Concert Gala performance (Marking 150 years since the opening of the building of the Mariinsky Theatre) World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera - established 1783
Schedule for Gala performance (Marking 150 years since the opening of the building of the Mariinsky Theatre) 2022
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra
The Mariinsky Theatre – one of the oldest
in Russia – can trace its history back to 1783, when
a Decree was issued on 12 July on the establishment of
a theatre committee “to direct spectacles and music”, while on
5 October the Bolshoi Stone Theatre opened amid great pomp on Carousel
Square, today known as Theatre Square. In time, performances by
the Russian Opera Company also began to be staged at the so-called
Circus Theatre, which was located opposite the Bolshoi Stone Theatre (where
the Ballet Company and the Italian Opera Company continued to
perform).
The Circus Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1859. “Now, alongside
our public pleasures, we are faced with emptiness following the fire at
the circus, which will, in all probability, quickly be built upon,”
one newspaper wrote. Because of the fire, the reconstruction of
the Alexandrinsky and Mikhailovsky Theatres was postponed, and work began
immediately to design a replacement for the theatre that had burned
down. And by 1860 the theatre had been rebuilt under the guidance
of architect Alberto Cavos.
The grand opening of the rebuilt theatre, called the Mariinsky
in honour of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II, took
place on 2 October 1860 when the season opened with Mikhail
Ivanovich Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar. On
the occasion, The St Petersburg News wrote
enthusiastically that “One can draw excellent conclusions about this building
in every aspect. This theatre will be one of the greatest theatres
in Europe. The reader will not think that there is anything
over-exaggerated in our review.”
The Mariinsky Theatre has been a symbol of Russian theatre for one
hundred and fifty years now. The Mariinsky Theatre is connected with many
of the great names in Russian Theatre, among them Marius Petipa,
Yevdokia Istomina, Anna Pavlova, Osip Petrov, Fyodor Chaliapin, Vaslav Nijinsky,
Mathilde Kschessinska, Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
It witnessed the birth of the talents of such renowned theatre
designers as Konstantin Korovin, Alexander Golovin, Simon Virsaladze and Fyodor
Fyodorovsky.
Over the course of its one hundred and fifty year history,
the Mariinsky Theatre has hosted numerous world premieres
of operas and ballets that have subsequently gone on to become acclaimed
classics at theatres throughout the world. Among them are Alexander
Borodin’s Prince Igor, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of
Spades, Alexander Glazunov’s Raymonda and Sergei Prokofiev’s
Romeo and Juliet to name but a few. The role played by
the Mariinsky Theatre in introducing Russian audiences to
the masterpieces of European music has been great indeed, and
the Mariinsky Theatre was the first theatre in Russia to stage
Richard Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard
Strauss’ opera Elektra and Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck.
The Mariinsky Theatre is, apropos, the only theatre in Russia
today that has staged Wagner’s entire tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen
in German. The theatre’s repertoire also takes great care to preserve
the great Russian opera classics as well as ballets by Petipa, Zakharov and
Lavrovsky. At the same time, it also has its eyes set on contemporary
operas and ballets. A witness to the triumphs of numerous generations
of opera and ballet stars, today, too, the Mariinsky Theatre is both
preserving and furthering the glory of Russian art.
Schedule for Gala performance (Marking 150 years since the opening of the building of the Mariinsky Theatre) 2022
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