Published: 27 February, 2008, 07:01
Edited: 27 February, 2008, 07:01
Some of the world’s best performers are preparing to celebrate the 225th anniversary of St. Petersburg’s famous Mariinsky Theatre on Wednesday night. Celebrations will continue in the city until July.
The theatre has been the birthplace of many opera masterpieces and one of Europe's finest orchestras.
The theatre in the country's second city dates back to the 18th century when Catherine the Great founded the Russian Imperial Theatre.
In 1860, it was shifted to a new building. The name Mariinsky was after the wife of the Emperor Aleksandr the Second – Maria.
The theatre hosted the first performance of Tchaikovsky's world famous ballet Sleeping Beauty by French choreographer Marius Petipa at the end of the 19th century.
The co-operation of the two masters didn't stop at that. Petipa's production of the composer's Swan Lake for Mariinsky is still considered one of the best.
At the beginning of its history Russian ballet attracted many French and Italian artists who laid the foundation of what was to become the great Russian school of ballet.
A new wave of Russian ballet-masters came in with the new century.
And at the beginning of the 20th century, Mikhail Fokin became the first Russian choreographer to wow Europe with a new type of production.
The Mariinsky theatre was the venue for the first staging of his famous Dying swan – one act dance, which Fokin claimed did not need lavish and sumptuous backdrops and a crowd of dancers.
After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, the authorities made Moscow's Bolshoy theatre the country's cultural focal point.
And so the Mariinsky started losing its best artists. The loss also came partly due to a wave of immigration after the revolution.
But the theatre managed to preserve its world famous classic repertoire and develop new trends in ballet – like the contemporary production of Temple Dancer once choreographed by Petipa.
Opera has also been a key part of the Marinsky's identity.
Mikail Glinka's Life of a Tsar and Ruslan and Ludmila as well as Musorgsky’s famous Boris Godunov were all premiered there.
The opera diva Anna Netrebko started her career at the Mariinsky theatre.
Over the years, the Mariinsky theatre has been Russia's cultural Mecca, a status it wants to retain as it holds true to its classical tradition while showcasing more cutting edge trends at the same time.