A Mariinsky Addition
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/05/01/arts/artsspecial/20130502OPERA-9.html
1.
Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra recently tested
the acoustics of their new $700-million theater. The 2,000-seat performance
space formally opens on Thursday with a gala concert.
“Called the Mariinsky II and connected by a pedestrian
bridge over a canal to the original, ornate 19th-century Mariinsky Theater, it
is the first new Russian opera house to aspire to international significance
since the time of the czars,” Zachary Woolfe writes.
2.
The orchestra during rehearsal. Thursday’s gala concert will
feature dozens of performers, including the soprano Anna Netrebko and the
ballet dancer Diana Vishneva, who are among the many stars born at the original
Mariinsky.
3.
Placido Domingo, the Spanish tenor, during rehearsals.
4.
A canal separates the new theater, left, from the original
Mariinsky, which opened in 1860.
5.
Jack Diamond, the Canadian architect who designed the
theater, clad a curving exterior wall of the auditorium in illuminated onyx.
6.
Mr. Gergiev, far left, in the group, and colleagues checking
on final preparations for the opening. The new theater project took more than
10 years of development, multiple architects and a government-financed budget
that climbed to nearly 10 times the initial estimate.
7.
A winding staircase in the foyer of the theater. The
facility has been described as “too modern and not modern enough, too ambitious
and too restrained.”
8.
Ulyana Lopatkina, a prima ballerina for the Mariinsky
Theater, warming up as Vaganova
Academy students look on.
The opening-week events include opera, ballet and musical performances, spread
around the Mariinsky complex, with Mr. Gergiev at the center of it all.
9.
Students of the Vaganova
Academy rehearsing for
the gala. This summer brings a variety of programs by Russian artists, but Mr.
Gergiev hopes to host traveling orchestras and operas in the future.
Mariinsky II Finally Opens its Doors
http://sptimes.ru/story/37257
St. Petersburg’s
new concert hall, the long-anticipated and much-awaited Mariinsky II, will have
its official inauguration on Thursday with a gala performance featuring some of
the world’s finest musical talent, including tenor Placido Domingo, violinist
Leonidas Kavakos, pianist Denis Matsuev, bass Rene Pape, soprano Anna Netrebko
and dancer Diana Vishneva.
Designed by the Canadian agency Diamond&Schmitt
Architects, the project, whose total cost is estimated at 19.1 billion rubles
($161.7 million), has been funded by the Russian federal government.
……………………………
On May 1, the day before the official opening, Mariinsky II
will hold a “thank you” concert for veterans of the local classical music
scene, retirees who worked in various capacities for local theaters, who will
enjoy an opera and ballet gala.
The festivities will continue after the inauguration. On May
3 soprano Anna Netrebko will star the title role of Tchaikovsky’s opera
“Iolanta,” followed by a ballet gala featuring the Mariinsky’s star dancers
Yekaterina Kondaurova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Vladimir Shklyarov and Danila
Korsuntsev — both at the new venue. Also on May 3 Gergiev will conduct a
program of symphony music at the Mariinsky Concert Hall with violinists Vadim
Repin and Leonidas Kavakos, pianist Denis Matsuev and viola player Yury
Bashmet.
On the following day, Placido Domingo and Maria Guleghina
will appear on the new stage in Verdi’s opera “Nabucco,” which will also be
conducted by Gergiev.
Exclusive: New York Times demotes a critic
September 3, 2012 by Norman Lebrecht
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/09/exclusive-new-york-times-demotes-a-critic.html
Zachary Woolfe
By Zachary Woolfe
http://observer.com/author/zachary-woolfe/
photos
http://www.google.hr/search?q=zachary+woolfe&client=opera&hs=F2f&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=o7-CUZrTMoON4AT284DYBQ&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651
Zachary Woolfe
@zwoolfe
freelance music critic for the ny times, opera critic for
the ny observer, writer
https://twitter.com/zwoolfe
Famous words
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