On 4 June, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre closes its current season. The next season will be opened in the middle of July by the 2nd International Mariinsky Far East Festival, Vladivostok, the dates and the programme of which will be announced in the near future.
13 May will see the current season’s last performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. The international team led by director Hans-Joachim Frey which staged Tosca at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre have taken into consideration the composer’s wishes, who said that “Tosca is an opera of bright colours and, if one wishes so, a flamboyant performance”. Apart from human heroes, there is one more extremely important character – the eternal city of Rome with its atmosphere, setting mood to the whole performance. It also determines the Primorsky production of Tosca presented in the solemn and ceremonial Empire style with the dominating purple-red colour as the symbol of the Roman optimates and the colour of blood and passion. The next performance with equally colourful design and unusual staging solution is Olga Malikova’s production of Christmas Eve by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which will take place on 19 May. The stage direction, sets, costumes, lighting are bright, sound and impress with their spectacularity. A snowstorm, stars playing blindman’s buff and a fantastic flight create a sense of presence, turning the audience into participants of what is going on onstage. This is a production for all the family – one of those that inspire real love for the opera.
On 21 May the playbill features one of the world’s operatic masterpieces – Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The production staged at the Primorsky Stage by acclaimed St Petersburg masters the Honoured Artist of Russia Alexei Stepanyuk and People’s Artist of Russia Vyacheslav Okunev is arranged in the traditions of “the grand style”. This historical costume performance echoes the famous Eugene Onegin of the Mariinsky Theatre. In May the Primorsky Stage playbill will also be supplemented by recent premieres – one-act ballets by George Balanchine (14 May at 17:00), including Apollo, Prodigal Son and Scotch Symphony.
On 18 May the Primorsky audience will see Adolphe Adam’s Giselle – the first ballet performance transferred to the Primorsky Stage from the historic stage of the Mariinsky. The Mariinsky Theatre’s Giselle is considered a model and sets a reference for other world’s theatres.
The repertoire playbill for May ends with Carmen Suite (20 May at 14:00 and at 19:00), marking the 50th anniversary of the ballet and the 85th anniversary of Rodion Shchedrin’s birth. Carmen Suite very successfully premiered at the Primorsky Stage on 3 August, 2016, as part of the First International Mariinsky Far East Festival. And on November 2, the Primorsky Stage saw the performance dedicated to the memory of Maya Plisetskaya featuring Diana Vishneva. In their turn, the Primorsky Stage ballet company soloists have continued the great traditions and now Vladivostok has its own Carmen – the Honoured Artist of the Bashkortostan Republic, award-winner at national and international competitions Irina Sapozhnikova.
