and St Petersburg will host grand exchange tours of the opera companies from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres. From 23 to 25 February the Mariinsky's opera company will grace the Historic Stage of the Bolshoi with the composer's masterpieces: The Maid of Pskov, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, and Christmas Eve. Valery Gergiev will conduct all the operas.
From 27 to 29 February the Bolshoi Theatre will treat St Petersburg's audiences to the opera The Tsar's Bride – a legendary performance from the golden repertoire, resplendent in Fyodor Fedorovsky's lavish designs, staged in the mid-20th century and revived in 2014 by director Yulia Pevzner. Aliona Pikalova served as the set designer, with Elena Zaitseva as the costume designer.
The history of these exchange tours began in 1940 when the Bolshoi hosted the troupe from Leningrad's Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre during the Decade of Leningrad Theatrical and Musical Arts in Moscow. At that time, audiences enjoyed Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and ballets such as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Krein's Laurencia, and Balanchivadze's The Heart of the Mountains.
Since 1962 the Leningrad troupe regularly visited Moscow. In 1976, during the celebration of the Bolshoi Theatre's 200th anniversary, it performed on its stage and at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. The tour program included Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Khrennikov's Into the Storm, Shaporin's The Decembrists, Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Petrov's Peter the Great, Dzerzhinsky's Quiet Flows the Don, Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, Sviridov's Pathétique Oratorio for soloists, chorus, and orchestra; and ballets such as Chopiniana to Chopin's music, Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, Petrov's The Creation of the World, Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, Alexandrov's The Lefthander, Slonimsky's Icarus, Stravinsky's The Firebird, Kajlaev's Daughter of the Mountains, and the Shadows scene from Minkus's ballet La Bayadère.
In the same year, 1976, as part of the "White Nights" arts festival and the celebration of the Bolshoi Theatre's 200th anniversary, the Bolshoi troupe made its first appearance on the stage of Leningrad's Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre. The tour repertoire included Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko and The Gambler, Verdi's Il Trovatore; and ballets such as Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Khachaturian's Spartacus, Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible, Esipova's Angara, Shchedrin's Anna Karenina, Bizet-Shchedrin's Carmen Suite, music by Mozart and Salieri for Mozart and Salieri, and Mahler's music for The Death of the Rose.
Artists from the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Theatre have visited Moscow on several occasions. In its bicentennial year of 1983, both the opera and ballet companies once again graced the stages of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. The Leningrad ballet company showcased performances in Moscow in December 1988 at the Kremlin Palace and in September 1990 as part of the P.I. Tchaikovsky festival on the Bolshoi stage.
In 1998, with the support of the Moscow Government, the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres engaged in full-scale exchange tours to commemorate the momentous occasion of the capital's 850th anniversary. The Mariinsky artists presented on the Bolshoi stage ballets such as Asafiev's The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Minkus's La Bayadère and Don Quixote, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a divertissement from Deldevez's ballet Paquita, Chopiniana set to the music of Chopin, and an evening of American choreography; operatic masterpieces included Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and Parsifal, Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.
The Bolshoi Theatre's tour program featured ballets such as Adam's Giselle, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Stolze's The Taming of the Shrew (inspired by Domenico Scarlatti), The Delights of Mannerism set to the music of Richard Strauss, and Dreams of Japan with music by Eto, Yamaguchi, and Tosha arranged by Grishin; operas included Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Verdi's Aida and La Traviata, Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, Rachmaninoff's Francesca da Rimini, as well as his cantata The Bells for soloists, choir, and orchestra.
The next exchange tours took place in 2001 during the "Golden Mask" theatre festival. From 17 to 18 November, the Mariinsky Theatre presented Prokofiev's opera Semyon Kotko, a gala concert with excerpts from Tchaikovsky's operas The Queen of Spades and Mazeppa, and ballets staged by George Balanchine: Serenade and Pas de Deux to Tchaikovsky's music. The Mariinsky Theatre Chorus and Orchestra participated, conducted by Valery Gergiev. In return, the Bolshoi Theatre brought to St Petersburg Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, staged by Boris Pokrovsky, and Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, staged by Yuri Grigorovich, with the participation of the Bolshoi Theatre Chorus and Orchestra. The conductors were Alexander Kopylov, Fuat Mansurov, and Mark Ermler.
In March 2003, the Mariinsky ballet company and orchestra toured the Historic Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. The program included ballets Young Man and Death to Bach's music, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, Middle Duet to Hanon's music, Manon to Massenet's music (arranged by Lucas and Gont), and Prokofiev's The Prodigal Son. The Mariinsky hosted performances by the opera and ballet companies featuring the Bolshoi Theatre Chorus and Orchestra. The program included Puccini's opera Turandot and an evening of choreography by Roland Petit, featuring the ballets Passacaglia and The Queen of Spades. The conductors were Vladimir Andropov and Alexander Vedernikov.
The Mariinsky Theatre last graced the Historic Stage of the Bolshoi nearly two decades ago, in 2005, just before the building closed for reconstruction. At that time, Moscow had the privilege of witnessing Richard Wagner's tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen in its entirety for the first time in many years. The operas Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung were performed in succession.
In that same year, 2005, the Bolshoi Theatre's artists made their way to Saint Petersburg. On the Mariinsky stage, they presented the operas The Children of Rosenthal by Leonid Desyatnikov, a work specially commissioned by the Bolshoi and staged by the eminent director Eimuntas Nekrošius, and Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer.
For comments, please refer to the statement by Valery Gergiev, General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia and Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, at the provided link.
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