A Reuters report on Tuesday (12/18) states, “With the imminent opening of its third home venue, St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky opera and ballet will ramp up an already prodigious output but may ease back on hectic foreign touring, director Valery Gergiev said on Tuesday. World audiences have come to know Gergiev and his company well as they crisscrossed the globe after the collapse of Soviet state funding. But with Russians now pouring the kind of money into the arts that has just built the $700-million Mariinsky II theatre, he wants to concentrate on domestic performances. … Touring remains important, not for commercial gain but for ‘national pride’ in promoting Russian music, he said. Some 300 of 1,000 performances in 2014 would be on the road—but many of these would be not abroad but in distant Russian regions where Gergiev sees it his mission to bring music to the provinces. For those unable to visit St. Petersburg, where the 2,000-seat new venue will open on May 2 to complement the 150-year-old opera house and a concert hall opened in 2006, the company, known as the Kirov in Soviet times, is expanding its recordings and video broadcasts to theatres worldwide, including in 3D.”
Posted December 19, 2012
