The Marinsky Theatre to Celebrate 25th Anniversary in 2012-2013 Season

The 2012/2013 season of the Mariinsky Theatre marks the 25thanniversary of the leadership of General and Artistic Director Maestro Valery Gergiev, who has built the Mariinsky into one of the largest, most acclaimed and most dynamic performing arts institutions in the world. The Mariinsky will celebrate this anniversary with an impressive schedule of tours, performances, recordings and events, and will usher in a new era of even greater artistic possibilities with the inauguration of the new Mariinsky Theatre (Mariinsky II).

The new opera house, funded by the Russian Government, is among the largest in the world, capable of supporting the most demanding productions. When it opens in May 2013, it will join the legendary Mariinsky Theatre and the Mariinsky Concert Hall to further the transformation of the Mariinsky’s complex into one of the world’s premier centers for classical music, opera and ballet.

While maintaining a robust performance schedule in its existing complex in 2012/2013, the Mariinsky will simultaneously conduct ambitious international tours. The itinerary will bring the Mariinsky Opera, Ballet and Orchestra to more than 35 cities worldwide, including such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Shanghai Oriental Art Center in China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Salzburg Festival in Austria.

Among the performance highlights of the season will be the Mariinsky Ballet‘s celebration of the 120th anniversary of the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s and Petipa’s The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1892. Commemorating this occasion, the Mariinsky has collaborated with EuroArts Music to create the film The Nutcracker in 3D, bringing its deep historical tradition together with cutting-edge technology. The Nutcracker in 3D will be released in Europe in November 2012, Asia in December 2012 and the United States in December 2012, where it will be shown in more than 400 theaters.

The coming months will also witness the release of two major new recordings on the Mariinsky Label. In December 2012 the label will release the emotionally charged recording of Maestro Gergiev conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad,” the most recent in the Orchestra’s cycle of Shostakovich symphonies. February 2013 will see the launch of the Mariinsky Label’s most ambitious project to date, the full cycle of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The first recording in the series, Die Walküre, will feature Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, Anja Kampe, Mikhail Petrenko and René Pape with the Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Gergiev.

“These past 24 years have seen a wonderful flourishing of the Mariinsky Theatre in both its artistic program and its institutional achievements, as we have brought the Opera, Ballet, Orchestra, Chorus and our extraordinary Company into the 21st century and a more active and outgoing engagement with the world,” stated Valery Gergiev. “We are carrying forward our progress in every way in 2012/2013, including the opening of our magnificent new opera house. Mariinsky II will provide abundant resources for our artists and audiences, and will ensure that the Mariinsky remains one of the most vital performing arts institutions in the world.”