Interviews

Dear Guests, please note that there have been amendments to guidelines for attending the theatre during the period of the pandemic. In accordance with revisions to Decree No 121 of the Government of St Petersburg, from 28 January to 13 February 2022 minors will not be permitted to attend theatre performances. Tickets purchased for children for performances and concerts may be returned on presentation of the child's birth certificate.

From 30 October on entering the theatre one of the following certificates must be presented:

– EITHER a QR-code detailing a completed course of vaccination against the coronavirus infection (to be valid for one year);
– OR a QR-code confirming recovery from the virus (to be valid for 6 (six) months;
– OR a certificate confirming medical exemption from vaccination together with a negative PCR test taken one day before the event they are attending. A negative PCR test without a certificate confirming medical exemption will not be considered valid.

Those over the age of 60 (sixty) years may present, rather than a QR-code, a printed certification of vaccination.
To gain access to the theatre, non-Russian citizens must provide a document confirming vaccination together with a negative PCR test taken one day before the event they are attending.
For all questions concerning the revised regulations please contact the information service by calling +7 (812) 326-41-41.

Dear Guests, the theatre’s website has published the playbill for February. Please select those performances and concerts that are of interest to you and visit the Mariinsky Theatre – it should be noted that the playbill includes search filters for the type of performance and the particular venue.

Please note that from 28 January to 13 February the Mariinsky Theatre is unable to admit underage children to performances and concerts in accordance with revisions to Decree No 121 of the Government of St Petersburg dated 25 January 2022.

BALLET
In February there will be blocks of ballet performances of Raymonda, Giselle, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Cinderella and Jewels. Additionally, it should be noted that there will be a series of performances of The Sleeping Beauty on 15, 16 and 17 February: this will be the reconstruction of the 1890 production by Marius Petipa. The first of these performances is being given in memory of the ballet-master, coach and ballet soloist Sergei Vikharev to mark what would have been his sixtieth birthday.

Another event will come with a competition performance of a production featuring Igor Stravinsky’s works Renard, Mavra and The Fairy’s Kiss on 11 February as part of the Golden Mask festival. This new Mariinsky Theatre production has been nominated for the award in eight categories, including as a production as a whole, for the work of the production team and for the performers of the lead roles in the ballet The Fairy’s Kiss.

OPERA
Of the “textbook” titles of Russian opera, in February there will be performances of Borodin’s Prince Igor, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden.

Following a lengthy absence there will be a performance of Janáček’s Jenůfa staged by Vasily Barkhatov and Zinovy Margolin. Also returning to the stage will be Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Wagner’s Lohengrin. There will be concert performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo and Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Anna Netrebko in the lead role.

Audiences will also have the opportunity to see Tchaikovsky’s operas The Enchantress and The Maid of Orleans. Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus – one of last season’s box-office smash hits – is also included in the playbill for February.

With Valery Gergiev conducting there are to be performances of Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina, Richard Strauss’ Salome and Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette in concert.

CONCERTS
At the Concert Hall in February there will be appearances by soloists from the St Petersburg House of Music: violinist Pavel Milyukov and pianist Philipp Kopachevsky with a chamber music programme and cellist Fyodor Amosov, clarinettist Lev Zhuravsky and violinist Anna Savkina together with the Mariinsky Orchestra.

A performance of Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevsky will feature Olga Borodina. Guest Conductors Sascha Goetzel and Josep Vicent will be performing with the theatre’s orchestra and soloists: the former will conduct the opera Idomeneo and the latter will lead the cantata Carmina Burana.

Programmes are also being rehearsed by the theatre’s instrumental groups – the Brass Ensemble and the Stradivarius Ensemble (the programmes to include Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony among other works). For Larisa Gergieva’s birthday on 27 February there will be an anniversary concert in her honour.

Following a lengthy absence, one of Mozart’s boldest and most innovative works is to be performed at the Mariinsky Theatre — the opera Idomeneo. Making his debut in the title role is tenor Alexander Mikhailov, while Sascha Goetzel from Vienna will be conducting. The opera is being performed at the theatre’s Concert Hall on 21 January.

For a long time, it was considered that the genre of Idomeneo — that of Italian opera-seria (meaning “serious”), involving castrato singers — was hopelessly out of date and that it would be impossible to bring it back to life on the stage. Since the middle of the 20th century, however, amidst a rush of interest in early music there came about the beginnings of a revival of this opera by Mozart. The plot of Idomeneo is based on a legend about the Cretan king who almost sacrifices his only son to the god Poseidon.

“Idomeneo is an utterly special opera,” relates conductor Sascha Goetzel. “It proved to be a breakthrough for the composer and became a new horizon discovered by an unsurpassed musical dramaturgist. How Mozart combines recitatives with arias, what individuality with which he embellishes the characters and how through the music he conveys ambivalence of emotions — features typical of Mozart — these were things he later developed in all of his subsequent operas.”

Opera-seria normally consists of a string of arias and occasionally interspersed ensembles — Mozart, on the other hand, transforms this “concert in costumes” into a series of psychological portraits and dramatic dialogues. A highly important role is played by the chorus, thanks to which the opera takes on a tragic scale. “There is music in my opera for all sorts of persons – but none for long ears,” the twenty-four-year-old Mozart wrote with pride of his work to his father. This is not the first time that Sascha Goetzel has been invited to conduct an opera by Mozart at the Mariinsky Theatre; he has already conducted Don Giovanni here.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky. When I was studying conducting, I also continued to play the violin with the Wiener Philharmoniker and at that time I was able to observe Nikolaus Harnoncourt — how he brought the tradition of Mozart to performers of contemporary instruments in line with a new and historically-informed approach,” comments the conductor.

For eleven years, Sascha Goetzel headed the Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he recorded several albums for Deutsche Grammophon. As an opera conductor he enjoys a fruitful collaboration with the Wiener Staatsoper: there he has worked on the operas Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto and La Bohème.

The lead roles in Idomeneo are to be sung by Alexander Mikhailov (Idomeneo), Anastasia Kalagina (Ilia), Natalia Yevstafieva (Idamante) and Zhanna Dombrovskaya (Elettra). See a short video clip and interview with the conductor from the rehearsal hall.

This coming weekend, 22 and 23 January, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will be appearing at the “Zaryadye” concert hall in Moscow, presenting three programmes of symphony music. The concerts are to feature the pianists Boris Berezovsky and Denis Matsuev.

One of these concerts is included in the playbill of the Scriabin-Fest, organised by Boris Berezovsky to mark one and a half centuries since the composer’s birth. Two other programmes will serve as an expanded musical commentary on the first “congratulatory” part of the tour to Moscow: here there will be fin de siècle music which nourished the ears of Alexander Scriabin.

In the programme dedicated to the composer, maestro Gergiev has included Le Poème de l'extase, one of the repertoire works that is most indicative with regard to the composition style of Scriabin, the mystic and the philosopher, as he is often described. Also to be performed by Boris Berezovsky and the musicians from St Petersburg will be Piano Concerto in F Sharp Minor. This same programme additionally includes the orchestral prelude Reverie.

The following two appearances by the Mariinsky Orchestra at the “Zaryadye” hall (concerts of the eponymous festival delayed from autumn) offer a marvellous opportunity to hear the musical context of the turn of the 19^th-20^th centuries when Scriabin was producing his oeuvres. These are emblematic opuses of the era and, at the same time, majestic key works in the repertoire of Valery Gergiev’s orchestra: the introduction to Wagner’s Parsifal, Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, Debussy’s symphonic sketches La Mer and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Denis Matsuev will be performing the solo in Brahms’ grandiose Piano Concerto No 2, also included in the concert programme.

The concert schedule may be accessed on the “Zaryadye” website:
22 January, 15.00
Marking 150 Years since the Birth of Alexander Scriabin
22 January, 19.00
Wagner, Debussy, Strauss
23 January, 11.00
Mahler, Brahms

Mariinsky Theatre box-offices and the official website have launched sales of tickets to performances and concerts in the second half of January.

Performances of Le Corsaire and A Thousand and One Nights will continue the tour by the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre to St Petersburg. Visitors to the historic theatre may look forward to Vasily Vainonen’s The Nutcracker, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and the one-act Carmen-Suite, which will share an evening along with Le Jeune Homme et la mort. On the day the Siege of Leningrad was lifted, in line with tradition, there are to be performances of the ballets Leningrad Symphony and The Young Lady and the Hooligan.

For the first time following a lengthy interval, the public will have the chance to see the operas Adriana Lecouvreur and The Tsar’s Bride, while for younger audiences there is to be a performance of Murych the Cat. Russian operas being staged include Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin, Mazepa with Roman Burdenko in the title role, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Dead Souls. The playbill for the historic stage features Pagliacci, Aida and a semi-staged version of Lakmé, while the Mariinsky-II will host performances of Rigoletto and Tannhäuser.

Guests at the Concert Hall will see Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka, Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-act operas Mozart and Salieri and Kashchey the Immortal, as well as Le nozze di Figaro, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pelléas et Mélisande. There will be concert performances of Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.

The Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici will be presenting a programme of opuses by Richard Strauss, Ludwig van Beethoven and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The theatre’s orchestra and soloists Sofia Viland (flute), Khristian Artamonov (violin) and conductor Christian Knapp will be performing music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Dmitry Shostakovich.

From 13 to 23 January the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will be performing three amazing ballet fairy-tales in St Petersburg.

The traditional winter tour by the company from Vladivostok will commence with performances of The Sleeping Beauty at the new stage — a ballet-féerie created by the genius of two great masters of the art: Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. At the historic Mariinsky Theatre there will be Le Corsaire, staged by Eldar Aliev based on fragments of Petipa’s own choreography. Anton Torbeev will be conducting.

At the Mariinsky-II there will also be four performances of Eldar Aliev’s colourful oriental ballet One Thousand and One Nights, which has become a “calling-card” of the Primorsky Stage. The St Petersburg premiere of the ballet took place exactly one year ago. The current tour marks one century since the birth of the composer Fikret Amirov; the performances are to be conducted by Ayyub Quliyev.

In accordance with tradition, the performers from Vladivostok will be joined on-stage by soloists from the St Petersburg company, among them Renata Shakirova, Yekaterina Chebykina, Victor Caixeta and Nikita Korneyev.

Mariinsky Theatre box-offices and the website have commenced sales of tickets to the first events in 2022.

Over the New Year holidays, audiences may look forward to a major series of performances of the ballet The Nutcracker as staged by Vasily Vainonen and by Mihail Chemiakin and Kirill Simonov. Balletomanes will also be delighted to see Le Corsaire and The Sleeping Beauty performed by the Primorsky Stage along with Don Quixote and The Stone Flower, while contemporary dance will be represented by Ilya Zhivoi’s The Four Sea-sons.

The opera playbill is adorned by such colourful opuses as Christmas Eve, A Christmas Tale and The Story of Kai and Gerda. At the start of the year, alongside tried-and-tested repertoire works the public will have the opportunity to see new productions: Benvenuto Cellini, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Die Fledermaus, presented one year ago.

Not to be missed is performance Il trovatore with Ekaterina Semenchuk, Yusif Eyvazov and Alexei Markov. The January playbill features the traditional productions of Sadko, Le Rossignol and Rigoletto as well as original stage readings of Iolanta, Il viaggio a Reims, Don Quichotte and Aida.

A series of televised music performances includes an organ programme for younger audiences. At the Concert Hall there will be a New Year concert by the ensemble “Renaissance Percussion” and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos performed by the Stradivarius Ensemble under Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici. Chamber opuses by von Weber, Mozart and Brahms and symphonic scores by Stra-vinsky, Glière and Rachmaninoff feature on the playbill alongside Felix Kruglikov’s new work God Saves All and Giovanni Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Members of the Mariinsky Ballet and the theatre’s orchestra together with Acting Director of the ballet company Yuri Fateyev and conductor Gavriel Heine are currently in Baden-Baden. Here, at the Festspielhaus, from 21 to 26 December the company’s traditional annual Christmas tour will take place. Last year the tour did not take place due to the pandemic — hence the dancers’ arrival is all the more eagerly anticipated.

The theatre’s collaboration with this venue dates back more than twenty years. In the summer, Baden-Baden plays host to the theatre’s opera company; here there are also regular concerts of symphony music with maestro Gergiev. Mariinsky Theatre performances will be attended by audiences from three countries — Germeny, Switzerland and Italy.

This year at the Festspielhaus the Mariinsky Ballet will be presenting the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. On the final evening of the tour, the dancers will be appearing in a gala concert, featuring Michel Fokine’s Chopiniana, Jerome Robbins’ In the Night and “Paquita” Grand Pas in the three-part programme.

The lead roles in Swan Lake were danced by Oxana Skorik and Kimin Kim and Maria Ilyushkina and Timur Askerov. The role of Masha in The Nutcracker (there are to be three performances) will be danced by Maria Khoreva and Anastasia Matvienko. The role of the Nutcracker Prince will be performed by Kimin Kim, Xander Parish and Timur Askerov. Other soloists travelling to Baden-Baden include Andrei Yermakov, Roman Belyakov, Yana Selina, Anastasia Nuikina, Alexandra Khiteyeva and Nikolai Korneyev. The closing gala concert will feature all participants of the tour.

The next tour by the ballet company is planned for late April 2022: Mariinsky Theatre artistes will be travelling to Washington with George Balanchine’s Jewels.

This December the Atkins Young Artists Program at the Mariinsky announced the names of its 2021-2022 fellowship grant recipients. According to the results of the very competitive audition process nine gifted singers were awarded their fellowships. The new fellows include graduates of the: Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Ural Conservatory in Yekaterinburg, Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory and Gertzen University in Saint Petersburg as well as Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburg, PA USA.

Diana Kazanlieva, soprano
Ekaterina Savinkova, soprano
Patricia Westley, soprano
Zinaida Tsarenko, mezzo-soprano
Klim Tikhonov, tenor
Roman Shirokikh, tenor
Anatoly Mikhailov, baritone
Miroslav Molchanov, bass
Gleb Peryazev, bass

The Atkins Program, founded in 2015 by Valery Gergiev and V. Atkins Foundation, works under Maestro’s artistic leadership. The fellowship program aims to support talented young performers at the outset of their artistic careers, when they start wining the admiration of the public at large. At the Mariinsky Theatre, fellowship grant-recipients develop their vocal and stage skills under the tutelage of some of opera’s leading specialists, and they take part in performances and concerts, sing lead roles in the repertoire and tour with the company. This training serves as a trampoline for their stage careers. The current list of fellowship grant-recipients and graduates includes Alexander Mikhailov, Yevgeny Akhmedov, Dmitry Grigoriev, Gamid Abdulov, Vladislav Kupriyanov, Ekaterina Sannikova, Aigul Khismatullina and Anastasia Schegoleva.

The Mariinsky Theatre is touring to Moscow with a festive programme: in the capital, Valery Gergiev will be performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Christmas Eve and Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker. Moscow audiences may also look forward to a festive concert that has been rehearsed by the Stradivarius Ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre.

The opera Christmas Eve is being presented at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall this evening, 22 December. Travelling to Moscow together with the singers are the costumes and elements of the set — the opera is to be presented in a semi-staged version. The action will take place on the stage, while the orchestra will be situated in the stalls, from which the audience seating has been removed.

The Mariinsky Theatre’s production of Christmas Eve returned to the stage last season. In March, the opera was performed in Tikhvin, the composer’s homeland. Valery Gergiev has brought a young cast for the performance: tenor Alexander Mikhailov will be singing the role of Vakula, Yulia Matochkina will be appearing as Solokha and Ekaterina Sannikova, who was awarded the Special Prize at the recent Operalia competition, will be appearing as Oxana. The lead roles are also being performed by leading soloists of the opera company Yevgeny Akimov (the Deacon), Roman Burdenko (Patsyuk) and Stanislav Trofimov (Chub).

The following day, 23 December, will see the Mariinsky Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker under the baton of maestro Gergiev at Zaryadye Hall. A recording of the ballet as interpreted by Valery Gergiev and musicians of the Mariinsky Orchestra proved a milestone in the performance history of this work. Hearing The Nutcracker at a concert of symphony music is a great and rare opportunity.

At Zaryadye that same evening, the Stradivarius Ensemble — comprising the Mariinsky Orchestra’s finest string musicians — under Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici will be performing a programme consisting of polkas, waltzes and highlights from operettas by Strauss, Kálmán and Lehár.