August 14, 2020 – September 6, 2020
Artistic Director: Valery Gergiev
From August 14 to September 6, 2020 the V International Mariinsky Far East Festival, Vladivostok, will be held at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The Festival will start with A Thousand and One Nights ballet premiere to music by Fikret Amirov choreographed by Eldar Aliev, a Ballet Master in Chief of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The four performances will be given on August 14, 15, 16 and September 3, 2020.
Another Festival premiere is Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Don Carlo after the play of the same name by Friedrich von Schiller (August 29, 2020), which will feature the world-famous bass Ildar Abdrazakov, a Mariinsky Theatre soloist. For the first time at the Primorsky Stage, he will appear as Philippo II to perform one of his key roles. In Vladivostok the opera in four acts will be performed in nobly twilit tones that recreate the look and atmosphere of Spain in the 16thcentury. The opera is staged by an Italian team guided by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. The baton will be held by Valery Gergiev.
In Vladivostok some compositions will first sound in their concert versions that are recently added to the opera repertoire of the Primorsky Stage. Among them there are: Sergei Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel with its powerful music soaked in mysticism, which was recovered by a new cast after a lapse of eight years; Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana as one of the classic verismo operas; and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (3rdact of the opera) as Richard Wagner’s genial masterpiece prepared by Primorsky Stage artists under a stay-at-home order. The three performances will be led by Valery Gergiev; the major roles are to be performed by leading soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg.
The Mariinsky Opera stars will descend upon the Primorsky Stage to appear in its repertory performances, too. Sergei Skorokhodov and Vladislav Kupriianov will sing in The Tsar’s Bride opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Vladislav Sulimsky will appear as Rigoletto to sing his title part which he has recently performed in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera of the same name on the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. Aida, one of the most popular operas by Giuseppe Verdi, will feature the best cast: Ekaterina Semenchuk as Amneris, Roman Burdenko as Amonastro, Yevgeny Nikitin as Ramfis, and Mikhail Petrenko as the Pharaoh. The title role will be performed by Elena Stikhina, a soloist of the Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Opera of the Primorsky Stage.
Finally, on September 5 and 6, 2020, Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace will be performed under the baton of Pavel Smelkov, a Principal Conductor of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. This opera is to be the last spring premiere in the 2019/2020 season, in which the Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok Opera Companies will unite and which will become a spectacular finale of the three-week music festival.
