21 May – 18 July 2010

Artistic Director – Maestro Valery Gergiev

The Mariinsky Theatre presents the XVIII International Stars of the White Nights Festival.

Mariinsky Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre Opera and Concert Hall

From 21 May to 18 July 2010 St Petersburg will be hosting the XVIII Stars of the White Nights Music Festival, which has always enjoyed the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. Over eight weeks, the Festival will present over ninety opera and ballet performances, symphony and chamber concerts and solo performances by international stars of the stage.

One new feature of the XVIII Festival, which traditionally features works by Russian and European composers in its programme, will be the thematic three and four day programmes at the end of each week. These unique festival weekends will be dedicated to the most important events in the arts and classical music as well as to the work of Pyotr TCHAIKOVSKY, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei PROKOFIEV, Rodion SHCHEDRIN and Frederic Chopin.

The Festival opens with a huge programme that marks the Year of Russia in France and France in Russia. On 21 May, Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Bizet-Shchedrin ballet Carmen Suite. Later in the Franco-Russian weekend there will be a performance by violinist Nikolaj Znaider, a revival of the ballet Ondine with choreography by Pierre Lacotte and a series of concerts by the outstanding French pianist Helene Grimaud. She will be performing Ravel's Piano Concerto together with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev on 23 May. Grimaud's recital on 28 May and the pianist's collaboration with Dutch cellist Clemens Hagen on 27 May will be held as part of the Mariinsky Theatre's Artist of the Month project.

The Festival will be presenting ballet and opera premieres, internationally acclaimed performers and renowned orchestras as well as giving audiences the opportunity to see and hear the Mariinsky Theatre's own top soloists – Ildar Abdrazakov, Olga Borodina, Vladimir Galuzin, Vasily Gerello, Alexei Markov, Anna Netrebko, Yevgeny Nikitin, Yekaterina Semenchuk, Sergei Semishkur, Mikhail Petrenko, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova, Leonid Sarafanov, Vladimir Shklyarov, Viktoria Teryoshkina and Igor Zelensky in the most significant performances of recent times.

During the Festival, recordings of concerts featuring Leonidas Kavakos and of Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold with Rene Pape will be made for the Mariinsky recording label.

Sponsors of the Festival:
General Partner of the Mariinsky Theatre: Bank VTB
Principal Sponsors: OAO Sberbank, Yoko Ceschina, OAO GAZPROM, Concern Total, Japan Tobacco International, BP, Montblanc, OAO MDM-Bank, BOMBARDIER BUSINESS AIRCRAFT, AFK Sistema
Sponsor: DLA Piper

About "The Stars of the White Nights" Festivals

The Stars of the White Nights Festival has gained in strength, popularity and international acclaim. The duration for the Festival it has expanded from ten days to three months during the last sixteen year. Renowned conductors and star-artists take as great honour the invitation to perform at the Stars of the White Nights. Each year the Festival programme includes the Theater's finest opera and ballet productions, great symphonic works, masterpieces of chamber music and new premieres.

During the last years the Festival programme has included the works created by the great classical composers – Beethoven symphonies, Prokofiev's and Tchaikovsky's operas, ballets and symphony music. Major events at the Stars have included the production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, in addition to the Shostakovich and Mahler Symphonies series.

This festival is a must for ballet, opera and classical music amateurs. The annual Stars of the White Nights Festival takes an inspiration for its name from the short summer season when the sun never sets, and the beauty of St-Petersburg White Nights contributes to the festival's special atmosphere and its world-class programme of concerts, as audience comes out of the historic theatre at midnight into daylight to stroll along the streets of the theatrical setting of St Petersburg.