The Second International Mariinsky Far East Festival (Vladivostok) will run from 15 July to 13 August, 2017. The main venue of the Festival will be the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.
The Festival will open at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with the premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse to music by Rodion Shchedrin. The Mariinsky Ballet Company will present the performance three times: on 15 and 16 July. A series of ballet events will be continued by An Artistic Evening with the Mariinsky Theatre premiere Vladimir Shklyarov, for whom it will be his first visit to the Primorsky Stage. The artist’s programme will include Ballet 101 by Eric Gautier, Gopak, choreography by Rostislav Zakharov, and Yuri Smekalov’s production of Ne me quitte pas also featuring soloists of the Mariinsky Ballet Company Anastasia Kolegova and Maxim Zuzin (July 18).
The Festival visitors will see the Far East opera premieres: on July 26 and August 5, the production of Die fliegende Hollander by British stage director Ian Judge to music by Richard Wagner, featuring one of the best performers of the part of the Dutchman in the world - Yevgeny Nikitin, the part of Senta will be performed by the Mariinsky Opera soloists Elena Stikhina (July 26) and Mlada Khudoley (August 5). On August 8 and 11, Vladivostok will, for the first time, see one of the most impressive recent Mariinsky Theatre operatic premieres - Giusepe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra staged by Andrea de Rosa. The performances will feature leading soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre Opera Company, as well as guest performers: Tatiana Serjan, Irina Churilova, Otar Jorjikia, Sergei Skorokhodov, Roman Burdenko, Vladislav Sulimsky, Mikhail Petrenko, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Valery Gergiev.
The great Russian opera The Tzar’s Bride by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov will be presented as a semi-staged performance by a young cast of the Mariinsky Theatre and Primorsky Stage soloists conducted by Pavel Smelkov (August 7), while the opera The Enchanted Wanderer by this year’s anniversary celebrant Rodion Shchedrin will be conducted by Valery Gergiev (9 August). The Primorsky Stage premieres of 2016/2017 season will be performed under the baton of Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang (Rigoletto, July 29) and Pavel Smelkov (Macbeth, August 10). The performances will feature Tatiana Serjan, Vladislav Sulimsky, Mikhail Petrenko.
During the Festival the Primorsky Stage will be again visited by one of the world’s most sought-after sopranos Albina Shagimuratova, who will appear as Donna Anna in a semi-staged performance of Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (August 3), perform a solo programme (July 31) and will participate in the concert on the occasion of the Navy Day (July 30).
The Mozart Cycle series will be continued by a semi-staged version of Le nozze di Figaro performed by the Mariinsky Theatre and the Primorsky Stage soloists, the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage conducted by Nikolaj Znaider (August 6). The Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage will open its series of festival performances with the concert Stravinsky in Vladivostok (July 25). The Festival symphonic programme abounds in the names of distinguished European and Asian instrumentalists: 16-year old Swedish virtuoso violinist Daniel Lozakovitj (Violin Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven, August 6), one of the most renowned Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii (Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, August 9), pre-eminent Russian pianist Denis Matsuev (Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto Cycle, August 4-5), Chinese rising star, multiple European award winner, 18-year-old virtuoso violinist He Ziyu (Violin Concerto No. 5 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, July 25). The Chamber Hall of the Primorsky Stage will host the concerts of Yu-Chien Tseng (Taiwan) - in a solo programme (August 2). The Primorsky Philharmonic Hall will host the concerts the prize-winners at the XV International Tchaikovsky Festival, violinists Clara Jumi-Kang (Korea) - with the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage (July 27).
A highlight of the Festival will be Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring performed by the Joint Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Primorsky Stage under the baton of Valery Gergiev (August 6).
The Chamber Ensemble of the Primorsky Stage will perform twice during the Festival and will be conducted by Principal Concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici (July 20 and 23).
The concerts of the Second International Mariinsky Far East Festival will also be held at the Primorsky Regional Philharmonic, at the Pacific Navy House of Officers, at the All-Russian Children’s Centre “Ocean” (August 3), at the Chamber Hall and the Summer Terrace of the Primorsky Stage, in Ussuriysk (August 4) and in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (August 6).
The ballet playbill of the Festival also includes the vibrant 2016/2017 season premiere of the Primorsky Stage - Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty to music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky featuring invited soloists from Japan and soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre (July 21 and 22), Giselle by Adolphe Adam featuring the Korean rising star Soo Bin Lee (July 19) and invited soloists from China (August 12), Swan Lake by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (July 27 and 28). Another Festival participant is the National Ballet of China with Gala-concerts involving best Chinese artists (August 1 and 2).
This year, the Festival will also have an impressive international programme. The Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage under Valery Gergiev will perform in Harbin (China) on August 7. The Ballet Company and the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage will present Eldar Aliev’s production of Le Corsaire at the Harbin Big Theatre (August 9 and 10). On July 29 and 30, the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games Pyeongchang will also host Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges performed by the soloists and chorus of the Academy of Young Opera Singers and the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, as well as the Gala-Concert of Mariinsky Theatre soloists. The Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre will also perform in Tongyeong (South Korea). Besides, in Sapporo (Japan) Valery Gergiev will step on the podium with the Youth Orchestra of the Pacific Music Festival (end of June-beginning of August)
The Festival will be closed with Carl Orff’s scenic cantata Carmina Burana performed by soloists, chorus and the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage under the baton of German conductor Justus Frantz (August 13).
Immediately after the completion of the Festival, the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will, for the first time, set off for St Petersburg, where on the historical stage of the Mariinsky Theatre Vladivostok artists will present an evening of ballets dedicated to the 135th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s birth (Apollo by George Balanchine and The Firebird choreographed by Eldar Aliev, as well as Adolphe Adam’s Giselle, choreography by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa. The tour will last from 15 to 20 August.
