On July 24, 2019 the International Mariinsky Far East Festival is to be opened at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostok. It will run until August 9, 2019 and include Far East premieres of some Mariinsky Theatre performances, events dedicated to the 175th anniversary of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s birth and the 180th anniversary of Modest Musorgsky’s birth and appearances of leading instrumentalists, famous conductors and opera and ballet stars.
On July 23, 2019 on the threshold of the musical forum, the recital will be played by Lucas Debargue, a well-known French pianist and a prize-winner of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition.
On July 24 and 25, 2019 the International Mariinsky Far East Festival in Vladivostok will start with the premiere of Reinhold Glière’s The Bronze Horseman choreographed by Yuri Smekalov. The Bronze Horseman was first choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov in 1949 and re-choreographed for the International Mariinsky Ballet Festival in 2016. Rostislav Zakharov’s choreography was devolved to dancers of the Mariinsky Ballet by elderly teachers who danced the ballet at Soviet times, and Yuri Smekalov acted as a creator of new parts of the ballet. The performance will star Renata Shakirova, a winner of the Russia-K TV Big Ballet project in 2016, and Vladimir Shklyarov, a principal dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bavarian State Ballet, on July 24 or Yekaterina Osmolkina and Alexander Sergeev, leading soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre, on July 25.
On July 27 and 28, 2019 Leo Delibes’ Sylvia choreographed by Frederick Ashton will be premiered in the Russian Far East. This neoclassical performance will feature the Mariinsky best dancers, both well and newly known. On July 27 Timur Askerov as Aminta and Viktoria Tereshkina as Sylvia will appear on the stage; on July 28 Kimin Kim as Aminta and Nadezhda Batoeva as Sylvia will do. As for première danseuse of the Mariinsky Theatre Viktoria Tereshkina, a People’s Artist of Russia, it will be her first appearance in Vladivostok.
At the Festival there will be also held two evenings with principal dancers of the Mariinsky Ballet who are favorites with the public all over the world: Kimin Kim (July 26) and Vladimir Shklyarov (July 29). The dancers will perform one-act ballets and choreographic miniatures that become their signature pieces. Kimin Kim’s program includes such brilliant premiere of the 2018-2019 season as the ballet Push Comes to Shove choreographed by Twyla Tharp, USA. The both evenings will involve Viktoria Tereshkina and Nadezhda Batoeva; Ekaterina Kondaurova, première danseuse of the Mariinsky Theatre, will take part in the evening with Kimin Kim.
The concert program of the International Mariinsky Far East Festival will start on July 28 with an appearance of Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici, a famous violinist conductor and a leader of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage. The appearances of the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble under Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici’s baton have become a good tradition by now. The musicians play unique-sounding string instruments created by Amati, Stradivari, Guarneri, Guadanini and Gofriller. The ensemble will perform in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on July 30 and in Vladivostok on August 2.
On July 30 the Festival will be splendidly continued by Kanon Matsuda, a Japanese pianist and an international prize-winner. She will solo with the Combined Mariinsky Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage conducted by Shizuo Kuwahara. Her performance will become another festive event among the concerts dedicated to the 175th anniversary of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s birth and the 180th anniversary of Modest Musorgsky’s birth.
On August 4 Miura Fumiaki, a famous Japanese violinist who was given the Grand Prix, the Critics’ Award and the Audience Choice Award at the International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hannover will appear in the Great Hall of the Primorsky Stage. He will play with the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Among the worldwide renowned international orchestras arriving at the Festival there is the China Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of its principal conductor, Xia Xiaotang. On August 6 the Orchestra will perform with An Tianxu, a young Chinese pianist and a prize-winner of the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition.
On August 8 Justus Frantz, Germany will act a double part in the performance: as a conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage and as a soloist in Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The opera program of the Festival includes Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor that was staged by Andrea De Rosa and will be conducted by Pavel Smelkov on July 31 and August 5, Richard Wagner’s Parsifal staged by Tony Palmer on August 3 and the concert performance of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress with the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev on August 4. The performances will feature such Mariinsky leading soloists as Albina Shagimuratova, Maria Bayankina, Yulia Matochkina, Anna Kiknadze, Mikhail Vekua, Yuri Vorobiev, Alexei Markov, Yevgeny Nikitin, Sergei Skorokhodov, Vladislav Sulimsky, Stanislav Trofimov, and some young gifted vocalists who are Atkins Program fellows.
The performances with leading soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Primorsky Stage include Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride staged by Vyacheslav Starodubtsev (August 1), Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca staged by Hans-Joachim Frey (August 7) and Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida that will be premiered with Alexei Stepanyuk as a director (August 9).
