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

2024: The death of Prime Minister Vladimir Shklyarov

Ballet dancer, prime minister of the Mariinsky Theater, Honored Artist of Russia Vladimir Shklyarov died on November 16, 2024, when he tried to leave the house where he was closed to find a dose of drugs. This was 5-tv.ru reported by a source familiar with the situation.

According to the interlocutor, the dancer himself asked his ex-wife to lock him up. The 39-year-old artist confessed to his ex-wife in dependence and begged him not to let him touch the prohibited drugs.

The woman agreed and left Shklyarov at home alone. Apparently, the artist could not overcome the desire, and decided to leave the apartment, moving to the next balcony. The prime minister of the Mariinsky Theater fell off the eaves.

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.

Gergiev organizes a festival with the performance of all Mussorgsky's operas

In 1988, Valery Gergiev undertook to update the old performance of Khovanshchina. In 1989, the 150th anniversary of Mussorgsky's birth was celebrated and in the anniversary year, the recently appointed artistic director of the theater conceived a large-scale festival, the program of which included all the composer's operas. The Sorochinsky Fair was staged, scenes from Salambo were performed, young soloists were appointed to the main parts in Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov. So for the first time the audience heard in the party of Martha the young Olga Borodina, who competed for this role with her teacher, the famous Irina Bogacheva. Gergiev refused the final catharsis: performing an opera in Shostakovich's orchestration, he ends it in Korsakov with a fire scene. To the accompaniment of a raging orchestra, a skete collapses on stage in silk tongues of flame. The old world is dying. Dawn is not foreseen.

For Valery Gergiev, "Khovanshchina" is one of the favorite Russian operas. Unlike other operas of the classical Russian repertoire - "Prince Igor," "Life for the Tsar," "Boris Godunov," "Snow Maiden," "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh," which existed in Mariinsky in different directorial versions and stage design, "Khovanshchina" never tried to stage otherwise. An exemplary performance has been recorded more than once with different compositions. On the network you can watch videos from 1992 and 2013, capturing the best Mariinsky soloists.

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).

1959: "Boris Godunov" in Shostakovich's orchestration

In 1959, "Boris Godunov" in the orchestration of Shostakovich was performed at the Kirov Theater (conductor Sergei Yeltsin) and went in this form until 1970 (ninety performances), after which the theater returned to the original version of Mussorgsky.

1944

The return of the theater from evacuation to Perm and the resumption of the performances "Ivan Susanin" and "Khovanshchina"

The play "Khovanshchina," staged in 1911, remained in the repertoire of the Mariinsky-Kirov Theater until 1950. During the years of post-revolutionary hard time, folk drama did not arouse suspicion of unreliability. Mussorgsky had a reputation as a "defender of the people," his name was included in the list of heroes who need to erect a monument as part of the Lenin plan of monumental propaganda, one of the most important highways of the city was renamed in honor of the composer - Sredny Prospekt Vasilyevsky Island, until 1944 he was Mussorgsky Avenue. The colorful crowded "Khovanshchina" in the 1920s was often given either in "favor of the artists of the choir" or in "favor of the dining room of the artists of the State Theaters." Gradually, small changes and updates were made to the performance so in the 1920s dance numbers were staged by Boris Romanov, in the 1930s by Rostislav Zakharov, new singers and dancers were introduced in the role, among them Georgy Pozemkovsky (Andrei) and Alisa Vronskaya (Persian), who soon left Russia and became famous already in exile.

In 1941, Khovanshchina was not taken to the evacuation to Molotov (Perm), but upon the return of the theater from evacuation in 1944, he was one of the first to return to the repertoire. The 1944-1945 season began on September 1 with Ivan Susanin, and already on September 6 they performed Khovanshchina, where the hero of besieged Leningrad Sofya Preobrazhenskaya sang the part of Martha, Emma Olga Kashevarova, the prima troupe, who had just been awarded the Stalin Prize. Conducted by Daniil Poichonov, who directed the performance at its premiere in 1911. That season, Khovanshchin was given a record 30 times, dozens of soloists, both experienced Pavel Zhuravlenko (Khovansky), Pavel Bolotin (Shaklovitny), Ivan Pleshakov and Ivan Yashugin (Dosifey), Olga Mshanskaya (Martha), and recently accepted into the troupe, performed in the play. So Andrei sang Vladimir Ivanovsky, who entered Kirovsky in 1940 and worked throughout the war in besieged Leningrad in the song and dance ensemble of the Baltic Fleet. Later he will move to the Bolshoi Theater, where he will work in various positions until 2002. Interestingly, the name of Rimsky-Korsakov disappears from the programs of the post-war period - as the author of the orchestration and edition of the opera. As if the question of the merits and disadvantages of the Korsakov editions of Mussorgsky's operas, widely discussed in Europe after the publication of the clavier "Boris Godunov" by Lamm (1928), was not relevant at the Kirov Theater. There is no mention of Chaliapin as a director - in 1927, the singer was ostracized as an emigrant who helped the "White Guards" in a foreign land and was deprived of the title of "Honored Artist of the Republic," which he was one of the first.

The performance was still in the scenery according to Korovin's sketches. The director is Nikolai Gladkovsky. After the intensive rental of 1944-1948 in 1949 and 1950, Khovanshchina is performed less and less two performances a season.

Ballerina Ninel Petrova joined the troupe of the theater

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.

1918: Chaliapin becomes the leader of the troupe and resumes performances of "Khovanshchina"

In 1916, when Chaliapin's contract with the Imperial Theaters ended, Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina opera disappeared from the repertoire, but since 1918, after Chaliapin's return as the head of the troupe, it was immediately resumed. Chaliapin sang Dosifei in almost all performances until his departure abroad in 1922.

In the Mariinsky Theater, one of the reminders of this period was once preserved by the singer once portrayed himself as Dosifei on the wall of his make-up room. When the room was repaired, a piece of the wall, like an old fresco from the monastery, was cut out, transferred to another class, fixed under glass, and now opera soloists are singing under the gaze of Chaliapin-Dosifey.

1911: Chaliapin seeks production of "Khovanshchina" on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater

"Khovanshchina" was established at the Mariinsky Theater - thanks to Fyodor Chaliapin, his love for Mussorgsky's music. Making his debut in the part of Dosifei in the play of the Mammoth Russian Private Opera (1897), Chaliapin did everything possible so that Khovanshchina was accepted for production on the Imperial stage, first at the Mariinsky (1911), and the next year at the Bolshoi Theater. In these performances, the soloist of his imperial majesty also acted as a director, carefully rehearsing with the performers not only vocal parts, but also behavior on stage.

The 1911 production was designed according to the sketches of Konstantin Korovin, an artist who began his career as a stage designer at the Mamontov Private Opera, and then invited, as well as Chaliapin, to work in the Imperial Theaters by Vladimir Telyakovsky. On the sketches of the scenery published in the "Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters," recognizable techniques of the Korovinsky style, hypertrophied architectural volumes are marked with quick energetic strokes, in the interiors of the Golitsyn salon and the Hovansky hut, the space consists of colored "vibrating" spots, the skete in the forest drowns in a mass of widely painted trees. Unlike the scenery of Apollinarius Vasnetsov, who worked on the production at the Private Opera of Savva Mamontov, Korovin's Moscow is Red Square, Streletskaya Sloboda, Khovansky's estate is more wild, illusory, deformed.

The leading "honored" soloists of the troupe sang in the Mariinsky Opera, their names, like the name of Chaliapin, were typed in capital letters before the list of characters: Martha - Evgenia Zbrueva, Prince Golitsyn - Ivan Yershov. Many of the soloists are Pavel Andreev (Shaklovitny). Nikolai Andreev (Golitsyn), Nikolai Bolshakov (Andrei), Evgenia Petrenko (Martha) were invited by Diaghilev to participate in the Paris production of Khovanshchina. A rare understudy of Chaliapin in the part of Dosifey, experienced Vladimir Kastorsky, will last appear in this part on the stage of the Kirov Theater at the age of 75 in 1945.

Dances in the house of Ivan Khovansky were staged by Nikolai Legat, the "queen of variations" Agrippin Vaganov appeared as a soloist in the dance of Persian women.

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.

1889: Matilda Kshesinskaya - prima ballerina

Pair photo portrait of ballet dancer and teacher, prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters (1904) - Matilda Feliksovna Kshesinskaya with her older sister Julia Feliksovna Kshesinskaya (married - Zeddeler), St. Petersburg province, St. Petersburg, 1887-1889.

1883: Refusal to stage "Khovanshchina." In protest, Rimsky-Korsakov and Cui left the committee under the Directorate of Imperial Theaters

Presented to the court of the opera committee at the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters in 1883, after Rimsky-Korsakov finished his friend's work on the preserved autographs, the opera Khovanshchina was balloted. Of those gathered, only Caesar Cui voted in favor. In protest, Rimsky-Korsakov and Cui left the committee, indicating their position publicly.

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

Italian flutist Ernesto Köhler becomes orchestra's first flutist since Cesare Ciardi's death

In 1871, Italian flutist Ernesto Köhler, on the recommendation of compatriot Cesare Chiardi, was accepted as flutist into the orchestra of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater. After Chiardi's death (1878), he took his place as the first flutist. He spent the rest of his life in St. Petersburg. In 1906, the St. Petersburg Herald posted a note about Köhler on the 35th anniversary of his activities in the Russian capital.

He died on May 4 (17), 1907 and was buried in the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

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.

1836: German flutist Heinrich Zusmann becomes musical director of the theatre

Heinrich Zusmann

In 1822, the German flutist Heinrich Zusman performed with great triumph in St. Petersburg, after which he received an invitation to become a soloist in the orchestra of the Imperial Theater, where he worked for 16 years until 1838. In 1836 he was appointed music director of the Imperial Theater.

Zusman is the author of works for flute. He died in St. Petersburg in May 1848 at the age of 52.