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The Mariinsky Theatre’s large-scale tour of China came to a triumphant close today in Xi’an with a concert by the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev. From 12 to 27 October the acclaimed maestro and orchestra performed in Beijing and Shanghai and, for the first time, in Wuhan, Kunming, Changsha and Xi’an, giving a total of fourteen performances.

The tour’s symphonic programme opened on 12 October at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, where a world record was set: Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra performed all nine Mahler symphonies within five days, marking the 165^th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Another milestone of the tour was the inauguration of the new Beijing Centre for Performing Arts (BCPA), one of the capital’s most prestigious new venues, whose opening concerts were conducted by Valery Gergiev. On 25 and 26 October the stage hosted a Chinese production of Otello, while on 21 October the maestro led the China NCPA Orchestra.

In Wuhan, Kunming, Changsha and Xi’an Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra presented vibrant programmes featuring Musorgsky’s Dawn on the Moscow River and Pictures at an Exhibition, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Ravel’s Boléro. In Beijing, joined by the Chorus of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, they performed Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and the Third symphonies by Prokofiev and Mahler.

A concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades was also given at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, featuring Oleg Dolgov, Irina Churilova, Zinaida Tsarenko, Anna Kiknadze, Pavel Yankovsky and Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar in the leading roles, together with soloists and the Chorus of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre and a Chinese children’s choir. Valery Gergiev conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra.

The Mariinsky Theatre’s extensive China tour by its ballet company and symphony orchestra took place from 11 to 27 October. The ballet programme, which ran during 11–23 October in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, featured Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Adam’s Le Corsaire. The vocal-symphonic leg of the tour, conducted by Valery Gergiev, was presented from 12 to 27 October across Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Kunming, Changsha and Xi’an.

Today on the stage of the Shanghai Grand Theatre the performance of Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam marked the festive finale of the company’s vibrant ballet programme in China. The lead roles were danced by the brilliant young soloists Maria Ilyushkina, Even Capitaine, Alisa Barinova, Alexei Orohovsky and Maxim Izmestiev. From 11 to 23 October the ballet troupe toured three cities of the Middle Kingdom – Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai – giving eleven performances in total.

This year the Chinese tour included masterpieces of the classical repertoire: Swan Lake by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam. The tour featured stars of the Mariinsky stage and promising young artists: Viktoria Tereshkina, Kimin Kim, Renata Shakirova, Timur Askerov, Nadezhda Batoeva, Maria Ilyushkina, Roman Belyakov, Roman Malysh¬ev, Even Capitaine, Daria Kulikova, Maxim Izmestiev, Alisa Barinova, Anton Osetrov, Yaroslav Baibordin, Alexei Orohovsky and Roma Gudelev.

“Tours are always a tremendous responsibility. We are representing Russia, Russian art, our beloved theatre. Our performances in China have been met with great success, and above all they are remarkable in that the young dancers, alongside the stars of the Mariinsky Theatre, made their debuts in leading roles – and I hope they will become the principal soloists of the next decade,” remarks Andrian Fadeyev, Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Ballet Company.

It is worth remembering that the Mariinsky Theatre’s extensive China tour runs from 11 to 27 October, and encompasses seven cities of the People’s Republic: Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Kunming, Changsha and Xi’an. The tour by the ballet company and the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev covers this entire span. In the symphonic programme a world record was achieved: the complete cycle of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies was performed in five days, along with representative Russian and European music, and a concert version of The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky. The vocal-symphonic leg of the tour will conclude on 27 October with a concert in Xi’an.

From 22 October to 5 November the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the XIII International Organ Festival Mariinsky. The programme offers audiences a kaleidoscope of vivid musical events featuring the renowned organists Pascal Reber, Olga Kotlyarova, Svetlana Berezhnaya, Marina Väisä and Léonid Karev. The concerts will also feature cellist Sergey Roldugin, flautist Maria Fedotova, percussionists Andrey Khotin, Vladimir Maslov, Vladislav Ivanov, Sergey Buranov and Nikolai Khotin, as well as Mariinsky Theatre soloists, the Mariinsky Chorus and the Mariinsky Orchestra.

On 17 October, on the eve of the festival’s opening, a special event will take place – a performance of Dvořák’s Mass in D major in its original version, without orchestra, accompanied only by the organ. The work will be performed by the Mariinsky Chorus conducted by Konstantin Rylov, with Olga Kotlyarova at the organ.

The festival will officially open on 22 October. Mariinsky Theatre soloists, the Mariinsky Chorus and the Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by Konstantin Rylov, will perform Bach’s Mass in B minor. The composition, created by the composer over a span of twenty-five years, combines previously written and newly composed music. On 2 November another of Bach’s monumental masterpieces, the Matthäus-Passion, will be presented, recounting the last three days of Christ’s life. The organ part in both concerts will be performed by Olga Kotlyarova.

On 23 October People’s Artist of Russia, international competition laureate cellist Sergey Roldugin will appear together with Honoured Artist of Russia, pianist, Artistic Director and Principal Organist of the V.I. Safonov North Caucasus State Philharmonic Svetlana Berezhnaya. Their programme includes works by Bach, Handel, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Shchedrin and Tchaikovsky.

On 26 October Marina Väisä will present a special Organ Concert for Children, offering young listeners a unique opportunity to discover the sound of the organ. The programme will include original organ compositions and transcriptions of popular classical miniatures, allowing audiences to hear familiar music in a new and unexpected form.

On 31 October the distinguished French organist Pascal Reber will perform. Since 2009 he has taught at Saint-Louis Conservatoire and serves as titular organist of Strasbourg Cathedral and the Church of Saint-Étienne in Mulhouse. At Strasbourg Cathedral he plays the unique instrument built by the celebrated French firm Alfred Kern & Fils. An internationally acclaimed musician, Reber is also renowned for his masterful improvisations. His programme on 31 October will include the overture to Rameau’s opera-ballet Les Indes galantes (transcribed by Yves Rechsteiner), three pieces from Grigny’s Premier Livre d’Orgue, and works by Bach.

The festival will close on 5 November with a concert by Léonid Karev, international competition laureate and Titular Organist of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Church of Saint-Médard in Brunoy (France). He will be joined by percussionists Andrey Khotin, Vladimir Maslov, Vladislav Ivanov, Sergey Buranov and Nikolai Khotin, as well as Honoured Artist of Russia Maria Fedotova (flute), a frequent participant in international music festivals. The programme features works by Bach and Bizet–Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite in Karev’s transcription for organ and percussion.

The Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre houses an organ built by the Strasbourg firm Alfred Kern & Fils, founded with the participation of the renowned philosopher, musicologist and organist Albert Schweitzer. This magnificent instrument allows the performance of a wide range of repertoire and offers audiences an unforgettable experience of majestic organ music.

On 1 October the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev performed in Yerevan. The soloist was Pavel Milyukov, Honoured Artist of Russia and a prize-winner of major international violin competitions. The performance took place at the city’s main venue, the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall, as part of the 17^th Yerevan International Music Festival.

The evening opened with the Festive Overture by the renowned Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian, a work distinguished by its emotional intensity and distinctive national colour. This was followed by Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, completed in 1948 but premiered only seven years later to great acclaim. Pavel Milyukov appeared as soloist in this monumental and dramatic score. The programme concluded with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, one of the Austrian composer’s most enigmatic and refined works.

On 2 October Valery Gergiev returned to the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall to lead the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. The programme featured Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Ravel’s Boléro.

For the first time the Sevastopol State Opera and Ballet Theatre will perform in St Petersburg, presenting two major premieres at the Mariinsky Theatre. The tour programme includes the ballet Polikushka to the music of Rachmaninoff, choreographed by Jonah Paul Cook, and Rachmaninoff’s opera Aleko staged by Ildar Abdrazakov. International stars Ildar Abdrazakov, Dinara Alieva and Maria Alexandrova will take part in the performances. Aleko will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.

On 11 and 12 November the Historic Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the poignant dramatic ballet Polikushka, based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella. Leading roles will be danced by Maria Alexandrova, Dmitry Sobolevsky, Jonah Paul Cook and Ksenia Ryzhkova.

The story of the tragic fate of a “little man” has been brought to the stage by the British choreographer Jonah Paul Cook. The production team includes: musical director Artyom Abashev, set and costume designer Olga Skurikhina, lighting designer Andrey Kostyuchenkov and video artist Stanislava Aitova.

The musical score combines chamber works by Rachmaninoff with Russian folk, Cossack and patriotic songs performed by the Choir of Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery, one of the most celebrated symbols of Russian spiritual culture. Chamber works are performed by Artyom Abashev (piano), Maria Skorobogatova (piano) and soloists of the Moscow Youth Chamber Orchestra.

On 3 December at 18:00 and 21:00 the New Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will present Rachmaninoff’s Aleko – the Sevastopol company’s first opera production. The production is directed by the world-renowned bass and Artistic Director of the Sevastopol State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Honoured Artist of Russia Ildar Abdrazakov. He relocates the action to the confined yet vibrant world of a Soviet apartment block of the late 1980s and early 1990s, where privacy is absent, life unfolds in public view, and boundaries between households are blurred. His assistant director is Laysan Safargulova. The production team also features set designer Ekaterina Malinina, lighting designer Konstantin Udovichenko and choreographers Anastasia Cherednikova and Bryan Opoku.

The title role will be sung twice by Ildar Abdrazakov. His partners will be: at 18:00 – Valeria Lebedeva, Kirill Belov, Alexey Tikhomirov and Yulia Shavarina; at 21:00  – Dinara Alieva, Iosif Nikitenko, Alexey Tikhomirov and Yulia Shavarina. The production also features the Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir. The Mariinsky Orchestra will perform under the baton of Valery Gergiev.

From 9 to 12 October the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia will tour St Petersburg with five performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s comic ballet The Bright Stream at the Mariinsky II. The production features leading stars of the Moscow stage. Set designer: Boris Messerer. Conductor: Pavel Sorokin. Lighting designer: Igor Deryugin.

The world premiere of The Bright Stream took place on 4 April 1935 at the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre, choreographed by Fyodor Lopukhov with a libretto by Lopukhov and Adrian Piotrovsky. The story of a troupe of urban artists arriving at a collective farm to perform at the harvest festival was warmly received by both audiences and critics. The ballet was soon transferred to the Bolshoi Theatre, where it was first staged in Moscow on 30 November of the same year. Among the performers were Sulamith and Asaf Messerer, Sofia Golovkina, Alexei Yermolayev and, following Lopukhov, Pyotr Gusev and Zinaida Vasilieva. Yet the production’s stage life was cut short when, on 6 February 1936, the newspaper Pravda (“Truth”) published an anonymous article harshly criticising the ballet.

The Bolshoi Theatre premiered a new production of The Bright Stream on 18 April 2003. The choreography blends a wide range of styles – from traditional pantomime to Soviet acrobatic bravura and mass-gymnastics parade. Its protagonists are not mythical beings but ordinary people, instantly relatable to every spectator. The collision between “the troupe of artists” and “the brigade of collective farmers” produces a cascade of comic situations born of simple misunderstandings. One of the ballet’s most original comic devices is its play with disguises: ballerinas dance men’s parts, while male dancers perform female roles, creating witty exercises in humor and theatrical invention.

For this staging, designer Boris Messerer chose a deliberately parodic, kitsch aesthetic. The stage overflows with colour, flowers, and sheaves of wheat, interspersed with bold slogans and posters of the Soviet era. Toy-like trains and airplanes contrast with monumental folk-art sculptures towering over the sunlit land.

Cast: 9 October – Anastasia Stashkevich, Alexei Putintsev, Elizaveta Kokoreva, Vladislav Lantratov; 10 October – Anna Nikulina, Igor Tsvirko, Kristina Kretova, Artem Ovcharenko; 11 October, 13:00 – Yaroslavna Kuprina, Egor Gerashchenko, Maria Koshkaryova, Dmitry Vyskubenko; 11 October, 19:00 – Daria Khokhlova, Denis Rodkin, Eleonora Sevenard, Vladislav Lantratov; 12 October, 12:00 – Anna Nikulina, Igor Tsvirko, Kristina Kretova, Artem Ovcharenko.

On 10 and 11 October the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the grand opening of the opera portion of the X International Mariinsky Far East Festival. Under the baton of Valery Gergiev the Mariinsky Orchestra will present distinguished works by this year’s composer-anniversaries: Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Gustav Mahler. The programme will also include the recent celebrated premiere by the Primorsky company – Verdi’s Il trovatore.

In the year marking the 185^th anniversary of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s birth, the festival opens on 10 October with a concert performance of his opera The Queen of Spades. A gripping tale of fate and love, its exquisite arias and ensembles, combined with profound psychological depth, have secured its place as a pinnacle of musical theatre and one of the world’s most beloved works. The principal roles will be sung by soloists of the Primorsky Stage, joined by the Primorsky Stage Chorus. Conducting will be Valery Gergiev with the Mariinsky Orchestra.

The festival continues on 11 October with a tribute to Gustav Mahler on his 165^th birthday – his music will be performed in Vladivostok for the first time by the Mariinsky ensemble under Valery Gergiev.

Another highlight on 11 October will be Il trovatore, the Primorsky Stage’s premiere from the 2024–25 season. The staging by director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev and designer Pyotr Okunev, first seen in May, was a major cultural event in Vladivostok. Its concise yet vivid visual style underscores the opera’s tragic plot and emotional intensity. Costumes and sets were produced in the Primorsky Stage’s workshops. The performance features local soloists and the Primorsky Stage Chorus, conducted by Valery Gergiev with the Mariinsky Orchestra.

As in the previous year, the International Mariinsky Far East Festival will be held in two parts. Details of the ballet programme and its dates will be announced separately.

In the new season the Mariinsky Theatre continues to honour the great Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, whose 165^th anniversary is being widely celebrated this year. At the beginning of September Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will present works by the symphonic genius at the Moscow Concert Hall Zaryadye, while a combined symphony orchestra of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres will perform under maestro Gergiev on the Historic Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.

The first concert at Zaryadye will take place on 6 September and feature Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth symphonies, with soprano Anastasia Kalagina as soloist. On 7 September the programme will include the First and Seventh symphonies. On 9 September the Moscow audience will hear one of Mahler’s most monumental and emotionally charged works – the Second Symphony (Resurrection), with soloists Anastasia Kalagina (soprano) and Zinaida Tsarenko (mezzo-soprano). On 10 September, again with Zinaida Tsarenko, the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will play Mahler’s Third Symphony – one of the most complex masterpieces of the Austro-German symphonic tradition.

On 8 September at the Historic Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre a combined symphony orchestra of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres will be conducted by Valery Gergiev in a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Conceived by the composer as the “symphony of symphonies”, it crowns the epic symphonic cycle that Mahler created over the course of two decades. The work requires enormous performing forces: a greatly expanded symphony orchestra, organ, two mixed choirs, a boys’ choir and a group of soloists. Its world premiere took place in Munich on 12 September 1910 and was met with triumphant acclaim.

On 11 September the Festival of Chinese Culture will open in St Petersburg at the New Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre and will continue on 15 September in Moscow at the Main Stage of the Maly Theatre.

The festival is part of the programme for the Russia–China Year of Culture and will form a highlight of the XI St Petersburg International Forum of United Cultures. Events are presented with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and ROSCONCERT. The Chinese martial arts troupe Long Yun was founded in 2006 by the world-famous actor, director, producer and martial arts master Jackie Chan, who personally selected eleven talented, creative and highly skilled young performers from among millions of kung fu practitioners across China. Eleven Warriors of the Long Yun troupe honour the essence of martial arts, expressing emotion through movement and presenting kung fu as a unique artistic discipline.

In St Petersburg and Moscow the troupe will present Eleven Warriors, a programme consisting of five acts – Weapons, Spirit, Mastery, Silence and Celebration. Born of ancient Chinese traditions, the production traces the story of kung fu from its philosophical origins to its most refined contemporary techniques. Mastering diverse forms of Chinese martial arts, the troupe reveals the depth with which kung fu is rooted in the culture of their homeland. The central idea: the purpose of combat is to defend and to overcome – but martial practice becomes art only when discipline is transformed into a structured way of learning that transcends aggression. In fact, the literal meaning of “kung fu” is not “combat” but “the pursuit of skill and perfection”.

The troupe has already appeared in hundreds of performances and featured in dozens of films. Over the past three years alone it has performed in more than sixty countries. Their original artistry and mastery have been acclaimed worldwide and recognised by leading martial arts masters.

The programme will also feature Zhang Lu (guqin), a soloist of the Jun Tian Fang Music Ensemble, which has been recognised by the Government of China as a national intangible cultural heritage organisation. Zhang Lu is a laureate of numerous competitions (including the Third Yulong Yangchun Guqin Competition) and a recipient of prestigious scholarships such as the National Scholarship. She is a member of the Guqin Professional Committee of the Chinese National Orchestra Society.

On 3 September at 14:00 at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre soloists of the opera company together with the Mariinsky Chorus and the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev will dedicate a concert to the memory of the great Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, who passed away on 29 August.

The programme will open with the first part of the Russian liturgy for a cappella choir The Sealed Angel. Shchedrin was inspired to create this work by Nikolai Leskov’s story of the same name. “There are no direct narrative links with the literary source,” the composer explained, “but Leskov’s central idea – the indestructibility of artistic beauty, the magical, elevating power of art – is something I sought to convey through the language of music. In the story Leskov often cites the opening lines of Old Believers’ chants, and I set some of those texts to music.” The concert will also include Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.

Rodion Shchedrin and the Mariinsky Theatre were bound by many years of genuine friendship and creative collaboration. Each year the theatre presents a festival on the composer’s birthday; entire subscription series have been devoted to his artistic legacy, and Shchedrin himself was a frequent guest on all of the Mariinsky Theatre’s stages. For the opening of Mariinsky II he composed his large-scale two-act opera The Lefthander, and the same building now houses a chamber hall that bears the name of our great contemporary.

In his later years the Mariinsky Theatre truly became Shchedrin’s home. Today the theatre’s repertoire boasts an unparalleled collection of his works: the ballets The Little Humpbacked Horse, Carmen Suite and Anna Karenina; the operas Dead Souls, The Enchanted Wanderer, The Lefthander, Boyarina Morozova, A Christmas Tale, Not Love Alone and Lolita; as well as numerous symphonic works including Poetoria, The Sealed Angel and The Adventures of the Monkey.

At the heart of Shchedrin’s vivid and original output lies his own libretti, almost always rooted in Russian literary classics. More than any other composer, he succeeded in creating truly Russian music – works in which profound traditions and modernity intertwine, where familiar characters and elements of the national cultural code are given striking new life in musical form.

Throughout September the Mariinsky Theatre will honour the memory of Rodion Shchedrin with performances of his works in all their diversity: the operas Not Love Alone (5 September), Dead Souls (12 September), The Enchanted Wanderer (22 September), Boyarina Morozova (23 September), Lolita (25 September) and The Lefthander (29 September); the third part of the Trumpet Concerto (5 September); and The Sealed Angel in its entirety (28 September).