January news

Important events in the first half of January 2013

 

Key events:
- The first concerts in the series All Shostakovich symphonies performed by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, 7 and 8 January

- A concert by The State Borodin Quartet, 9 January

- A tour by the Opera Company and Orchestra to Spain, 10 – 20 January

2 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Larisa Yudina, a leading Mariinsky Theatre coloratura soprano, will make her debut as Lyudmila in Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila.

3 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Giselle with Maria Kochetkova, prima ballerina of the San Francisco Ballet. A graduate of the Moscow School of Dance, Maria Kochetkova danced for several years at the Royal Ballet in London and the English National Ballet before joining the San Francisco Ballet to perform lead roles. In 2009 Kochetkova won the Isadora Duncan Award for her performance of the role of Giselle.
Giselle is one of the ballerina’s favourite roles and one she frequently performs. Critics have noted the “elegance and grace of the character, her delicacy and, at the same time, the dramatic flavour of the dancer’s performance, her precision of position and beautiful technique: ‘This Giselle breaks our hearts.’”
Maria Kochetkova will be partnered by Timur Askerov.

4, 6 and 8 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Traditional performances of the ballet The Nutcracker by the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre. The coming year will mark two hundred and seventy-five years since the Academy was founded.

4 January
Concert Hall

A gala concert of basses: eight bass singers will be appearing together at the Concert Hall – Ildar Abdrazakov, Askar Abdrazakov, Sergei Aleksashkin, Yuri Vorobiev, Mikhail Kit, Alexander Morozov, Mikhail Petrenko and Vladimir Felyauer.

4 and 5 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Rodion Shchedrin’s ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse with choreography by Alexei Ratmansky.
Together, the dazzling music of the young Shchedrin who celebrated his eightieth birthday in December 2012 and Ratmansky’s expressive choreography have formed an amazingly dazzling production, its lyricism accompanied by humour and its craftiness by light melancholy. The lead roles will be danced by Anastasia Kolegova (the Tsar Maiden), Maxim Zyuzin (Ivan the Fool), Ilya Petrov (the Little Humpbacked Horse) and Yekaterina Kondaurova (the Mare) on 4 January and Yekaterina Osmolkina, Alexander Sergeyev, Vasily Tkachenko and Anastasia Petushkova on 5 January.

5 and 7 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Leading Mariinsky Theatre bass Ildar Abdrazakov will be appearing as Figaro in Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro (7 January). On 5 January this role will be performed by Vadim Kravets. On both evenings the role of Susanna will be sung by Aida Garifullina, a young guest performer from Kazan, with Yevgenia Muravieva (5 January) and Viktoria Yastrebova (7 January) as the Countess and Yuri Laptev (5 January) and Sergei Romanov (7 January) as Count Almaviva.

6 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Alain Maratrat’s production of Rossini’s opera Il viaggio a Reims. This is a merry and riotous production with sparkling music and the orchestra and the conductor involved in the action which unfolds interactively in the auditorium. This performance will see almost the entire original cast from the premiere of the production brought together – singers of the Academy of Young Singers who have since become Mariinsky Theatre soloists, among them Anastasia Kalagina, Daniil Shtoda, Olga Pudova and Nikolai Kamensky. Mikhail Tatarnikov will be conducting.

The Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus on tour in France
7 – 9 January
The Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus will be giving two concerts at the Salle Pleyel in Paris under maestro Valery Gergiev. With these concerts Valery Gergiev will “kick off” a series of symphonies and concerti by Dmitry Shostakovich at this illustrious venue, the programme of each concert comprising works by both the young and the mature Shostakovich. The series comprises eight concerts. The first concert will feature the First, Second and Fifteenth Symphonies as well as the Second Piano Concerto; the solo will be performed by Denis Matsuev.

At the second concert on 7 January there will be performances of the Third and Thirteenth Symphonies (Babi Yar) – the solo to be performed by Mariinsky Theatre bass Mikhail Petrenko – and Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto; the solo will be performed by Mario Brunello. 

On 9 January, Valery Gergiev will be conducting the orchestra at the concert hall La Halle aux Grains in Toulouse. This unique concert hall has been in use since 1974 and is the permanent home of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. The programme features more music by Shostakovich – the First and Tenth Symphonies and the Second Cello Concerto; the solo will be performed by Edgar Moreau. 

8 January
Concert Hall
Organ subscription series concert. The organ will be performed by Hiroko Inoue, a Japanese organist, graduate of the Moscow Conservatoire (class of Alexei Parshin) and prize-winner at numerous international competitions who has worked with the Kaliningrad Philharmonic for ten years. The programme includes famous works for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach and music by Hendrik Andriessen, Pietro Yon and Charles-Marie Widor as well as music by the Japanese composers Takashi Yoshimatsu and Michio Miyagi.

8 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with choreography by Vasily Vainonen starring Maria Kochetkova as Masha and Timur Askerov as the Prince.

Concert by The State Borodin Quartet
9 January

Concert Hall
A concert by the State Borodin Quartet, a legendary orchestra that has existed since 1945 and which maintains its reputation as one of the finest such ensembles despite the fact that several generations of soloists have come and gone. The quartet’s performance is a continuation of a series of concerts by the ensemble that began in November 2012. The programme includes quartets by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. The Mariinsky Theatre’s broadcasting department will be transmitting this concert; the broadcast starts at 19:00 on mariinsky.tv and mariinsky.fm.

Tour by the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra to Spain
10 – 20 January

On 10 and 13 January at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona there will be concert performances of the opera Iolanta with Anna Netrebko as Iolanta; this will be the singer’s first appearance at that theatre. Also engaged for the performances are Sergei Skorokhodov, Alexander Gergalov, Sergei Aleksashkin, Edem Umerov, Andrei Zorin, Yuri Vorobiev, Eleonora Vindau, Anna Kiknadze and Natalia Yevstafieva as well as the Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra; Valery Gergiev will be conducting.

11 January – the Tchaikovsky Festival in Barcelona. At the L’Auditori concert hall the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will be performing Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and First Piano Concerto. The solo will be performed by Cuban pianist Jorge Luis Prats. Prats studied at the Moscow Conservatoire under Rudolf Kerer and later at the Vienna Academy of Music under Paul Badura-Skoda. The pianist has been a prize-winner at the Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud Competition.

On 12 January the Mariinsky Orchestra will be performing at the Auditoi di Girona Sala Monsalvatge concert hall, the programme to include Carl Maria von Weber’s overture Oberon, Johannes Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony. Jorge Luis Prats will be performing as the soloist.

On 14 January in Madrid there will be a concert by the Mariinsky Orchestra; there will be a performance of the Introduction to Act I of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. The solo will be performed by Denis Matsuev.

On 15 January at the Auditorio De La Diputación concert hall in Alicante the Mariinsky Orchestra will be performing the Introduction to Act I of the Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto and Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique.

At the Teatro Principal Antzokia, the most important theatre of Vitoria, on 16 January there will be a rendition of Johannes Brahms’ Second Symphony and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto, the solo to be performed by Enrique Bagaria, a Spanish pianist from Barcelona who studied under Stanislav Pochekin and Dmitry Bashkirov.

The programme for the concert on 17 January in Oviedo includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fortieth Symphony, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme and Dmitry Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony. The solo will be performed by the young German cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker.

On 19 January Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra at the Auditorio de Tenerife concert hall as part of the XXIX Canary Islands Music Festival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The programme includes Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto (soloist: Alexei Volodin), Dmitry Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and Nino Diaz Second Clarinet Concerto (soloist – Cristo Barrios). The Clarinet Concerto was commissioned from the composer by the festival, and this performance marks the work’s world premiere. Cristo Barrios is considered one of the finest Spanish clarinettists of his generation. 

On 20 January the same programme will be performed at the Concert Hall in Las Palmas in Gran Canariass.

13 January
Mariinsky Theatre

Sergei Slonimsky’s The Magic Nut with choreography by Donvena Pandoursky and costumes and sets by Mihail Chemiakin. In terms of plot, the ballet is a pre-history to The Nutcracker. This is a vivid costumed production with imagistic music by Slonimsky that takes us off, together with the protagonist who is searching for the magic nut Krakatuk, to an underwater kingdom, a kingdom of merriment, the rat kingdom.

12 and 13 January
Benjamin Britten’s opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream staged by Claudia Solti. The role of Queen Tytania will be performed by Olga Trifonova and Olga Pudova.

13 January
Diana Vishneva in Bizet and Shchedrin’s Carmen-Suite with choreography by Alberto Alonso. Ilya Kuznetsov will be dancing as José and Konstantin Zverev as the Torero. The same evening there will also be a performance of Le Jeune homme et la mort with Alexander Sergeyev and Sofia Gumerova.

The programme is subject to change.
For more detailed information please go to press releases and events on the Mariinsky Theatre website.
The Mariinsky Theatre’s media broadcast sites: mariinsky.tv and mariinsky.fm.
January playbill.

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