Stars of White Nights, festival

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Music Festivals
STARS OF WHITE NIGHTS, the Mariinsky Theatre's annual summer international music festival. First held in 1993 on the initiative of Mariinsky Theatre conductor and artistic director V. А. Gergiev. At first the event lasted as long as two weeks, and in 2000 was extended into a month or longer. The program includes premieres of operas and ballets, symphony concerts, vocal and instrumental performances, and concert versions of operas. Performances are also hosted by the Philharmonic, in its Small and Big Halls, along with various suburban palaces and open-air events, including concerts by Placido Domingo and Olga Borodina in 2001, and the staging of M. P. Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov at the Vyborg Castle in 2002. Within 10 years the festival has played all of Sergey Prokofiev's operas (both in full-length and concert versions). Its program also features works by contemporary composers such as G. А. Kancheli, S. А. Gubaidulina, G. I. Ustvolsky and classical pieces, including G. Berlioz' The Damnation of Faust , Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and various symphonies by А. Bruckner, G. Maler, and Jean Sibelius. Among the participants are some of the world's most celebrated musicians, including Yury Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Riccardo Muti, D. Voyt, V.Urmana, Dmitry Khvorostovsky, N. G. Putilin, V. V. Galuzin, V. V. Tretyakov, V. P. Afanasyev, L.Toradze, and Yury Temirkanov.

References: Звезды белых ночей, 1993-2002. СПб., 2002.

E. V. Tretyakova. Afanasyev V.P.
Bashmet Yury Abramovich
Beethoven Ludwig van
Berlioz Hector
Borodina Oga Vladimirovna
Bruckner Anton
Domingo Placido
Galuzin Vladimir Vasilievich
Gergiev Valery Abisalovich
Gubaidulina Sofia Asgatovna
Kancheli Georg (Giya) Alexandrovich
Khvorostovsky Dmitry Alexandrovich
Kremer Gidon
Mahler Gustav
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich
Muti Riccardo
Prokofiev Sergey Sergeevich
Putilin Nikolay G.
Sibelius Jean
Temirkanov Yury Khatuevich
Toradze L.
Tretyakov Viktor Viktorovich
Urmana V.
Ustvolskaya Galina Ivanovna
Voigt Deborah
Dvortsovaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Звезды белых ночей. 1993-2002. СПб., 2002 Mariinsky Theatre
Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich