• 19th International Stars of the White Nights Festival: the start 23 May
• Stars of the White Nights opera galas 24, 25 & 26 May
• Ballet tour: Israel 21 & 23 May
• Stars of the White Nights Festival in Moscow 26, 27 и 28 May
• 11th International Mariinsky Ballet Festival: photo-gallery 14...24 April

On 23 May the 19th International Stars of the White Nights Music Festival kicks off at the Mariinsky Theatre. The Festival will be running for nine weeks and will be held at the Mariinsky Theatre and the Mariinsky Concert Hall, and will also make visits to Moscow and Novgorod. Over 115 performances and concerts will be presented during this period. The Festival starts at the Mariinsky Theatre with one of the most spectacular premieres of the season — Gaetano Donizetti’s opera L’elisir d’amore conducted by Valery Gergiev starring Anna Netrebko in the main part. The production staged by Laurent Pelly, a melodrama full of sparkling humour, received positive reviews from audiences in London and Paris. During its St Petersburg premiere this January, Anna Netrebko sang Adina in this production, as she did at the Opéra national de Paris and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and so will sing it once again at the opening night of the Stars of the White Nights Festival, thus performing one of the most prominent roles in the soprano repertoire.

Keeping a “high degree” of the Festival, which will be given right at the start with expectedly bright performance of L’elisir d’amore, for three nights the Mariinsky Theatre (24 and 26 May) and the Mariinsky Concert Hall (25 May) will see gala concerts made of the classical opera popular works. These galas should naturally complement the festive week for both our theater and the City of St Petersburg: the start of the Stars of the White Nights Festival, the second anniversary for the launch of the Mariinsky Label, our own record label, as well as the Birthday of the City.

In the next few days our Ballet Company will make a tour of Israel, performing at the Amphitheater in Caesarea. The Amphitheater was built for sports and cultural events during the reign of Herod the Great at the beginning of the first millennium and is one of the most beautiful landmarks of the ancient architecture. This unique ancient hall with a capacity of 3,800 people, to this day continues to serve as a venue for significant cultural events. Classical ballets: Giselle and Swan Lake — performances, which Mariinsky Theatre is famous for (and therefore sometimes referred as “The House of Petipa”), will be presented against a backdrop of the natural scenery of the Mediterranean Sea. Both ballets will be shown at the Mariinsky Theatre again soon — until the end of this season Giselle will be given just once, and Swan Lake — four times.

On 26, 27 and 28 May the 19th Stars of the White Nights Festival will be presented in Moscow at the Crocus City Hall — a relatively new Centre for the Performing Arts in the Russian capital. On 26 and 27 May, in the presence of the Azerbaijani composer Arif Melikov, we are performing his most famous ballet The Legend of Love choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. On 28 May we are doing a Ballet Gala that features Carmen Suite and the Divertissement of pas de deux and choreographic miniatures.

March 23, 1961 at the Mariinsky Theatre (then: Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre) saw the world premiere of the ballet The Legend of Love to music by Arif Melikov choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. Its subsequent representations during the last fifty years showed the grandeur and scale of this real masterpiece. Music by Arif Melikov, beautiful and distinctive, stylistically matches an ancient oriental legend, which is the basis to the ballet plot. Bright expressive techniques and innovative solutions by Yuri Grigorovich, which have become a sort of test for several generations of dancers, without doubt, were ahead of their time. Ballet masters of our theater, Gabriela Komleva and Gennady Selyutsky are remembering their participance in the early performances of this ballet at the Mariinsky. Ballerinas Viktoria Tereshkina and Yevgenia Obraztsova, now performing the roles of sisters Queen Mekhmeneh Bahnu and Princess Shyrin, are telling of their experiences of working on these roles. In January and February this year, the ballet was presented thrice at the Mariinsky Theatre with various casts of principal dancers. We’ve uploaded video-trailers and photo-albums related to these performances onto our online media. You are welcome to explore.