From May 25 to July 15, 2012, the XX Stars of the White Nights Music Festival was held in St. Petersburg. The jubilee program, including theatrical and ballet performances, symphony concerts, was very diverse.
The festival opened on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater with the production of Boris Godunov, with Yevgeny Nikitin in the lead role, conductor Valery Gergiev. It is noteworthy that the opera was staged according to the version of 1869.
And the very next day, the grand opening took place, which was marked by a symphony concert. Famous Russian actors - Chulpan Khamatova and Yevgeny Mironov became the presenters. The opening program included works by Rubinstein, Mussorsky, Prokofiev and others.
All the following days passed in a rush. A huge number of theatrical, ballet, opera performances. Among them are George Balanchine's ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream to music by Felix Mendelssohn, which caused a public outcry, and Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. The presentation of the last performance was timed to coincide with the not so distant 100th anniversary of the production, which will be celebrated in 2013.
Some performances were also timed to coincide with some significant dates. First of all, on the occasion of the bicentennial of the Stars of the White Nights festival, the folk musical drama Khovanshchina was shown on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. In memory of the People's Artist of the USSR Galina Kovaleva, Vladimir Galuzin and Yevgeny Nikitin sang in the opera The Queen of Spades. For the anniversary of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Alexandra Shestakova, "Aida" was played, and for the 100th anniversary of Natalia Dudinskaya they showed the graduation performance of the Academy of Russian Ballet. A. Ya. Vaganova. And this is not a complete list.
As part of such an extensive festival, another one was held. This is the 5th New Horizons festival of contemporary music, which lasted from June 2 to June 7.
The final event of the music forum was the screening of the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini with the participation of Maria Guleghina and Vladimir Galuzin.
During the festival, more than a hundred performances and concerts took place, which were attended by more than one hundred and fifty thousand spectators, residents and guests of the northern capital.
