On May 2nd & 3rd, for the first time this season, the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre sees performances of Alexander Glazunov’s ballet Raymonda choreographed by Marius Petipa and revised by Konstantin Sergeyev. Like premieres of many works by Petipa, which now form a golden fund of choreographic art, Raymonda received its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre.

The libretto of the ballet is based upon a medieval knight’s legend. The romantic plot and exciting story made this piece a spectacular work, attractive enough to produce its staged versions. According to Vera Krasovskaya, a famous ballet historian, “This ballet was the last production where the magnificent aesthetic of the 19th century productions had blossomed in full, maintaining its rules but also bringing them to a close.” The choreography of this ballet incorporates virtually all aspects of an opulent Russian ballet style of the 19th century. The critic commented on Petipa’s style: “Choreographic scores of his performances included all existing and even very rare forms of classical dances. Their combinations were always new, unique, imaginative ...complex components of his performances made spectators really struck about clarity of their forms, beauty and grace... as for the corps de ballet, he was always able to show their every aspect, each time placing them in a new focus, assigning unique dances to them.”

At the premiere in 1898, principal parts were performed by famous Pierina Legnani (Raymonda), Sergei Legat (Jean de Brienne) and Pavel Gerdt (Abderakhman). Half a century later, Konstantin Sergeyev had revised the work and his version is in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Ballet now. First performance of this version saw great dancers of that time: Natalia Dudinskaya (Raymonda), Konstantin Sergeyev (Jean de Brienne) and Semyon Kaplan (Abderakhman). Raymonda was danced by virtually all soloists that made the glory of the Mariinsky Ballet.

On May 3rd, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory hosts a concert performance of Jules Massenet’s opera Don Quichotte, as part of the 11th Moscow Easter Festival. The title role will be performed by an outstanding bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, and parts of Dulcinée and Sancho Pança will be sung by the Mariinsky Opera soloists Anna Kiknadze and Andrei Serov. Valery Gergiev will conduct this concert. Don Quichotte was recorded with this cast and released in early March on the Mariinsky Label, Mariinsky Theatre’s own record label. In the first couple months this recording has already received lavish praise in the world’s leading music publications. The recording is available on SACD and on iTunes, in a special Mastered for iTunes format. We have just learnt, this recording is to be named the Disc of the Week this Saturday (May 5th) at 11:45AM, BST, on the BBC Radio 3 CD Review.

“Gergiev’s talent lies in his ability to give a real pulse to this sweet-sounding music, an internal need that will sustain your interest.” Classica, France.

“Furlanetto was a true bass, and his dark and velvety baritone voice is ideally suited to the role... Gergiev, his chorus and orchestra are in fine form, and the recorded sound in the experienced hands of James Mallinson is excellent.” Gramophone, UK.

“With Ferruccio Furlanetto, under the baton of Valery Gergiev the performance attained inarguable vocal form and impressive mastery.” Opera News, USA.

“For a long time the world of opera has been in need of a good recording of Cervantes’ famous tale, and now the opera has been well and truly revived.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA.

A pair of concerts on May 5th & 6th on the stage of the Munich Philharmonie will continue a joint project between the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev, who conducts a complete cycle of fifteen symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich during the concert season 2011/12 in Munich. The project had started with concerts by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra: in November last year with a performance of Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 and in December with performances of Symphonies Nos. 5 & 14. In March, the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus and Symphony Orchestra took over from the Munich band, playing Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 8, 12 & 13 over two evenings. Two further concerts by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra in May will see a performance of Symphonies Nos. 6, 7, 9 & 10. Finally, in July, Valery Gergiev will conduct the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Symphonies Nos. 11 & 15, thus completing the Shostakovich’s cycle in the Bavarian capital.

Valery Gergiev, who believes the great value and impact of Shostakovich’s symphonic legacy to the world of music, had previously conducted the complete cycle of Shostakovich’s symphonies in world’s most important music venues: New York, London, St Petersburg and Vienna. It was announced that over a pair of seasons 2012/13 and 2013/14 Valery Gergiev will conduct the complete cycle of instrumental concertos and symphonies by Shostakovich in Paris, at the Salle Pleyel, performed by the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus and Orchestra and featuring world-class instrumentalists. This project will kick off with a pair of concerts on January 7th & 8th, 2013.

On May 7th, as part of the 11th Moscow Easter Festival, on the stage of the Ukrainian National Opera in Kiev, and on May 31st and June 28th, as part of the 20th Stars of the White Nights Music Festival, on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, we shall perform Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina in a legendary production by Leonid Baratov of 1960, staged in the classical traditions, using best means of expression in the style of realism. Gorgeous set designs by Fyodor Fyodorovsky take a spectator to a historical epoch of the opera story. Mussorgsky’s real masterpiece, “national musical drama”, in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre his opera performed in the version orchestrated by Dmitri Shostakovich, which enriches this dramatic work, revealing its great scale and depth.

A pair of performances at the Stars of the White Nights Festival will feature some eminent soloists of the Mariinsky Opera: Sergei Aleksashkin and Alexei Tanovitski, Vladimir Galouzine and Alexei Steblianko, Yevgeny Nikitin and Nikolai Putilin, Ildar Abdrazakov and Vladimir Vaneyev et al. In the performance on May 31st, Olga Borodina will sing the part of Marfa, the role she performs almost every year since the 1st edition of the Festival in 1993 (she will also sing this part in the Kiev performance). Singing the part of Marfa in the performance on June 28th, Larisa Diadkova will celebrate her jubilee. Valery Gergiev will conduct the performance of Khovanshchina in Kiev as well as both performances in St Petersburg.

20th Stars of the White Nights Music Festival will be marked with a premiere of other Mussorgsky’s opera at the Mariinsky Theatre. Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov in its original 1869 version will be staged by the famous British director Graham Vick, an Artistic Director of the Birmingham Opera Company. Valery Gergiev is the musical director of this production and will conduct the first night on May 25th as well as additional performances of the opera at the Festival: on May 26th and June 26th.

May 10th & 13th will see a pair of performances of The Legend of Love, a ballet that received its world premiere in 1961 at the Mariinsky Theatre (then, the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre). The libretto was written by a Turkish poet Nazim Khikmet based on a drama Ferkhad and Shyrin, he wrote, which itself is based on an ancient Persian legend Khosrov and Shyrin. The libretto is supplied with a little pretentious, “ideologically correct” (in tune with the time, when the ballet was created) idea of renunciation of personal life for that of the public. Azerbaijani composer Arif Melikov composed the music, which is filled with deep oriental flavours. Yuri Grigorovich, to whom this piece had become one of his first major works in his career of a ballet-master of the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre, choreographed the ballet. The choreography of The Legend of Love is extremely expressive, virtuosic, it uses over-the-possibility of plasticity of the human body, drawing on stage an array of tremendous geometric forms of dance. Set and costume designs proposed by Simon Virsaladze make use of relatively modest expression means, and the lighting keeps in the overall harmony with the music and dance.

Last year, The Legend of Love celebrated its half century at the Mariinsky Theatre. The work was revived with a few performances in St Petersburg and taken on tour to Moscow. In a series of ten video stories on our YouTube-channel, members of the Mariinsky Theatre talk about the ballet:

— Ballerina Viktoria Tereshkina (1:57)
— Ballet Master Gennady Selyutsky (3:33)
— Ballerina Yevgenia Obraztsova (2:03)
— Ballet Master Gabriela Komleva (3:46)
— Conductor Alexei Repnikov (1:44)
— Soloist Yuri Smekalov (2:51)
— Soloist Dmitri Pykhachov (2:34)
— Deputy Director of the Mariinsky Ballet Yuri Fateyev (3:24)
— Ballet Coach Redzhepmyrat Abdyev (9:54)
— Question: Mekhmeneh Bahnu or Shyrin? (1:14)

On May 25th, the 20th Stars of the White Nights Music Festival will start in St Petersburg. Over the last two decades, it has evolved as one of the most important festivals in the city, the symbol of St Petersburg, a notable cultural forum that reflects current trends in the world of classical music.

The Festival presents some of the finest performers. World-class “stars” perform in concerts and staged performances along with “stars” of the Mariinsky Theatre. Traditionally, the Festival presents a premiere of a new opera and/or ballet production and provides an opportunity to see all premieres of the current season. The Festival serves as a platform for a broad variety of extraordinary ambitious musical projects. The concentration of events presented at the Festival is absolutely breathtaking: 52 days, 96 events, 40 guest performers.

In the previous e-newsletter issue we have announced a few notable projects of this year’s edition of the Festival. As the time goes, we shall keep updating you with further announces on most remarkable performances and performers at the Festival this year.

On May 27th, the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev will give a concert at the Dresden Music Festival. This annual festival, held in May-June since 1978, every year features a particular theme that goes through overall concert programming. Two years ago, when the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev performed in Dresden last time, the Festival was themed around the state of Russia. In the 2012 season the Festival travels to the Heart of Europe focussing on the rich musical tradition in the triangle between Vienna, Budapest and Prague. In the concert on May 27th, our Orchestra will perform works by Western European composers: Béla Bartók, Arthur Honegger and Richard Strauss.

On May 28th, the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev will give a concert at the Whitsun Festival (Pfingstfestspiele) in Salzburg. This annual short festival (usually, 4-5 days) was established in 1973, it runs late in the spring (each year specific dates are tied with the Whitsun), and precedes the world-famous Salzburg Festival held every Summer. Traditionally, the Festival used to present works from the baroque repertoire. From 2007−2011, Riccardo Muti served as the Festival’s Artistic Director, and this year a famous opera singer Cecilia Bartoli takes over from him. This year’s Festival program is themed around the personality of Cleopatra, who was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Music works presented at the Festival reflect different episodes of her eventful life as well as the many faces of this legendary woman. In the concert on May 28th, our Orchestra will be joined by soprano Anna Netrebko who will sing an aria from Massenet’s opera Thaïs (it focuses on the figure of a repentant courtesan St Thaïs of Roman Alexandria and of the Egyptian desert) as well as Cleopatra and a snake, a work commissioned to Rodion Shchedrin by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Bass Alexei Tanovitski and famous Russian actors Chulpan Khamatova and Yevgeny Mironov will take part in the performance of Prokofiev’s incidental music Egyptian Nights composed in 1934 for a performance of the Moscow Tairov Chamber Theatre.

On May 1st, Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival has announced the complete program of their 17th annual edition. This year the Festival is based upon a theme Sea & You and provides an opportunity to experience the sea as the mirror of a human being.

Mariinsky Opera Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev will perform Verdi’s Otello in the afternoon concert on Sunday, September 9th. Tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko will join us, singing the title part in the opera. He had previously sung the part of Herman in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades performed by the Mariinsky Opera and Valery Gergiev on a tour in Frankfurt this February. Verdi’s Otello, again, starring Aleksandrs Antonenko and conducted by Valery Gergiev will be performed at the 20th Stars of the White Nights Music Festival in St Petersburg, at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, on Sunday, June 10th.

Valery Gergiev, the founder and the Artistic Director of the Festival and the Principal Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995–2008, will also conduct a pair of concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on September 7th and September 8th, featuring works by Rachmaninov, Shchedrin, Prokofiev, Reger, Dutilleux and Richard Strauss. The Festival will run from September 7th to 15th.