Mariinsky Theater

The Mariinsky Theater (from 1934 to 1992 - the Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S.M. Kirov) counts its history from founded in 1783 by order of Empress Catherine the Great Bolshoi Theater, which was located in a building later rebuilt as the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He was a member of the Imperial Theaters of Russia.

Built according to the project of Antonio Rinaldi, the Bolshoi Theater amazed the imagination with size, majestic architecture, a stage equipped with the latest technology of the then theater. In 1988, Valery Gergiev became the chief conductor of the theater. On January 16, 1992, the theater returned its historical name - Mariinsky.

Mariinsky-2

Mariinsky-2, located between the Kryukov Canal and Minsk Lane at the intersection with Dekabristov Street, is technically very difficult to arrange. The theater has seven above-ground and three underground floors. The stage complex includes three venues - the main stage, the Arjerszen and the rehearsal stage, as well as two pockets of the stage of a slightly smaller area.

Library

Main article: Library of the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre

History

2014: New production of Prokofiev's "War and Peace" on a new stage

Graham Vick again turned to the production of Prokofiev's legendary opera War and Peace in 2014 and staged the performance already counting on the technological features of the theater's new stage. The main parties were: Aida Garifullina, Andrei Bondarenko, Ilya Selivanov.

2001: Failed concert performance of part of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris"

On June 14, 2001, the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" was performed in concert on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.

Then, in one evening in two departments, fragments from two operas of the 18th century were presented: "Cephalus," which goes on entirely for more than four hours, and one of Chimarosa's operas. Performed in an academic manner, without any idea of ​ ​ the style, Araya's music then did not seem so convincing to the Mariinsky Theater as to show the entire opera, the musician Andrei Reshetin later wrote. Create a Baroque orchestra, learn Baroque singers, deal with Baroque recitatives, with the rules of Baroque gesture and pronunciation, study the features of European and Russian Baroque drama, create a Baroque ballet troupe - all this from that attempt in 2001 did not reach the hands. To other musicians, the notes of the opera locked in the library of the theater are not available, which is obviously a crime against Russian culture.

2000: Production of "War and Peace" by Andrei Konchalovsky Prokofiev

The editors of Prokofiev's opera War and Peace, staged in 2000 by Andrei Konchalovsky, and designed by Georgy Tsypin, became one of the most "exported" Mariinsky performances. The play was attended by: Anna Netrebko, Alexey Markov, Alexey Steblyanko, Oleg Balashov. The performance was praised by the audience.

1991: Production of Prokofiev's opera War and Peace by Valery Gergiev and Graham Vik

The second production of Prokofiev's opera "War and Peace" took place in the year of Prokofiev's 100th birthday. In 1991, Valery Gergiev and English director Graham Vick first presented the opera without a single bill. The main games were: Alexander Gergalov, Elena Prokina, Gegham Grigoryan, Olga Borodina, Vasily Gerello.

1988: Valery Borisov - chief choirmaster and conductor of the theater

From 1988 to 2000, the position of chief choirmaster and conductor of the Mariinsky Theater was held by Valery Vladimirovich Borisov. He prepared with the choir of the Mariinsky Theater more than 70 works of opera, cantata-oratorio and symphonic genres.

1978: Valery Gergiev conducts the first performance in the theater

On January 12, 1978, Valery Gergiev, a recent graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, conducted his first performance at the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theater.

It was Prokofiev's opera War and Peace.

This is how the maestro himself recalls those days:

"My first step at the Mariinsky Theater is an unexpected opportunity for me to drive away the play 'War and Peace', which was then being prepared for the premiere, on which Yuri Temirkanov, Boris Pokrovsky and Joseph Sumbatashvili worked. I just became a theater intern and was Temirkanov's assistant in this production. In the theater, few people knew me. Yuri Khatuevich suddenly told me: 'Start a rehearsal, I want to listen to how it all sounds. A minute later I stood in front of the orchestra of the Kirov Theater.

After some time, Temirkanov told me: 'I think you will be the chief conductor in this theater, someday'.

1977: First production of the opera War and Peace by Yuri Temirkanov and Boris Pokrovsky

The Mariinsky Theater four times turned to the embodiment of the score, which Sergei Prokofiev wrote by 1942.

At the Kirov Theater, the premiere took place in 1977, and was carried out by maestro Yuri Temirkanov in collaboration with director Boris Pokrovsky.

Not only masters were involved in the play, but also young singers: Larisa Shevchenko, Sergey Leiferkus, Alexey Steblyanko.

1976: Yuri Temirkanov becomes artistic director and chief conductor of the theater

From 1976 to 1988, Yuri Temirkanov was the artistic director and chief conductor of the Kirov Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater (Mariinsky Theater).

1944: Ballerina Ninel Petrova joins theatre troupe

People's Artist of the Russian Federation Ninel Petrova was born on March 15, 1924, studied with the famous teacher Agrippina Vaganova. After graduating from the Leningrad Choreographic School (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) in 1944, Ninel Petrova joined the troupe of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theater, on the stage of which she danced until 1968. In March 2024, Ninel Petrova turned 100 years old.

1935: The theater was not interested in Prokofiev's ballet on the plot of Romeo and Juliet

Prokofiev, by that time already the author of several one-act ballets created for Diaghilevskaya entreprise, comprehended the structure of the Soviet ballet of the "great style" at the viewing of another drama ballet, which was destined to survive to this day, the "Bakhchisarai Fountain." Initially, it was assumed that Rostislav Zakharov, who staged this ballet, would also work on the production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. In May 1935, he even managed to take some part in the "scenario" development.

However, the agreement with the Kirov Theater was never concluded. The composer was ordered music by the Bolshoi Theater, but after listening he also refused ballet.

1908: Production of the opera "Carmen" with scenery by Alexander Golovin

The Spanish theme was one of the leading in the work of the artist Alexander Golovin. He traveled extensively around the country, studying its nature, architecture and culture. Golovin designed many productions on the Spanish theme - both in musical and drama theater. The scenography for the opera "Carmen" (a 1908 production, the Imperial Mariinsky Theater) earned special attention from the public for its unusually harmonious combination of scenery and costumes with music and plot.

Golovin A.Ya. Sketch of a men's costume. First act of the opera "Carmen." Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. 1908 Bakhrushinsky Museum

"Costumes based on Golovin's sketches amazed at the richness of shades. Costumes for participants in mass scenes (such as Torgovka and Young Man from Carmen's entourage) were decided in muted shades so that central characters stood out from their background. As contemporaries noted, Golovin in this production created his own unique image of Spain - not "bullfighting," but "folk." The stocky, big-handed figures on his sketches are far from the usual romantic-refined Spanish types in the theater, "said Inna Voitova, senior researcher at the Bakhrushinsky Museum, in 2023.

Golovin A. Ya. Sketch of the female costume "Merchant" for the opera "Carmen." Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. 1908 Bakhrushinsky Museum

1895: "The Night Before Christmas" by Rimsky-Korsakov

"The Night Before Christmas" is a carol of Rimsky-Korsakov based on Gogol's story, in which, as you know, Vakula, having fallen in love with Oksana, is ready to go wherever the light goes for cherevichki.

During the first production of the work at the Mariinsky Theater (in 1895), Rimsky-Korsakov unexpectedly faced problems of censorship.

The composer knew about the requirements prohibiting the withdrawal of Russian kings on stage, so he bypassed this moment in advance: he is among characters are simply the queen (not Catherine II), and the city is simply the city capital (not Petersburg). But the censors were not convinced by this and they answered the composer that "everyone knows Gogol's story and no one can have a doubt that my queen is none other than Empress Catherine."

Nevertheless, permission for the production was obtained. However, the opera was almost wrapped from a dress rehearsal, which was attended by two great princes and who in the queen still recognized their great-grandmother. The situation was saved then by the director Vsevolozhsky, since tickets were already being sold with might and main, and the opera itself went to the benefit performance of the singer and director Osip Palechek. And the queen became... His Grace Prince Potemkin.

1890: Premiere of Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades"

"The Queen of Spades" became the pinnacle of the opera work of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and one of the main operas in the world, although initially he did not want to take on it. The composer thought that he lacked stage skills, although at the beginning of 1890 he changed his mind, as evidenced by his letter to Yu. Shpazhinskaya:

... I. A. Vsevolozhsky intensively began to ask me to compose an opera on the plot of the Queen of Spades. The libretto was already done by none other than my brother Modest<…>. I read it, I liked it. In the same year, he set to work and surprisingly soon finished, and on December 7, 1890, the world premiere of the opera at the Imperial Mariinsky Theater took place.

In the collection of the Bakhrushinsky Museum a unique sketch of V. Senkov for the first painting of the III act of the premiere of 1890 is stored.

1878: Fedor Stravinsky - soloist of the Mariinsky Theater

Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky - bass, soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, star of the St. Petersburg opera stage, one of the most prominent predecessors of Fyodor Chaliapin. Father of the composer I.F. Stravinsky.

Stravinsky F.I. as Sparafucile "Rigoletto." St. Petersburg, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, 1878-1893 Bakhrushinsky Museum

1870: The first production of "Boris Godunov" by Pushkin actors of the Alexandrinsky Theater

With his favorite work, the drama "Boris Godunov," A.S. Pushkin dreamed of "transforming" the outdated forms of the theater. However, the work was forbidden for production, although it was for the theater that it was written. With censorship exemptions and reductions, "Boris Godunov" was staged for the first time only in 1870 on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater by actors of the Alexandrinsky Theater.