The Festive Stars of the White Nights

By George Loomis

The Stars of the White Nights Festival, barely a decade old, is a very junior member among important international music festivals. Still, any doubts that it has come of age vanished after the 2003 festival, which lasted an unprecedented three months, from May 5 to August 5. As recently as 1999, the festival occupied a mere two weeks; the following year it expanded to fill the entire month of June. But St. Petersburg’s 300th anniversary in 2003 prompted the festival’s artistic director, Valery Gergiev, to do something exceptional. The Mariinsky’s own opera and ballet companies and its splendid orchestra bore the lion’s share of the performance responsibilities. More than a dozen orchestras from around the world also appeared at the Mariinsky Theater and the festival’s other venues, and three renowned foreign ballet companies graced the Mariinsky stage.

When the festival was founded in 1993, the Mariinsky had reclaimed its original name after being known as the Kirov following the assassination (probably on Stalin’s orders) of Sergei Kirov, head of the Leningrad Communist Party in 1934 (nobody in Russia now calls it the Kirov, but the name still has commercial value in the West). More significantly, Gergiev had been the Mariinsky’s artistic director of opera for five years (in 1996 he would become artistic and general director of the entire theater). Under his leadership the company was already winning international recognition with achievements such as its sensationalistic co-production of Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel with Covent Garden as well as the tours that have now crisscrossed the world. In the summer of 1992, the opera company performed three operas in New York to much acclaim. Capitalizing on the Mariinsky’s stature abroad by establishing a festival at home made sense.

When a major theater mounts a festival in its own urban environment, the question arises as to whether it is truly a “festival” and not simply an extension of the regular season. Several factors make White Nights different. The dense concentration of events lifts the festival out of the routine, and it occurs during a magical time in St. Petersburg’s calendar, celebrated by writers such as Pushkin, when the sun dips below the horizon for only a few hours at night and daylight stretches almost forever. With the fall of Communism the Mariinsky’s top artists became a peripatetic lot, and Gergiev saw to it that White Nights was an occasion for them to demonstrate their allegiance to St. Petersburg. In addition, concerts by the Mariinsky Orchestra were made an essential component of the festival and in turn drew eminent instrumental soloists from Russia and abroad. Though one tends to condense the festival’s name to “White Nights,” the word “Stars” is rightly a part of it.

Culture still matters in Russia. That’s why President Putin regularly takes visiting heads of state to the Mariinsky. On prior trips, Tony Blair was a guest for Prokofiev’s War and Peace, and George W. Bush witnessed Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. The many visiting dignitaries who converged on St. Petersburg at the end of May to celebrate its 300th attended two Mariinsky galas featuring singers such as Olga Borodina, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, and Anna Netrebko; the dancers Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakhar- ova, and Igor Zelensky; and non-Russian luminaries in-cluding Renée Fleming and Plácido Domingo. Other events were of even greater interest: the first complete Ring cycle by a Russian opera company in nearly a century, for instance.

Gergiev is insistent that the Mariinsky reclaim its long-forgotten reputation as a Wagner house. With the Ring the company has, since 1997, staged seven of the ten operas performed at Bayreuth (Tristan, Tannhäuser, and Meistersinger remain). Gergiev had long promised a Ring for the 2003 festival. Its realization proved an even greater challenge than could have been foreseen when the staging initiated by the German director Johannes Schaaf in 2000 was aborted after two operas. The company began anew with sets by George Tsypin, a frequent designer of productions at the Mariinsky and other major opera companies. The dominant images are of immense, prehistoric stone structures of human or animal forms, sometimes an eerie mix of the two. The staging needs further work—Gergiev, only half-kidding, remarked after Siegfried that he tried to keep an eye on the stage when conducting to spot things that needed changing. But there was widespread agreement that Tsypin’s striking sets, Gleb Filshtinsky’s luxuriant lighting, and Tatiana Noginova’s imaginative costumes supply the framework for a refreshingly different Ring in which Russian elements play a discreet but welcome part. The Russian singers for the most part had the vocal wherewithal for Wagner even if German diction was a problem for some. The orchestra rose to the occasion splendidly, and Gergiev demonstrated a real affinity for the music.

White Nights generally reprises the Mariinsky’s newest opera and ballet productions. In addition to Turandot, Eugene Onegin, La Traviata, Il trittico, Oedipus Rex, and the ballets Etudes, The Wedding, The Rite of Spring, and Princess Pirlipat, the 2003 festival included two new co-productions that the Mariinsky had not yet presented: Anton Rubinstein’s The Demon (production by Lev Dodin) seen earlier at the Théâtre du Châtelet and Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress (David Pountney’s production), which bowed in Lisbon. These two works and a Stravinsky triple bill consisting of Oedipus Rex, The Wedding, and The Rite of Spring were all introduced in a period of little more than three weeks that also included the Ring. Stories of the Mariinsky’s industry are legion, but few of its accomplishments can match this!

Gergiev conducted all these premieres, but what proved to be too much (according to him) was a concert performance of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar on the day-off between Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. (On the earlier day off, Gergiev conducted the Philharmonia of the Nations.) It was a treat to hear this seminal work of Russian opera, especially since the captivating soprano Anna Netrebko participated, although the Russian practice of leaving out the tenor’s big aria in Act IV—familiar from recordings by Gedda and Rosvaenge, among others—strikes the foreigner as odd. Rare operas performed in concert at White Nights are often harbingers of future staged productions. A concert performance of Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko at the 1998 festival made such an impression that Gergiev immediately said he wanted a production, and one materialized within a year. The major novelty of the 2002 festival was a concert performance of another Soviet opera by Prokofiev, The Story of a Real Man, but its tale of a fighter pilot who loses his legs and returns to fight on artificial limbs struck many as problematic dramatically. But don’t count out a new production yet—Gergiev would love to have the entire Prokofiev operatic canon in the Mariinsky’s repertoire, and he’s almost there.

Despite the 2003 festival’s three-month duration, the Mariinsky’s own active participation ended after the first two. The final month was devoted to appearances by the Hamburg Ballet, the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, and the New York City Ballet, while the Mariinsky’s own forces toured with festival repertoire. The ballet company went to London and the opera company to New York. It was especially good to experience again Dmitri Chernyakov’s production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Invisible City of Kitezh, which, though staged in modern dress, compellingly projects the opera’s mysticism. Those who saw it in New York may be interested to know that the production divides opinion in St. Petersburg as sharply as it did in New York.

One reason that the Mariinsky exerts a strong appeal on foreign audiences is that it operates differently from most international opera houses. Functioning as a repertory company in both ballet and opera, it does not rely on the usual internationally active singers who show up at one opera house after another (except when its own singers are among them). The ensemble quality of Mariinsky performances makes them special, particularly in native repertoire, and the company functions similarly in non-Russian repertoire, often with excellent results. But the casting of the Ring demonstrates that operating as an ensemble imposes limitations, limitations that were widely thought to have been stretched during the company’s poorly received 2001 London tour of six Verdi operas.

Theoretically, a repertory company is capable of giving any particular work in its repertoire at any given time, which accounts for the enormous diversity of ballet and opera offerings during White Nights. Nearly 20 different operas were given during the initial two months of the 2003 festival. With the exception of War and Peace, which opened the festival on May 5 and was repeated the following night, the others were performed only once. The situation was much the same with ballet, though with somewhat more repetition. There were approximately 15 different ballet evenings, whether of full-length works or composite programs; Swan Lake was given four times. It can’t be emphasized enough that the strong ballet component is an important factor in making White Nights distinctive.

The numerous visiting or-chestras—a change from prior years—distinguished the 2003 festival significantly. Among them were the Israel Philhar-monic with Zubin Mehta, the Orchestre des Champs Élysées with Philippe Herreweghe, the Bamberg Symphony with Jon-  athan Nott, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä, and the Zagreb Philharmonic with Dmitri Liss. Gergiev himself conducted the World Orchestra for Peace, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic, the latter in Strauss waltzes and polkas and in an uncommonly gripping Tchaikovsky Sixth. John Axelrod led the Sinfonia Cracovia with Christoph Eschenbach as soloist, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra gave two concerts led by Markus Stenz. The Swedish Radio Orchestra and Chorus performed the Verdi Requiem under Gergiev and the Brahms Requiem under Manfred Honeck. Many concerts were given at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; other venues included the elegant small and large Philharmonic Halls and the Smolny Cathedral.

When the Mariinsky Orchestra’s own concerts are factored in, one could have heard seven of Mahler’s nine symphonies. The orchestra offered several important new works, including two deeply reflective works by Sophia Gubaidulina: the Easter Oratorio and St. John Passion. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted his Insomnia in a concert that included a stirring performance of the Shostakovich First Piano Concerto by Alexander Toradze, a much-esteemed White Nights regular. In addition to the St. Petersburg birthday festivities, the year 2003 also saw the 50th birthdays of another perennial White Nights favorite, the violist Yuri Bashmet, and of Gergiev himself. These occasions brought distinguished musical tributes in the form of Path, a major addition to the viola-concerto repertoire by Russian émigré composer Alexander Raskatov, and Warzone, a captivating orchestral piece by Giya Kancheli.

Apart from Salonen’s concert and a performance of The Damnation of Faust led by the Mariinsky’s principal guest conductor, Gianandrea Noseda, Gergiev conducted all of the Mariinsky Orchestra’s nine concerts and nearly all of the operas. Two operas early in the festival when Gergiev was away were conducted by staff conductors, Eschenbach led a performance of Parsifal, and Il trittico was conducted by Noseda. Thus, the festival allows Gergiev to indulge in the nonstop conducting for which he is famous.

How a theater that pays most of its employees subsistence wages can afford so rich an array of offerings is unclear. Requests for information about the festival’s budget went unanswered, but a Mariinsky spokesman said that financial support for the visiting ensembles often came from the national or local government of the home country as well as from private sponsors. No group performed for “commercial” fees, the spokesman said. Only one organization backed out after the program was announced, but it was a big one: The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra was to have given two concerts but canceled because of problems with funding sources.
Although the Russian federal government remains the Mariinsky’s best financial friend, support from private sponsors is on the rise. The general sponsors of the festival are Vneshtorgbank, a government-supported bank, and the food giant Nestlé, the largest private sponsor of the performing arts in Russia. Nestlé uses the opportunity to promote its brands, so Nescafé Gold coffee is readily available gratis at stands positioned throughout the performance venues. The Mariinsky also actively seeks individual contributors, who are sometimes rewarded with a post-performance cruise on the Neva River with Mariinsky artists.

Revenues from ticket sales presumably account for relatively little. The Mariinsky still adheres to a two-tier pricing system—a source of irritation to many foreigners—whereby Russian nationals pay considerably less than foreigners, and the women ticket-takers have an uncanny ability to detect foreigners. Generally speaking, foreigner prices are roughly five times those for Russians and can go up to around $100. Still, the foreigner price is less than the cost of a Mariinsky ticket on tour.

Tickets can be ordered from the Mariinsky’s Web site (www.mariinsky.ru), but it is difficult to predict when the festival schedule will be announced, and once it is announced, it is often changed. With so much of the world operating on schedules determined years in advance, Gergiev seems to like room for spontaneity. People will understandably be reluctant to travel to the festival from abroad without tickets in hand, but should they do so, they will generally find them available, usually at the box office and if not there, then at the major hotels. Although important opera and ballet premieres sell out, the sheer volume of events is sometimes more than the traffic can bear. Concerts, in particular, rarely sell out unless a truly big name is involved, and Gergiev hardly counts as one since he conducts so much.

What can be a problem, however, are accommodations. The Mariinsky believes that St. Petersburg has a shortage of hotel rooms, both in the five-star category and in the medium price range, a view widely shared, particularly as regards the medium price range. June is the preferred time to visit St. Petersburg, and no doubt many thought that the room shortage in 2003 would be aggravated by the birthday festivities. One couple that comes to the festival every year was told by the Grand Hotel Europe in 2002 that they could reserve a room for 2003 but that if the government needed it they would have to give it up. Inquiries on various festival days at the five-star Astoria Hotel revealed that rooms at around $400 a night were sometimes available, sometimes not. Spot checks at three hotels in the latter half of June found that rooms could be obtained at each in the $75-150 price range.
The Mariinsky has a particular interest in tourism since it has plans for a new theater that would turn it into an operation similar to the Paris Opéra with the Opéra Bastille and the Palais Garnier, or, closer to home, the Bolshoi, whose new, second theater opened in November 2002. A jury in July selected Dominique Perrault’s designs for the new theater from 11 entries, and Russell Johnson has been chosen as its acoustician. A second building project involves Novaya Gollandya (New Holland), a vast complex of abandoned redbrick warehouses dating from the 18th century. The federal government, which owns the complex, has designated Novaya Gollandya as a site for development by the Mariinsky, which is only a block away. Gergiev would like to see the new projects rejuvenate the surrounding area the way Lincoln Center transformed New York’s Upper West Side. St. Petersburg is still down at the heels, despite efforts to spruce it up for the anniversary, but the number of visitors to the city can be expected only to increase, with tourism and the festival nurturing each other.

When the Mariinsky’s portion of the 2003 festival drew to a close, exhausted staff members spoke with relief of a 2004 festival that would revert to a one-month format and might even last only three weeks. Between the logistical problems posed by the visiting ensembles and the festival’s daunting performance schedule, every facet of the company was taxed, but it was not found wanting. With this challenge met, it is unthinkable that future festivals will be any less impressive, even if they are shorter. Gergiev will make sure of that.

Since moving to Russia in 1996, George Loomis has written about musical events in Russia, Europe, and the United States for the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Opera magazine, MusicalAmerica.com, and other publications. He holds a doctorate in music history from Yale University.