On 4 June the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre had its last performances of the season. The audience duly appreciated the premiere of the season – the ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the opera Bastien und Bastienne.
In 2016/17 Season, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre presented a number of operatic premieres – Christmas Eve by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Macbeth and Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, The Gambler by Sergei Prokofiev, chamber productions Non-Random People and Expectation to music by Mikael Tariverdiev, a concert performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Also, Vladivostok audience, for the first time, had a chance to hear Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold (a concert performance) featuring the Mariinsky Orchestra and opera soloists under the baton of Valery Gergiev.
The ballet playbill was adorned with classical and neoclassical productions: Bambi to music by Andrey Golovin and In the Jungle to music by Alexander Lokshin, Carmen Suite to music by Georges Bizet-Rodion Shchedrin, George Balanchine’s ballets (Serenade, Prodigal Son, Scotch Symphony, Apollo), Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.
In 2016/2017 Season the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage took part in a large-scale tour of the Mariinsky Theatre in Tiānjīn and Guǎngzhōu (China), as well as gave their first concert at the Far East Federal University, which was watched by a crowd of thousands of university students and teachers. During the 16th Easter Festival, the Primorsky Stage Orchestra and soloists gave two performances in the Khabarovsk Region, including a free concert for military personnel and their families.
During the Mariinsky Theater tour in Harbin (China), the Ballet Company artists appeared on stage under the baton of Valery Gergiev in Sergei Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace (Andrei Konchalovsky’s production). The Primorsky Stage singers also performed in the new concert hall in Harbin (China) with the programme featuring arias by Russian and foreign classical composers.
Also, as part of work aimedto attract young audiences, a new project Holidays at the Mariinsky brought together into one programme the best family-friendly performances and master classes How is an opera created?, How is a ballet created? It is planned to make this project a regular event and to include it into the repertory playbill of the Primorsky Stage.
Among the artists who performed at The Primorsky Stage in 2016/207 season were the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Opera soloists: Vladimir Galouzine, Larisa Diadkova, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Nikolai Gassiev, Sergei Semishkur, Yekaterina Solovyeva, Natalia Tymchenko, Vladislav Sulimsky, Mikhail Vekua, Yulia Matochkina, Oxana Shilova, Yuri Vorobiev, Yuri Voropayev, Alexander Gergalov, Sergei Skorokhodov, Edem Umerov, Andrey Serov, Oleg Balashov, Vadim Kravets, Yekaterina Shimanovich, Prima Ballerina of the Mariinsky Theatre Diana Vishneva, the Mariinsky Ballet Company soloists Tatiana Tkachenko and Ivan Oskorbin, celebrated performers Maria Guleghina (soprano), Albina Shagimuratova (soprano), Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar (baritone, Mongolia), Yuri Devin (baritone), Yuri Bashmet (viola), Alexei Volodin (piano), Sergei Levitin (violin), Seong-Jin Cho (piano), South Korean ballet artists Lee Soo Bin and Sun Woo Lee, soloists of the National Ballet of China Xu Yan and Sun Ruichen, conductors Tigran Hakhnazaryan, Yuta Shimizu (Japan), Darrell Ang (Singapore), as well as the David Oistrakh String Quartet, the Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble, and the Heilongjiang Symphony Orchestra.
