"The Stars of the White Nights 2009" International Ballet and Opera Festival21 May 2009 - 19 July 2009 SCHEDULE 21 May 2009 - 19 July 2009
Artistic Director – Maestro Valery Gergiev
The Stars of the White Nights is one of the brightest stars of the
music and theatre universe and has emerged to be one of the most popular and
grandiose music forums in its context and scale.
The Stars of the
White Nights Festival was created in 1993 by Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Theatre Artistic and
General Director.Maestro Gergiev says that he conceived the first Festival as a
"musical gift" to the city from the Mariinsky and its star-artists. From the
very beginning the Festival has been focused on the masterpieces of the world’s
music discovering for its audience some rarely performed or undeservedly
forgotten pieces.
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.
WHITE NIGHTS 2009: Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera and Ballet
theatre | Mariinsky hall plan |
Mariinsky Slide Show |
Mariinsky 3D View |
About Valery
Gergiev ARCHIVE: 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | History (before 2001)
The Stars of White Nights 2010" International Festival will take place 21 May - 19 July 2010.
The Stars of White Nights 2010" International Festival will take place 21 May - 19 July 2010.
"The Stars of the White Nights 2009" International Music
Festival
21 May – 19 July 2009
Artistic Director – Maestro Valery Gergiev
The Mariinsky Theatre presents the XVII International
Stars of the White Nights Festival.
Mariinsky Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre Opera and Concert
Hall
Highlights:
• Opera stars in productions and
solo recitals: Maria Guleghina, Anna Netrebko, Rene Pape, Bryn Terfel, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Olga Borodina and Ildar Abdrazakov
• Ballet stars: Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova (Bolshoi Theatre
of Russia), Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova, Viktoria Tereshkina, Leonid Sarafanov and Vladimir Shklyarov
• Internationally acclaimed musicians: violinist Leonidas Kavakos, pianists Maestro Rudolf Buchbinder, Yefim Bronfman, Lang Lang, Maestro Denis Matsuev and the
Mogilevsky dynasty
• Events in the ballet calendar: the return of
Shurale, one of the most popular works by legendary
choreographer Leonid Yakobson, and the premiere of a work
by Christopher Wheeldon
• Berlioz´ grandiose Les Troyens under
Maestro Valery Gergiev (23 and 24
June)
• Wagner´s "Der Ring des Nibelungen" tetralogy in a
revived stage version (4-7 July)
• A Ludwig Van Beethoven series
including all the composer´s symphonies, all his piano concerti and one violin
concerto, performed by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra
under Maestro Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Paavo Jarvi and Tugan Sokhiev
• Munich Philharmonic Society´s Symphony
Orchestra under Christian Tileman (31 May and 1
June)
• Berlin Philharmonic Octet
at the Concert Hall (10 and 11 June)
• Tour by the National Ballet of Spain under
its Director José Antonio, marking thirty years of the
company´s history and the end of the career of famed dancer and choreographer
José Antonio (14-18 July)
• One of the most stunning premieres of Finnish National
Opera – Aulis Sallinen´s The Red Line ("Punainen Viiva") (29 May) The 2009
Stars of the White Nights festival of music opens on 21 May at both the
Mariinsky Theatre and the Concert Hall : the Theatre will be hosting the season´s
most significant ballet premiere – Shchedrin´s The Little Humpbacked Horse with choreography
by Alexei Ratmansky, and at 22:00 at the Concert Hall there will be a performance of the
grandiose "symphony of a thousand" – Mahler´s Eighth, under the
baton of Maestro Valery
Gergiev. Operas by Russian
composers occupy a prominent position in the Festival playbill – both the great
repertoire works such as Tchaikovsky´s Mazepa, The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, Rimsky-Korsakov´s May Night and The Maid of Pskov and
Prokofiev´s The Love for Three Oranges and premieres of
the current season, including Tchaikovsky´s Iolanta and Rakhmaninov´s Aleko, staged by renowned Polish director Mariusz Treliсski.
Special events of the Festival´s opera programme include a concert
performance of Berlioz´ immense work Les
Troyens under Maestro Valery Gergiev at the Concert Hall (two evenings, 23 and 24 June). These
concerts mark the start of work on a new stage version of the opera, a
co-production by four major cultural institutions – the Mariinsky
Theatre, Polish National Opera, Valencia Opera and
Baden-Baden´s Festival Centre. It will be directed by
Carlos Padrissa, one of the Artistic Directors of the renowned
theatre group La Fura dels Baus. The Russian premiere of the production is
planned for December 2009.
Forthcoming Festival concerts and performances
include: Kristina Kapustinskaya, Olga Borodina, Ildar Abdrazakov and Sergei Semishkur in Verdi´s
Requiem (28 May); Maria Guleghina in Tchaikovsky´s The Queen of Spades (13 June) and Verdi´s Nabucco (17 June); Bryn Terfel in a concert performance of Act
III of Wagner´s Die Walkure (5 June); Rene Pape in a concert performance of Act III
of Wagner´s Parsifal (6 June); and Rene Pape and Gary Lehman in Wagner´s Parsifal (12 June, concert performance). The
Festival´s opera playbill also includes appearances by rising stars of the
Mariinsky Opera Company.
The Festival´s ballet
playbill kicks off with a significant premiere from this season – Shchedrin´s The Little Humpbacked Horse with choreography
by Alexei Ratmansky. Festival ballet premieres
include one of the most popular ballets by the legendary Leonid Yakobson,
Shurale (29 and 30 June), and a one-act ballet by
Christopher Wheeldon, which the renowned choreographer is staging especially for
the Mariinsky Theatre (10 June). Bolshoi Theatre soloist
Svetlana Zakharova will be
performing in Giselle (27 May), while Diana Vishneva will be appearing in
the programme Diana Vishneva: Beauty in Motion (12 and 19 July), and
Mariinsky Ballet stars Ulyana Lopatkina, Viktoria Tereshkina, Alina Somova, Leonid Sarafanov and Vladimir Shklyarov will be performing in the
finest repertoire productions.
The focus
of this year´s Festival symphony programme falls on the series All
Beethoven Symphonies, to be performed by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda and Paavo Jarvi. All of the composer´s
five piano concerti will also be performed, and Leonidas Kavakos, one of the world´s finest
instrumental musicians, will be appearing with Beethoven´s Violin
Concerto.
For the first time, the Festival will see a
performance by the Symphony Orchestra of the Munich
Philharmonic, one of the world´s most renowned ensembles,
under Christian Tileman (31 May and 1 June) in a programme of
works by Bruckner, Schumann and Grieg; the concert on 31 May will see an
appearance by distinguished Austrian pianist and renowned interpreter of the
Viennese classics and Romantic music Maestro Rudolf Buchbinder. Guest
symphony and chamber ensembles of the Festival include the Octet of the
Berlin Philharmonic (10 and 11 June) together with an exhibition from
the archives of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in memory of great German
conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Handel´s Alexander
Feast oratorio (18 June).
Henri Dutilleux, a guest of last year´s Festival, will be
succeeded by one of the most significant German composers of the present day –
Hans Werner Henze. The Festival is thus
continuing to familiarise St Petersburg audiences with the music of major living
European and Russian composers. It should be remembered that programmes of the
Concert Hall and the Theatre over the past two years
have included many works by young British composer Thomas Adеs, Russia´s renowned Rodion Shchedrin and noted representatives of
the Leningrad school of composition Boris Tishchenko and Sergei Slonimsky as well as Vladimir
Tarnopolsky, Valentin Silvestrov and Olga Bochikhina among
others.
WHITE NIGHTS 2009: Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera and Ballet
theatre | Mariinsky hall plan |
Mariinsky Slide Show |
Mariinsky 3D View |
About Valery
Gergiev ARCHIVE: 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | History (before 2001)
SCHEDULE 21 May 2009 - 19 July 2009
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