The year 2024 marks significant anniversaries in the arts – 225 years since the birth of Pushkin and 220 years since the birth of Glinka. Throughout the season the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres will host special events celebrating these dates.
The grand celebration of Glinka’s 220th birthday will begin on 6 January. At 13:00 the New Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will showcase the Ruslan and Lyudmila opera. Key roles will be performed by Yekaterina Savinkova, Gleb Peryazev, Zlata Bulycheva, Mikhail Kolelishvili, Tatiana Pavlovskaya, Oleg Videman, Leonid Zakhozhaev, Gennady Bezzubenkov and Elena Vitman.
“This year Russia’s two main theatres will celebrate a major anniversary in the world of musical culture – the 220th anniversary of Mikhail Glinka’s birth, the founder of Russian classical music. We will definitely visit Smolensk, his birthplace, and hold a joint vibrant event there,” notes Valery Gergiev, General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre and Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre.
It is worth mentioning that the Mariinsky previously commenced the Year of Pushkin opening on 3 January with the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Rimsky-Korsakov – another anniversary figure this year. For his 180th birthday the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres have planned a large festival and exchange tours.
The names of Pushkin and Glinka are closely intertwined with the history of the Mariinsky. On the stage of the Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre at Carousel Square from which the Mariinsky traces its history, world premieres of Glinka’s operas A Life for the Tsar (1836) and Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842) took place. A Life for the Tsar was also performed at the opening of the first theatrical season in 1860 in the new building now known as the Historical Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Both operas remain in the Mariinsky’s repertoire to this day enjoying unwavering success with audiences nearly two centuries later. Last April A Life for the Tsar was presented to the audience with revived dances from the Polish act based on the choreography of Sergey Koren and Andrei Lopukhov (1939 production). Choreographer for the revival was Elena Bazhenova, directors were Ilya Ustyantsev and Mikhail Smirnov. Symphonic and chamber compositions by Glinka are regularly performed on all Mariinsky stages today, and his romances and songs embellish vocal evenings of leading opera soloists.
The Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre was one of the most important cultural centres of the capital, frequented by Alexander Pushkin. The plots of his poems, novels, and fairy tales repeatedly attracted the attention of major composers, becoming the basis of the most famous opuses and forever imprinting the literary genius of the poet in musical art. Today at the Mariinsky one can enjoy the operas Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades and Mazepa by Tchaikovsky, Boris Godunov by Musorgsky, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Golden Cockerel and Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov, Ruslan and Lyudmila by Glinka, Mavra by Stravinsky, and the ballets The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by Asafyev and The Bronze Horseman by Glière: the literary basis for all these compositions are the works of Pushkin.
In concert and chamber programmes the Mariinsky Theatre has also performed the opera The Miserly Knight by Rachmaninoff (based on the eponymous play by Pushkin), musical illustrations to Belkin’s Tales, created in the 20th century by Georgy Sviridov and in the 21st century by Alexei Pozin, a soloist of the Mariinsky Orchestra, and many other compositions.
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