Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' and other premières at the Stars of the White Nights Festival, Music & Visin 13 giugno

Almost Cinematic
Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' and other premières
at the Stars of the White Nights Festival,
by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Now in its eighteenth edition, St Petersburg's Festival of the Stars of the White Nights started as an adventure nearly two decades ago. The glorious Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Company was about to collapse along with the downfall of Communism and of the Soviet Republics. It had been largely supported by taxation no longer available in the chaos of the transition to a market economy. The musical director and principal conductor, Valery Gergiev, already well known in the West, did all that a human being could to keep it together. The first step was a series of tours so that musicians could reach double objectives: in the short term, to get two meals every day; in the longer term, to find sponsors and partners not only for their activities abroad but also to prosper in the marvelous theatre in their home country. It was a daring bet. But God helps men with courage, good intentions and a sincere love for the highest of the arts.
Now, the Mariinsky Theatre is back at the splendor of the last decades of the nineteenth century. Alongside the theatre, the old concert auditorium has also found new life for symphony and chamber music. The Mariinsky company has nearly twenty international and domestic partners and sponsors, and operates almost 320 evenings every year- either in St Petersburg or on tour. The Stars of the White Nights Festival started as an homage by the company to the city, patterned after a similar festival in Munich. Initially it showed nearly thirty operas and ballets -- the best and the most acclaimed of the previous twelve months -- just during the weeks where the nights are very short. Now the Festival is a two month event, with nearly one hundred performances of operas, ballets and concerts, important guest orchestras, some mini-festivals within the larger event, and also premières of operas and ballets booked for the following season in Russia and abroad.

Ekaterina Kondaurova and Andrei Ermakov in Act I of Rodion Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' at the Stars of the White Nights Festival. Photo © 2010 Natasha Razina
The mini-festivals concern French music and Rodion Shchedrin, a rare example of a 'living classical' composer. Your reviewer was lucky to be in St Petersburg (as a part of a river cruise to Northern Western Russia and then to Moscow) and to be at the Mariinsky's 24 May 2010 opening night of Shchedrin's latest work (for the time being) -- Anna Karenina -- after Tolstoy's novel. Next season, this production of Anna Karenina will be shown not only in St Petersburg but also in Warsaw and in London.

A scene from Act II of Rodion Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' at the Stars of the White Nights Festival. Photo © 2010 Natasha Razina
In the West, Shchedrin is mostly known for his chamber music, whereas he is also a prolific author of symphonies, ballets and operas. Aged seventy eight, he looks rather young and is full of enthusiasm. His musical experience spans Shostakovich to Sviridov (his senior contemporaries and, in a way, his 'maestros') to others of the same age such as Tishcenko, Slonimsky and Schnittke. He was never tempted by the twelve tone row approach or by other methods that he calls 'cerebral'. His musical writing is crystal-clear, transparent; but simplicity is only apparent as it conceals very detailed work and a taste for inserting chamber music pieces within large symphonic works, symphonies and ballets.

Ekaterina Kondaurova and Andrei Ermakov in Act II of Rodion Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' at the Stars of the White Nights Festival. Photo © 2010 Natasha Razina
Anna Karenina is a ballet in two acts and nearly twenty short scenes. Each scene has a musical theme. The action is swift, almost cinematic, due to a very ingenious, elegant and economical stage setting of projections, often of period pictures, and only a few props: Mikael Melbye and Martin Tulinius are the authors of the sets, the costumes and the dramaturgy. The entire performance lasts less than two hours (including intermission). The score is for a large symphony with chamber music interludes for piano, celesta, clarinet, mandolin, double bass, flute and trumpet. The chamber music interludes emphasize the interior life of the protagonists, whilst the large symphony, under the baton of Alexei Repnikov, depicts the dramatic and sensual development of the plot to his tragic end. Simplicity is one of Shchedrin's main features: he wants to be complex but also to be understood by the audience. This is a healthy creative approach, much appreciated by the audience at the 24 May performance of Anna Karenina.

Ekaterina Kondaurova and Andrei Ermakov in Act II of Rodion Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' at the Stars of the White Nights Festival. Photo © 2010 Natasha Razina
What else can I suggest to visitors who might be in St Petersburg during the 2010 Stars of the White Nights Festival? Any evening is good, but three new productions deserve special attention: Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (next year also in London, at the English National Opera), Verdi's Attila (also most likely at La Scala in 2012) and Khachaturian's Spartacus (planned for an extended tour of Russia and abroad).
Copyright © 13 June 2010 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

SAINT PETERSBURG
RUSSIA
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