RUSSIA’S RISING MIDDLE CLASS IN FOR A SCARE
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CAN MEGA-PROJECTS SPUR BROAD ECONOMIC GROWTH?
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RUSSIAN BUYERS INVESTING ABROAD
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ST. PETERSBURG READIES TO CELEBRATE BIRTHDAY
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On May 27, St. Petersburg will celebrate its 311th anniversary. However, since the date falls on a Tuesday, a working day for most people, the festivities will take place on Sunday, May 25.
On Sunday, the celebration begins at 2 p.m. on St. Isaac’s Square, where 4,500 singers of all ages from local professionals to amateur choirs will sing Russian and Soviet songs on the steps of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. In 2013, the same event set a Guinness World Record and was entered into the Russian Book of Records. The artistic director of the project is Vladislav Chernushenko, conductor of the St. Petersburg State Capella Choir.
Those who prefer dancing to singing can join in at “Dancing Nevsky,” an event being held in the city center at 5 p.m., which will see the stretch of Nevsky Prospekt from Sadovaya Ulitsa to Naberezhnaya Reki Moiki become a huge dance floor. The length of the dancing space is 860 meters, with a total area of 17,720 square meters. Almost 4,000 dancers ranging from 10 to 35 years old are expected to take part, with the city allocating 10 million rubles ($286,779) for the event.
In order to make sure you have enough energy to dance the afternoon away, be sure to stop by the annual ice cream festival first, being held at Ploschad Ostrovskogo.
Sunday will be capped off by a gala concert of opera stars on Palace Square at 9 p.m, including artists from La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera and Opéra de Paris. Artists from world-renowned ballet troupes such as St. Petersburg Eifman ballet and Madrid ballet will also perform and entrance for the public is free.
“Last year celebrations demonstrated that classical art of the highest level is loved by St. Petersburg residents and visitors to the city,” said Vasily Pankratov, the head of the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture. “Palace Square is an excellent venue for leading artists from the best theaters in the world to perform. The festive evening will be full of foreign and Russian music.”
On May 27 at 10 a.m. the tradition of placing flowers alongside the monument to Peter the Great, better known as the Bronze Horseman, will take place on Senatskaya Ploschad.
On May 27, the annual Open Day will be held throughout St. Petersburg theaters. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. St. Petersburg residents can attend any theater they want, go backstage, watch pieces of performances or visit rehearsals. Visitors only need to reserve their visit in advance. As a birthday present for St. Petersburg, the legendary Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater will also open its doors after more than three years of reconstruction.
May will continue to be a busy month for the city. Among other events being held are the International St. Petersburg Book Salon, the largest book fair in North-West Russia, from May 23 through 26, and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum from May 22 through 24.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ELISEEV FAMILY
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St. Petersburg has always been a city of trade. Throughout the centuries, royalty and nobility have attracted merchants who have made their fortunes importing fine goods to the best families and exporting raw materials throughout Europe. Among these merchant families there are few better known or have had a more visible presence in the city than the Eliseev family.
THE STARS COME OUT FOR WHITE NIGHTS
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“An odyssey of ash and desire” looks set to mark the opening of the forthcoming 22nd Stars of the White Nights Festival at the Mariinsky Theater — at least, according to the French director Yannis Kokkos, whose premiere rendition of Hector Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” opens the festival on May 28.
“‘Les Troyens’ is a work that is epic and intimate, monumental and mental,” Kokkos said of his new production that will play on May 28, 29 and 30 at Mariinsky II. “In this opera by Berlioz, a particularly touching quality comes from the insistence with which the composer strove to convey his awe after reading ‘The Aeneid’ as a boy, which he remembered his entire life. Much of his work is influenced by what Freud characterized as a ‘typical scene.’”
RUSSIAN ART TAKES CENTER STAGE IN LONDON
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The coming week in London is set to be all about Russian art as the city’s premier auction houses and arts venues kick off the fourth annual Russian Art Week. Auctions of rare and valuable Russian paintings, icons and works of decorative art will be held at all the major auction houses from May 20 to June 7, alongside a series of exceptional exhibitions of work by contemporary Russian artists at galleries and museums around the city.
A biannual event that takes place in November and June, the last Russian Art Week saw the major auction houses taking in £55 million for masterpieces by Bakst, Roerich, Falk and Fabergé. This spring, auction houses Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s will all offer remarkable works of art for sale, including “The Pearl Mosque at Agra” at Christie’s, which is estimated to fetch between £1 and £1.5 million on June 2 at the auction house’s Russian Art sale in King Street.