| "The Stars of the White Nights 2019" International Ballet and Opera Festival
22 May - 21 July 2019
Mariinsky Theatre, New Theatre and Concert Hall Artistic Director: Maestro Valery Gergiev
"The Stars of the White Nights 2019" International Ballet and Opera Festival is the main event of the year at the World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Theatre, with the participation of the world ballet and opera stars.
About "The Stars of the White Nights" Festivals
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 Maestro 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 of 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.
The Stars of the White Nights 2019
22 May - 21 July 2019
Mariinsky Theatre, New Theatre and Concert Hall Artistic Director: Maestro Valery Gergiev
The XXVII Stars of the White Nights festival runs from 22 May to 21 July 2019 at all the venues of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. The events of the June programme include concerts of Daniil Trifonov and Thierry Escaich, opera productions featuring Sonya Yoncheva, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Vladislav Sulimsky, and Yevgeny Nikitin, classical ballets featuring stars of the Mariinsky Ballet, and a gala soirée of Kimin Kim.
The XXVII Stars of the White Nights festival opens at all the venues of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on 22 May.
The festival will kick off with two concert programmes: a performance of the young talented pianist Alexandra Dovgan and the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev at the Concert Hall (18.00) and a recital of the famed French pianist Lucas Debargue, a prize-winner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, at the Mariinsky II (21.00).
New festival events on the playbill include opera productions featuring Ferruccio Furlanetto, Olga Borodina, Elene Stikhina, a performance of the Bolshoi Theatre’s Principal Dancer Olga Smirnova, and a musical tribute to Hector Berlioz marking 150 years since his death.
The concert programme of the festival was added to with three soirée performances dedicated to Hector Berlioz. 26 May will see a concert performance of the dramatic legend La Damnation de Faust after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. Lead roles will be performed by Alexander Mikhailov (Faust), Yulia Matochkina (Marguerite), and Mikhail Petrenko (Méphistophélès). These soloists will also perform vocal parts in the symphonie dramatique Roméo et Juliette based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy on 26 June. The Mariinsky Orchestra will be conducted by Valery Gergiev. Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique will be performed under the baton of Christian Knapp on 11 June. The programme also includes Maurice Ravel’s La Valse and vocal cycle Shéhérazade. Featured soloist is Yulia Matochkina (mezzo-soprano).
Renowned Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto will appear at the festival three times. On 15 June, he will perform as Philip II in Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo under the baton of Valery Gergiev; on 24 June, he will appear in the title role in Jules Massenet’s Don Quichotte; and on 2 July, Furlanetto is scheduled to appear in a recital marking forty-five years of his stage career at the Concert Hall. The Don Carlo performance on 15 June will also feature Yulia Matochkina (Princess Eboli), Migran Agadzhanyan (Don Carlo), and Roman Burdenko (Rodrigo). Olga Borodina, People’s Artist of Russia, will appear in one of her signature roles – as Marfa in Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina (28 May, the Mariinsky II). Other lead roles will be performed by Mikhail Petrenko (Prince Ivan Khovansky), Yevgeny Akimov (Prince Andrei Khovansky), Oleg Videman (Prince Vasily Golitzin), Roman Burdenko (Shaklovity), and Vladimir Vaneyev (Dosifei). Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Moreover, Olga Borodina will also appear in a recital at the festival (8 June, the Concert Hall). The opera playbill also includes Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin featuring Vladislav Kupriyanov in the title role, Elena Stikhina (Tatyana), Yevgeny Akhmedov (Lensky), and Irina Shishkova (Olga) (11 June, the Mariinsky Theatre).
The ballet playbill will be graced by the likes of Olga Smirnova, the Bolshoi Theatre’s Principal Dancer, who will appear in Alberto Alonso’s Carmen Suite (26 May, the Mariinsky Theatre). Andrei Yermakov (José) and Yevgeny Ivanchenko (Torero) will join her on stage. Maxim Petrov’s Le Divertissement du roi will be presented in the second part. On 7 June, Alina Somova (Medora), Timur Askerov (Conrad), and Kimin Kim (Ali) will appear in Le Corsaire. The production will also be shown on 6 June. Renata Shakirova (Syuimbike), Alexei Timofeyev (Ali-Batyr), and Ramanbek Beishenaliev (Shurale) will appear in lead roles in Leonid Yakobson’s Shurale on 24 May. The historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will traditionally host graduation performances of students of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet during the festival (10 June, 12 June, and 16 June).
The playbill of the Stars of the White Nights festival for younger audiences will feature a performance from the cycle of the Mariinsky Theatre’s theatrical concerts for younger spectators Russian Fairy Tales (2 June, the Concert Hall). The spectators will have a chance to learn about the music of Anatoly Lyadov, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The narrator, Irina Sokolova, People’s Artist of Russia, and young artistes of the Mariinsky Theatre will talk about various music tricks used by the composers when writing the music.
The chamber soirée programme of the festival includes a late-night concert of the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble under the baton of violinist and conductor Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici, Principal Concert Master of the Munich Philharmonic, Conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble (29 May) and a concert of Finnish cellist Martti Rousi, teacher at the Sibelius Academy, and pianist Andrei Telkov, who will perform works by Jean Sibelius, Claude Debussy, and Sergei Rachmaninoff (28 May).
As tradition goes, famed instrumentalists will be widely presented at the festival. Daniil Trifonov, a renowned Russian pianist, will appear at the festival twice, at the late-night concert with the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev (30 June, the Concert Hall) and at his recital, where he will perform music by Sergei Prokofiev, Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, and Olivier Messiaen (1 July, the Concert Hall). On 10 June, the Concert Hall will host a chamber performance of Thierry Escaich, a famed French organist, teacher, and composer, and Sergei Roldugin, People’s Artist of Russia. On 5 June, the Concert Hall will host a performance of Sebastian Fritsch, a prize-winner of one of the most prestigious competitions for young musicians worldwide, the 2018 TONALi Competition in Germany, with the Mariinsky Orchestra. The performance will be conducted by Christian Knapp.
Opera events in June include Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca featuring Sonya Yoncheva in the title role. The performance will mark Yoncheva’s stage debut at the Mariinsky Theatre as the singer previously only appeared at the theatre with a concert programme. Migran Agadzhanyan (Mario Cavaradossi) and Yevgeny Nikitin (Baron Scarpia) will join Yoncheva for the performance. They will perform under the baton of Valery Gergiev (10 June, the Mariinsky II). Richard Wagner’s stage consecration festival drama Parsifal, revived by the Mariinsky Theatre in the 2018/2019 season, will be presented at the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre on 13 June.The performance will feature Mikhail Vekua (Parsifal) and Yevgeny Nikitin (Klingsor) and will be conducted by Valery Gergiev. On 9 June, Vladislav Sulimsky (Mazepa), Maria Bayankina (Maria), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Lyubov), and Stanislav Trofimov (Kochubei) will once again perform in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Mazepa under the baton of Valery Gergiev. The May playbill saw the addition of Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer with Yevgeny Nikitin (the Dutchman), Mikhail Petrenko (Daland), and Sergei Skorokhodov (Erik). The performance will be conducted by Valery Gergiev (29 May, the Mariinsky II).
The ballet playbill of the festival in June include a gala soirée of Kimin Kim, a Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre (16 June, the Mariinsky II), Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia featuring Nadezhda Batoeva (Sylvia) and Philipp Stepin (Aminta) in the lead roles (15 June, the Mariinsky Theatre), as well as Yuri Smekalov’s ballets. On 11 June, the Mariinsky II will host a performance of The Bronze Horseman starring Yekaterina Osmolkina (Parasha) and Alexander Sergeev (Eugene), while the historic stage will host a performance of Paquita starring Maria Khoreva in the title role and Vladimir Shklyarov (Andrés) on 18 June. The festival’s playbill will be graced by Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ballets choreographed by Marius Petipa, such as The Sleeping Beauty with Renata Shakirova (Princess Aurora), Philipp Stepin (Prince Désiré), and Kristina Shapran (the Lilac Fairy) (2 June, the Mariinsky II) and Swan Lake with Alina Somova (Odette-Odile) and Kimin Kim (Siegfried) (2 July, the Mariinsky II). In July, the Mariinsky II will host a performance of Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc with Viktoria Tereshkina and Alexander Sergeev (9 July, the Mariinsky II).
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