Interviews

The XIV International Organ Festival Mariinsky will take place at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre from 20 October to 4 November. Each year the festival brings together renowned organists from different countries to perform outstanding works seldom heard in concert. This year’s programme will showcase leading artists from France, Spain and Russia.

The festival opens on 20 October at 19:00 with a concert featuring the Mariinsky Chorus, conducted by Konstantin Rylov, and organist Olga Kotlyarova, a prize-winner at international competitions and a leading soloist with the St Petersburg Concert. The programme comprises Bach’s Fantasia in G major, Chaconne in G minor, chorale prelude Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (“Saviour of the Nations, Come”), Passacaglia in C minor and Oster-Oratorium (“Easter Oratorio”).

On 25 October at 12:00 young audiences will have a special opportunity to discover the organ. Marina Väisä will present a concert designed as an introduction to the instrument, combining original organ works with transcriptions of popular classical miniatures. Familiar music will take on a new character through the organ’s remarkable range of colours and sonorities.

A prize-winner at international competitions and an associate professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory, Marina Väisä gives solo recitals throughout the Northern Capital of Russia and is a regular performer at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.

On 28 October at 19:00 Spanish organist Andoni Andrada will take the stage. He received the Peter Hurford Prize for the best performance of a work by Bach at the St Albans International Organ Competition in Great Britain (2025), won 1st prize at the ECHO International Organ Competition in Leuven, Belgium (2026), and was awarded 3rd prize at the Elizabeth B. Stephens International Organ Competition in Atlanta, USA (2026). He also holds the title of ECHO Young Organist of the Year 2027.

His programme will include works by Nicolaus Bruhns; Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses; Mit innigem Ausdruck (“With Heartfelt Expression”) from Schumann’s Sechs Studien in kanonischer Form (“Six Studies in Canon Form”); the Andante sostenuto from Widor’s Organ Symphony No. 9 in C minor; Brahms’ chorale prelude O Welt, ich muss dich lassen (“O World, I Must Leave You”); and Liszt’s Fantasia and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H.

On 31 October at 19:00 the festival will present organist Elena Tsybko and harpist Sofia Kiprskaya. Tsybko is a prize-winner at European and international competitions and the head of the Organ Department at Moscow’s State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov. Kiprskaya is Principal Harpist of the Mariinsky Orchestra.

The festival concludes on 4 November at 19:00 with a concert featuring Léonid Karev, Titular Organist of Paris’ Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption and Brunoy’s Church of St Médard (Essonne). He is also a professor at the Conservatoires de la Ville de Paris (seventeen municipal conservatoires and Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris) and the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental du Val d’Yerres.

Joining him at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will be the Mariinsky Chamber Chorus, conducted by Pavel Teplov, and harpist Sofia Kiprskaya.

Rossini’s Guillaume Tell will receive its first performances at Mariinsky II on 16 October at 19:00 and 17 October at 12:00 and 19:00, marking the theatre’s first premiere of the season. For the first time in Russia the opera will be staged in its original language. The ambitious new production brings together the renowned Italian stage director Giancarlo del Monaco, set designer Antonio Romero and costume designer Gabriela Salaverri, with Valery Gergiev as the music director.

Guillaume Tell was Rossini’s thirty-eighth and final opera. He completed it at the age of just thirty-seven and, although he lived for almost another forty years, never wrote another opera. The work represents both the culmination of his experience as a composer and a bold step towards Romantic opera, laying the groundwork for later masterpieces by Wagner, Verdi and Berlioz.

Based on Friedrich Schiller’s play celebrating the exploits of Switzerland’s national hero, Guillaume Tell is a sweeping epic with a large cast, and Rossini’s longest and most ambitious opera. Its scale presents formidable challenges, calling for exceptional performing, artistic and technical resources. The Mariinsky Theatre is once again taking on a major work seldom staged today, giving audiences a rare opportunity to experience a masterpiece from an earlier age.

The opera received its world premiere in Paris on 3 August 1829, to a triumphant reception. It was the crowning achievement of Rossini’s operatic career. When Guillaume Tell reached Russia, however, it did so under an assumed name. Censorship had prompted extensive revisions to the libretto, altering the characters, historical period and setting. The opera was first performed in Russia on 21 April 1838 at the Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre, the Mariinsky’s predecessor, under the title Charles the Bold, in a translation by Rafail Zotov. On 22 February 1861, just four months after the opening of the new Mariinsky Theatre, Charles the Bold was presented on the stage now known as the Historic Stage.

Russian audiences had to wait until the following century to hear Rossini’s original version, once again at the Mariinsky. On 23 January 1932 the Leningrad State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet gave the first complete performance of the original score in Russia. In keeping with the practice of the time, the opera was sung in Russian. The production enjoyed considerable success but soon disappeared from the repertoire for decades. Although Guillaume Tell remains a rarity on the operatic stage, its celebrated overture is familiar to audiences everywhere and remains a favourite of symphony concert programmes.

The Mariinsky Theatre has approached this first fully staged production in the original language through a series of concert performances with orchestral and piano accompaniment. The new staging is in the hands of Giancarlo del Monaco, whose previous Mariinsky production, Aida, won acclaim from St Petersburg audiences and earned a Golden Mask award. He is reunited with the same design team – Antonio Romero and Gabriela Salaverri.

The result promises to be a richly detailed, visually spectacular production. Forests, mountains and lakes will evoke the dramatic Alpine landscapes of medieval Switzerland on the stage of Mariinsky II. Del Monaco’s staging draws on classical theatrical traditions, incorporating contemporary elements with a light touch.

Ahead of the premiere, the Shchedrin Hall will host a lecture on 12 October at 19:30 entitled “Grand opera, chef’s special: recipes for French and Italian opera from the composer of Guillaume Tell”. Part of the Lecture Before the Performance series, the event will feature musicologist Khristina Batyushina exploring the opera’s historical and cultural background, tracing its characters’ Alpine journeys and guiding audiences through the highlights of its rich dramatic and musical landscape.

The following singers are preparing roles in the production:

Guillaume Tell: Maharram Huseynov, Maxim Daminov, Vadim Kravets, Gleb Peryazev, Yaroslav Petryanik;

Arnold: Alexander Mikhailov, Yaramir Nizamutdinov, Anton Rositsky;

Melchtal: Mikhail Kolelishvili, Miroslav Molchanov, Yakov Strizhak, Oleg Sychov, Vladimir Feliauer;

Mathilde: Angelina Akhmedova, Maria Bayankina, Gelena Gaskarova, Yekaterina Goncharova, Irina Churilova;

Hedwige: Anna Kiknadze, Yekaterina Krapivina, Daria Rositskaya;

Jemmy: Isabella Andriasian, Kristina Gontsa, Kira Loginova, Marina Tekhteleva;

Gesler: Ilya Bannik, Gevorg Grigoryan, Yevgeny Nikitin, Andrei Serov, Oleg Sychov;

Leuthold: Denis Begansky, Alexander Gerasimov, Nikolai Kamensky, Vladimir Feliauer, Pavel Shmulevich;

Furst: Yuri Vlasov, Dmitry Grigoriev, Stepan Zavalishin, Yevgeny Chernyadiev;

Ruodi: Denis Zakirov, Stanislav Leontiev, Boris Stepanov, Klim Tikhonov.

October at the Mariinsky Theatre promises a wealth of outstanding concerts featuring acclaimed ensembles and some of today’s finest musicians. With its exceptional acoustics the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre offers audiences the opportunity to experience masterpieces of the world’s musical heritage at their best.

On Monday, 5 October, at 18:00 Valery Gergiev will conduct Berlioz’ monumental dramatic symphony Roméo et Juliette for soloists, chorus and orchestra at the Concert Hall. The performance will feature three outstanding Mariinsky Theatre singers: Zinaida Tsarenko, Alexander Mikhailov and Mikhail Petrenko. Gergiev returns to the Concert Hall on 14 October for a special programme with the Mariinsky Orchestra, continuing the celebrations of the 120^th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s birth in September.

The legendary Mariinsky Brass ensemble has prepared another October tribute to this 20^th-century musical genius. On 18 October at 15:00 the ensemble will perform Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Polka from the ballet The Golden Age, two excerpts from the String Quartet No. 8, suite from the film score to The Gadfly, and Concertino in A minor.

October also brings solo appearances by some of the Mariinsky Theatre’s best-loved musicians. On 22 October the internationally acclaimed soprano Albina Shagimuratova will take the stage of the Concert Hall. She has prepared a special surprise programme for St Petersburg audiences, performing with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Christian Knapp.

On 6 October the spotlight will fall on acclaimed flautist Sofia Viland, winner of 1^st prize and a Gold Medal at the XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition. Together with the Mariinsky Orchestra she will perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor in a transcription for flute. Further additions to the programme will be announced. On 18 October the Concert Hall will welcome Ilya Papoyan, one of St Petersburg’s most sought-after young pianists and a prize-winner at the XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition. His recital programme features Chopin’s Polonaise in F-sharp minor and Piano Sonata No. 2, alongside Rachmaninoff’s Morceaux de fantaisie and Variations on a Theme of Corelli.

Another highlight of the month’s piano programme comes on 16 October, when Abisal Gergiev, Honoured Artist of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, performs with the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble under Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici. The programme comprises Mozart’s Divertimento in F major, Piano Concerto No. 24 and Symphony No. 40. Audiences will also have an opportunity to hear the celebrated ensemble on 9 October, when it joins forces with participants of the First Orchestral Academy. The programme features Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 9 and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden in Mahler’s arrangement.

On 23 October Sofia Kiprskaya, an international competition prize-winner and principal harpist of the Mariinsky Orchestra, will perform with Filarmonica–Quartet from the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic. The quartet comprises Valery Karchagin and Oksana Anisimova (violins), Ilya Tarasenko (viola) and Yaroslav Kucheryavykh (cello). Their programme includes E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Quintet in C minor for harp and string quartet, Mozart’s String Quartet No. 17, Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet No. 4 (Fandango), Sergei Kravtsov’s English Suites — arrangements of songs by the Beatles for string quartet — and Edward Kiprsky’s Elegiac Concertino for harp and string quartet.

The Concert Hall will also host the XIV International Organ Festival Mariinsky from 20 October to 4 November. This year’s distinguished line-up includes Olga Kotlyarova, Marina Väisä, Andoni Andrada, Elena Tsybko and Leonid Karev. As ever, audiences can look forward to a wide-ranging programme spanning different periods and musical traditions, with original compositions and transcriptions for solo organ and ensemble. The festival will also bring back a firm audience favourite: a concert designed especially to introduce children to the organ.

On 6 and 8 October the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre will visit Mariinsky II with the St Petersburg premiere of its production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. People’s Artist of Russia Hibla Gerzmava will sing the title role on both evenings. The tour is organised by ROSCONCERT with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

Anna Bolena received its world premiere at the Teatro Carcano in Milan in 1830. By then Donizetti had already composed more than thirty works and established a reputation primarily as a master of comic opera. Yet it was Anna Bolena, written in the then-unfamiliar genre of lyrical tragedy, that marked a turning point in his career and brought him a new level of international recognition.

Anna Bolena remains a rarity on Russian opera stages, particularly today. Much of the reason lies in the exceptional demands the principal roles place on singers, requiring not only complete command of the bel canto style but also considerable dramatic skill and expressiveness.

In 2025 stage director Sergei Novikov and the Stanislavsky Theatre’s Chief Conductor, Felix Korobov, breathed new life into this rarely performed gem of the Italian repertoire. Set in Tudor England, the deeply affecting lyrical tragedy explores power, betrayal and love.

Designer Ivan Skladchikov created a historically faithful visual world, from the interiors of the royal castle and tapestry designs to costumes reflecting 16^th-century fashion. Lighting design is by Damir Ismagilov, video design by Dmitry Ivanchenko, and choreography by Andrei Alshakov and Yulia Gorelova. The production was created in collaboration with the State Hermitage Museum.

The final leg of the large-scale Genius of Place festival of musical tributes opens in St Petersburg on 24 September, in the city where Dmitri Shostakovich was born. Celebrations marking the 120^th anniversary of the composer’s birth will provide a fitting finale to the festival’s third season, which has brought Valery Gergiev and leading performers and ensembles from across Russia to places associated with the country’s great composers to play their music.

The events are held with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and ROSCONCERT.

The St Petersburg programme opens at 21:00 on 24 September at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre with a work of profound significance to the city: Shostakovich’s searing Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad). Valery Gergiev will conduct the Mariinsky Orchestra.

On 25 September, Shostakovich’s birthday, some of St Petersburg’s outstanding instrumentalists will take the stage of the Concert Hall at 19:00: Ilya Papoyan, piano; Anton Kozmin and Yekaterina Gribanova, violins; Yuri Afonkin, viola; and Oleg Sendetsky, cello. The programme features the Piano Quintet and the Piano Trio No. 2.

On 28 September at 20:00 Mariinsky II will present Shakespeare. Shostakovich. Hamlet, performed by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. People’s Artist of Russia Yevgeny Mironov will appear as narrator.

One of the most celebrated plays in world drama will be brought to the stage through the fusion of Shakespeare’s words and Shostakovich’s music. Shostakovich returned to Shakespeare more than once, not least to Hamlet. The programme includes music from the 1964 film of the same name and from Nikolai Akimov’s 1932 production at the Vakhtangov Theatre.

The third season of the festival concludes at 19:00 on 30 September. Mariinsky II will present one of the 20^th century’s most demanding, enigmatic and remarkable works, Shostakovich’s phantasmagorical opera The Nose, a rarity in the repertoire. At the Mariinsky Theatre the opera is performed in Yuri Alexandrov’s acclaimed production, which received the Golden Sophit, St Petersburg’s highest theatre prize. One hour before the performance the Stravinsky Foyer will host musicologist Anna Petrova’s lecture Led by the “Nose”.

The III Genius of Place Festival of musical tributes began on 20 March in Veliky Novgorod, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s native region. It then continued with performances by Valery Gergiev and artists of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres in Pskov, associated with the native region of Modest Musorgsky; in Tikhvin, the birthplace of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; in Votkinsk, the birthplace of Pyotr Tchaikovsky; in Smolensk, Mikhail Glinka’s native region; and in Oranienbaum, the birthplace of Igor Stravinsky.

The festival’s third season has set a new record for geographical reach, spanning seven Russian towns and cities and celebrating seven great composers.

The Mariinsky Theatre will open its new, 244^th season on 30 August, the penultimate day of summer. September will see the Mariinsky continue its celebrations of major composer anniversaries, alongside a rich mix of audience favourites and rarely heard works, returning projects and some unexpected highlights.

The first half of the month will feature international opera star Ferruccio Furlanetto. On 12 September the celebrated Italian bass will appear in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, followed on 14 September by Massenet’s Don Quichotte. Valery Gergiev will conduct both performances.

The Concert Hall will be the first Mariinsky venue to welcome audiences in the new season. On 30 August it will host a concert as part of the White Steamer Children’s Music Festival. Gifted children who have faced difficult circumstances will perform alongside opera soloists, the Creative Commonwealth of Musicians ensemble under Alexander Pokidchenko, and the Mariinsky Orchestra.

Mariinsky II will open its season on 4 September with a rarely performed jewel of Russian opera: Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress, a work charged with passion and psychological conflict. The principal roles will be sung by Maria Bayankina, Sergei Skorokhodov, Pavel Yankovsky, Anna Kiknadze and Stanislav Trofimov.

The Historic Stage opens its season on 9 September with one of the cornerstones of the Russian operatic repertoire, Borodin’s monumental Prince Igor.

The new season will also bring back the Mariinsky’s popular backstage tours, taking visitors behind the scenes at both the Historic Stage and Mariinsky II and offering a glimpse of what normally remains hidden beyond the curtain.

The ballet season will begin with one of the great stories of tragic love told through dance: Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. On 10 September Renata Shakirova and Kimin Kim will dance the leading roles in this twentieth-century masterpiece. The ballet returns on 11 September with Maria Khoreva and Minchul Jeon.

September will bring a wealth of other Prokofiev scores as celebrations continue for the 135^th anniversary of the great Russian composer’s birth. The programme includes Cinderella on 19 September at 19:00 and on 20 September at 13:00 and 19:00; The Stone Flower on 27 September at 13:00 and 19:00; the opera The Gambler on 13 September; and The Love for Three Oranges on 26 September at 11:30, 15:30 and 19:30.

The principal anniversary focus in September, however, will be the 120^th anniversary of Dmitry Shostakovich’s birth. An innovator and a classic in equal measure, Shostakovich was a master of intense emotional expression whose work encompassed an extraordinary range of genres. His music helped shape the course of musical history for decades to come.

On 25 September, the birthday of this musical poet of an age of upheaval, the Historic Stage will present Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The opera has had a turbulent history: it disappeared from Soviet stages for many years following the notorious article “Muddle Instead of Music”.

On 16 September, the exuberant operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki will be performed in concert. On 18 September, the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble will include Shostakovich’s Romance from the film The Gadfly in its programme. On 30 September, Mariinsky II will present his phantasmagorical opera The Nose.

Ahead of that performance, musicologist Anna Petrova will give a lecture entitled Led by the “Nose” in the Shchedrin Hall on 24 September. The event forms part of the new series Lecture Before the Performance, in which leading St Petersburg specialists introduce audiences to some of the theatre’s rarer and more challenging works, offering a deeper understanding of music by great composers from different periods.

The next lecture will take place on 1 October. Musicologist Khristina Batyushina will present The Wagnerian School: “Parsifal” ahead of a performance of Wagner’s monumental mystery at Mariinsky II on 11 October. Parsifal occupies a unique place in the Mariinsky repertoire: nowhere else in Russia can the opera currently be heard.

Other rarities in the Mariinsky’s September programme include Bellini’s I puritani on 9 September; Spadavecchia’s Letter from an Unknown Woman and Tariverdiev’s Expectation on 11 September; Richard Strauss’s Elektra on 15 September; Gounod’s Faust on 17 September; and Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera on 18 September and Attila on 29 September.

The ballet programme features The Four Seasons, to music by Vivaldi and Richter, on 15 September; Tishchenko’s The Twelve on 21 September; and four one-act Stravinsky ballets on 23 September: Les Noces, Petrushka, The Firebird and Le Sacre du printemps.

On 22 September audiences can experience a haunting Bartók double bill: the ballet A csodálatos mandarin and the opera A kékszakállú herceg vára.

The full programme of September events is available on the Mariinsky Theatre website.

During the off-season, box offices located inside the theatre buildings will operate on a limited schedule. Tickets for events in the new season can be purchased at any time on the Mariinsky Theatre website or via the mobile app.

The theatre’s box office at Bolshoi Gostiny Dvor will remain open at 35 Nevsky Prospekt (corner of Nevskaya and Perinnaya Lines, second floor). Opening hours are daily from 11:00 to 19:00, with a break from 15:00 to 16:00. Ticket refunds can also be processed at this box office.

The other box offices will reopen as follows:

• Mariinsky Theatre (1 Theatre Square) – 9 September

• Mariinsky II (34 Dekabristov Street) – 4 September

• Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre (20 Pisareva Street, entrance from 37 Dekabristov Street) – 30 August

The Mariinsky Theatre’s eventful 243^rd season is drawing to a close. The theatrical year at Mariinsky II will conclude on 6 August with the premiere performance of Eldar Aliev’s production of Romeo and Juliet, presented as part of the Primorsky Stage’s tour. The final events of the summer at the Historic Stage will be performances of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake by the Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre on 7 (at 13:00 and 19:00), 8 (at 13:00 and 19:00), 9 August (at 13:00 and 19:00).

The season’s artistic achievements include seven major premieres and two eagerly awaited revivals. Audiences saw new large-scale productions of Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, created by the celebrated Bulgarian team of stage director Orlin Anastassov and set designer Denis Ivanov. The Concert Hall welcomed two productions conceived especially for its space: Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel, directed by Anna Shishkina, and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight, directed by Alexander Ponomaryov. To mark the 270^th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, the theatre presented Idomeneo, rè di Creta in a production by Roman Kocherzhevsky.

The ballet repertoire was enriched by the premieres of Vyacheslav Samodurov’s Round Dances, set to music by Shchedrin, and a Mariinsky version of Leonid Yacobson’s Brilliant Divertissement to music by Glinka. Two long-awaited works also returned to the playbill: Boris Tishchenko’s ballet Yaroslavna. The Eclipse, choreographed by Vladimir Varnava, and Roland Petit’s iconic Le Jeune homme et la mort, set to music by Bach.

More than 2,000 events took place across the Mariinsky Theatre’s St Petersburg venues during the 243^rd season: 434 ballet performances, 600 opera performances, 370 concerts and 711 cultural and educational programmes, including lectures, practical theatre studies sessions, events for children, and backstage tours of the Historic Stage and Mariinsky II, which have become immensely popular with residents and visitors to St Petersburg alike. Around two million people attended the theatre over the course of the season.

Among the Mariinsky’s major initiatives this season were the Mozart 270 project, a series of themed days devoted to outstanding composers – Modest Musorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Rodion Shchedrin – and A Weekend with Verdi. Richard Wagner’s monumental tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen was performed twice. The theatre also marked dozens of anniversaries associated with works, productions, great composers and artists.

The Mariinsky’s renowned annual festivals continued as well: the XIII Mariinsky International Organ Festival; the XX Mariinsky International Piano Festival; the X Virtuosi of the Flute & Northern Lyre International Festival; and the XXXIV Stars of the White Nights Music Festival.

Two major festivals presented jointly with the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia deserve particular mention: Maya and Rodion, honouring the memory of the great Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin, and Prokofiev: One of Our Own, marking the anniversary of the great composer’s birth.

“Prokofiev’s 135^th anniversary could simply have been marked with a few commemorative events in April. Instead, we decided that our two theatres should celebrate this perhaps not especially round but extremely important anniversary on a truly grand scale. I believe this is the right and most interesting way forward today. New generations of artists are emerging, and exchanges between the two theatres give performers the opportunity to appear in an extraordinary range of works. By joining our creative forces and enriching the programmes of both theatres, we replace competition with cooperation – and that is enormously valuable,” says Valery Gergiev.

Russia’s two leading musical theatres continued their close collaboration and fruitful artistic exchange throughout the season. The Bolshoi Theatre brought Shostakovich’s The Bright Stream and Auber’s Marco Spada to St Petersburg. In Moscow the Mariinsky presented Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in concert, Prokofiev’s War and Peace and The Fiery Angel, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Wagner’s Parsifal. Many of these performances featured soloists, chorus, mime ensemble, and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre.

The Mariinsky’s The Legend of Love by Melikov ceremonially opened the XV International Ballet Competition at the Bolshoi Theatre. Other joint projects during the season included Prokofiev’s operas The Love for Three Oranges, Betrothal in a Monastery and The Gambler, all presented at the Bolshoi.

Together, the two companies also undertook two major projects away from their home stages: the XXV Moscow Easter Festival and the III Genius of Place Festival.

The anniversary edition of the Moscow Easter Festival was the largest in its history. Over twenty-nine days Valery Gergiev and a combined symphony orchestra of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres travelled more than 20,000 kilometres as part of the symphonic programme, performing in almost forty Russian towns and cities.

The third season of Genius of Place, a festival of musical tributes held in the birthplaces of great composers, also set avrecord. This year its geography encompasses seven cities: Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Tikhvin, Votkinsk, Smolensk, Oranienbaum and St Petersburg. The festival will conclude ceremonially in the autumn with celebrations marking the 120^th anniversary of the birth of Dmitri Shostakovich.

The events are held with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and ROSCONCERT.

Another first this season saw leading dancers from the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres perform together at the Mariinsky Far East Festival in Vladivostok.

More than 200,000 people attended the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre during the season. Its programme comprised 119 ballet performances, 182 opera performances and thirty-five concerts.

The season brought a wealth of premieres: Banevich’s opera The Story of Kai and Gerda; Puccini’s La bohème in concert; and the ballets La Fille mal gardée, to music by Hérold, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. The world premiere of Alexander Smelkov’s cantata God’s Pipe took place, while the project A Portrait of a Singer in an Interior made a successful return to the Chamber Hall.

The Primorsky Stage also held two major festivals: the X Mariinsky International Far East Festival and the III Far East Easter Festival.

Over the course of the season the Primorsky Stage company gave more than 350 performances both at home and on tour. Its touring geography encompassed St Petersburg, Khabarovsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Artyom, Partizansk, Bolshoy Kamen, Korsakov and the village of Knyaze-Volkonskoye.

The Mariinsky Theatre’s branch in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania welcomed almost 60,000 visitors, presenting thirty-four ballet performances, seventy-four opera performances, 113 concerts and thirty-five guided tours.

Its premieres included Vladimir Milov’s opera Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the ballet The Count of Monte Cristo to music by Édouard Lalo; the branch also gave the concert premiere of a production of Puccini’s La bohème.

This season also saw the launch of a new festival, The Beginning of Immortality, dedicated to the memory and courage of generations. Other major events included the VII Mariinsky–Vladikavkaz International Festival, the Choral Music Festival marking the centenary of the outstanding Ossetian composer and arts figure Arkady Acheyev, and the XXV Moscow Easter Festival.

The company toured to St Petersburg, including Kronstadt, as well as Pskov, Astrakhan and Odintsovo.

The St Petersburg company’s touring programme reached a record nine cities in China this year: Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Kunming, Changsha, Xi’an, Shenzhen and Yanguan. Performances also took place in Yerevan, Dubai, Moscow, Kazan, Irkutsk, Tikhvin, Pushkinskiye Gory, the Sirius Federal Territory, Vladivostok and Vladikavkaz.

At its own venues during the 243^rd season the Mariinsky welcomed more than forty visiting companies from Russia, China, Türkiye, Uzbekistan and Armenia.

One of the highlights of the summer at the Historic Stage was the inter-union concert Music of the Theatre, marking the 150^th anniversary of the Union of Theatre Workers of Russia. Masterpieces of world music were presented within a visual environment inspired by the art of the future and technological innovation.

The concert continued the Mariinsky’s active exploration of ways in which classical music can engage with contemporary technology. During the 243^rd season the theatre gave the first public performances of Mandragora, an opera created with the aid of artificial intelligence. It also premiered a new production of Idomeneo, rè di Creta, bringing together the world of antiquity and innovative stage design, and presented the unique project Symphony of Innovation, which combines classical music with cutting-edge technology.

The Stravinsky Hall – the Mariinsky Theatre’s newest and fourth-largest performance venue in St Petersburg – became a true centre of attraction for the city’s music lovers this season. Bright, welcoming and multifunctional, with exceptional acoustics, the hall consistently offers programmes of the highest calibre and impresses even the most discerning audiences.

Today it not only introduces listeners to promising young artists but also offers the opportunity to encounter internationally renowned performers in a more intimate and informal setting. At the same time it serves as a kind of creative laboratory: new additions to the Mariinsky Theatre’s repertoire are often heard here first, alongside exclusive programmes that in many cases can be experienced nowhere else but the Stravinsky Hall.

Just over a month remains before the close of the Mariinsky Theatre’s 243^rd season. By tradition, this is the moment when the theatrical year reaches its culmination. Rare, major and exclusive events – often unavailable during the regular season – appear across the theatre’s stages in a dazzling abundance. At the height of summer the concentration of stars from the world opera stage is especially remarkable. In July and early August Mariinsky Theatre productions will feature Hibla Gerzmava, Vladislav Sulimsky, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Yulia Matochkina, Alexey Markov, Elena Stikhina, Mikhail Petrenko, Olga Borodina, Tatiana Serjan, Irina Churilova and Sergei Skorokhodov.

On 11 July Mariinsky II will present one of the great rarities and monuments of French opera: Hector Berlioz’ Les Troyens. This ancient-world counterpart to War and Peace astonishes with its epic scale. To present this monumental five-hour work is an undertaking few theatres in the world are prepared to attempt. Valery Gergiev will conduct the forthcoming performance, with a truly star-studded cast in the principal roles: Yulia Matochkina, Ivan Gyngazov, Tatiana Serjan, Yuri Vorobiev, Anna Kiknadze and Alexey Markov.

The following day, 12 July, Verdi’s tempestuous drama Simon Boccanegra will unfold at Mariinsky II against the spellbinding backdrop of the Ligurian Sea, Vladislav Sulimsky in the title role, Christian Knapp conducts.

Vladislav Sulimsky will delight his admirers with two further summer appearances at the Mariinsky Theatre. On 26 July he will sing Rogozhin in Weinberg’s The Idiot – a role in which the renowned baritone achieved resounding international success at the Salzburg Festival in 2024. On 30 July Sulimsky and the incomparable Elena Stikhina will appear in Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress, a gripping opera charged with passion and psychological confrontation.

A series of appearances also awaits the magnificent Yulia Matochkina. Following Les Troyens, the singer will return to the Mariinsky stage three more times. On 15 July, together with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Christian Knapp, she will perform Poulenc’s mono-opera La Voix humaine at the Concert Hall. A special place in the programme belongs to Richard Wagner’s great Romantic myth, Lohengrin. On 1 August the principal roles in this grand mystery production will be performed by stars of the Austro-German repertoire: Sergei Skorokhodov, Elena Stikhina and Yulia Matochkina. Valery Gergiev conducts.

The unsurpassed opera diva Hibla Gerzmava, People’s Artist of Russia, will appear in Puccini’s Tosca on 28 July. This gripping musical drama of power, betrayal, and love, captivating in its melodic beauty, will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.

A sumptuous gift awaits St Petersburg audiences from the brilliant Ekaterina Semenchuk. A singer of extraordinary range and artistry, she will perform the role of the cruel Princess Turandot in Puccini’s opera of the same name on 31 July. On 2 August Semenchuk will also take part in the ceremonial closing of the season at Mariinsky II, appearing in one of her signature roles: Marfa in Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina.

This Saturday, 5 July, Mariinsky II will present Rimsky-Korsakov’s great epic opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, conducted by Valery Gergiev. A spiritual testament by the great Russian composer, the work is striking in its philosophical depth and musical grandeur. The central role will be performed by Irina Churilova, the Mariinsky’s definitive Fevroniya. Joining her on stage will be Denis Zakirov, Yuri Vorobiev and Svetlana Karpova.

The July Russian opera programme also features star casts in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, with Anzhelika Minasova (in the title role) and Mikhail Petrenko on 8 July, and Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, with People’s Artist of Russia Olga Borodina as the Countess on 17 July.

On 3 and 4 July, with performances at 13:00 and 19:00, Mariinsky II will present the premiere performances of a new production of Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda as part of the XXXIV Music Festival Stars of the White Nights. The production has been created by celebrated Bulgarian artists: stage director Orlin Anastassov and designer Denis Ivanov. Their creative partnership is already well known to St Petersburg audiences: their Mariinsky productions of Verdi’s Ernani and Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov have both enjoyed great success. This time Anastassov and Ivanov return to the Italian classics, taking on one of the most popular operas of its age. Valery Gergiev will conduct all premiere performances.

La Gioconda was first performed on 8 April 1876 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. It was this work that brought Amilcare Ponchielli the long-awaited fame he had sought, and the opera was met with extraordinary success. Equally successful productions in other European countries and in America soon followed. On 18 January 1888 La Gioconda received its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre. Today, however, the opera is heard far less often on the world’s stages. It has long been absent from the St Petersburg repertoire, and the new production is intended to fill that gap.

The plot of La Gioconda is drawn from Victor Hugo’s play Angelo, tyran de Padoue (“Angelo, Tyrant of Padua”). Librettist Tobia Gorrio – Arrigo Boito – changed the names of the characters and transferred the action from Padua to 17th century Venice. The events unfold against a vivid and picturesque backdrop: carnival, a regatta, the famous Piazza San Marco with the majestic Doge’s Palace, and the column crowned by the winged lion. Yet despite the festive masquerade surrounding them, the city is enveloped in a dark atmosphere. Shadows and mists over the canals foretell fatal passions. Jealousy and envy, imagined and real murders pursue the principal characters: Barnaba, the cruel spy of the Inquisition, and the street singer Gioconda. Brave and untameable, like the sea that surrounds her, she resists evil and, against all odds, saves the man she loves, granting him happiness at the cost of her own life.

The music of La Gioconda is rich in contrasts. The carefree merriment of the Venetian carnival is set against the characters’ profound inner turmoil. Intricate ensembles and choruses, together with piercingly expressive arias, make the opera both compelling for audiences and highly desirable for many singers. One of the most recognisable musical episodes in La Gioconda is the Dance of the Hours. This ballet suite consists of four episodes, each representing a different part of the day: dawn, day, dusk and night. The dance symbolises the eternal struggle between good and evil, light and darkness.

Stage director Orlin Anastassov and designer Denis Ivanov are staging this Venetian story in St Petersburg – the city known as the Venice of the North – for the first time. The opera offers them the opportunity to bring to the Mariinsky stage one of the most beautiful periods in the history of this extraordinary Italian city. The production’s musical director is Valery Gergiev. Lighting design created by Anatoly Lyapin; music prepared by Grigory Yakerson; chief chorus master is Konstantin Rylov; choreography produced by Alexander Sergeev.

“When the curtain rises, the first sensation the audience should always experience is beauty. La Gioconda offers enormous possibilities for creating something exceptional. In this production I want to show the true splendour of Venetian style – to make people feel that they are present in that time, part of those events. The tallest structure in our production, the wave at the centre of the stage, is immense. It is a message: the art we create is just as boundless, just as timeless. It does not matter whether I create something or someone else does – we are all only a small part of the vast, infinite world of art,” says stage director Orlin Anastassov.

The production’s scenography is remarkable for its use of extraordinary innovative technology. Its central set piece is a vast structure weighing fifteen tonnes and rising fourteen metres high. This movable construction, which in some acts takes the form of a gigantic wave, towers above the characters and fully immerses the audience in the action on stage. The colourful costumes convey Italian folk character with striking precision, visible in the lace, embroidery and other details. Around sixty carnival masks, decorated with coloured stones, were also created specially for the production.

“Piazza San Marco explodes with passion and rises like a wave. It transforms, the perspectives shift, and the audience seems to drift along the Grand Canal. The column with the lion and the paving stones are exact copies of the originals; a real gondola glides along the island; and in the second act the same square becomes a ship. The production is dominated by greens and marine shades – sky and sea, as Enzo sings in his aria,” says set and costume designer Denis Ivanov.

The XXXIV Music Festival Stars of the White Nights takes place with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The festival’s Artistic Director is Valery Gergiev.