Mariinsky Theatre - The Mariinsky Theatre Today

The Mariinsky Theatre Today

Under Yuri Temirkanov, Principal Conductor from 1976 to 1988, the Opera Company continued to stage innovative productions of both modern and classic Russian operas. However, since 1988, under the artistic leadership of Valery Gergiev, the Opera Company has entered a new era of artistic excellence and creativity.

Although functioning separately from the Theatre’s Ballet Company, both Opera and Ballet Companies are headed by Gergiev as Artistic Director of the entire Theatre. His tenure as head of the present day Opera Company at the Mariinsky Theatre began in 1988 and (especially since 1993) Gergiev’s impact on opera there has been enormous. Firstly, he reorganized the company’s operations and established links with many of the world's great opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra Bastille, La Scala, La Fenice, the Tel Aviv Opera, the Washington National Opera and the San Francisco Opera. Today, the Opera Company regularly tours to most of these cities.

Gergiev has also been innovative as far as Russian opera is concerned: in 1989, there was an all-Mussorgsky festival featuring the composer’s entire operatic output. Similarly, many of Prokofiev’s operas were presented from the late 1990s. Operas by non-Russian composers began to be performed in their original languages, which helped the Opera Company to incorporate world trends. The annual international "Stars of the White Nights Festival" in Saint Petersburg, started by Gergiev in 1993, has also put the Mariinsky on the world’s cultural map. That year, as a salute to the imperial origins of the Mariinsky, Verdi's La forza del destino, which received its premiere in Saint Petersburg in 1863, was produced with its original sets, costumes and scenery. Since then, it has become a characteristic of the "White Nights Festival" to present the premieres from the company’s upcoming season during this magical period, when the hours of darkness practically disappear as the summer solstice approaches.

Presently, the Company lists on its roster 22 sopranos (of which Anna Netrebko may be the best known); 13 mezzo-sopranos (with Olga Borodina familiar to US and European audiences); 23 tenors; eight baritones; and 14 basses. With Gergiev in charge overall, there is a Head of Stage Administration, a Stage Director, Stage Managers and Assistants, along with 14 accompanists.

In 2003, construction began on a new home for the theatre, to be named The Second Stage. Technical difficulties connected with sub-soil problems have led to a slowing down in its progress, but work is continuing.

The Canadian firm, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, along with its local partner KB ViPS Architects have designed a building with 2,000 seats, which will complement the existing 1,600-seat Mariinsky and the nearby Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, which was designed by French architects Xavier Fabre and opened in spring 2007 with room for 1,100 patrons. The completion of the new Mariinsky will result in what some have called Saint Petersburg's equivalent of New York's Lincoln Center.