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Renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev will take the baton of
the Marriinsky Theatre Orchestra and its chorus to raise the
curtain of the Ninth Beijing Music Festival tonight at Poly
Theatre.
The Russian conductor, Russian orchestra, Russian singers and
choir and an all-Russian program will offer a glamorous celebration
of the Year of Russia in China, which tops the four major themes of
this year's Beijing Music Festival.
The other three are the Year of Italy in China, Mozart's 250th
birthday anniversary and Shostakovich's 100th birthday
anniversary.
The opening piece is Shostakovich's historic "Festival
Overture."
Composed for the celebration of the 37th anniversary of the 1917
Revolution, this work premiered on November 6, 1954, performed by
the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, under the direction
of Alexander Melik-Pashayev.
Other pieces to be featured tonight include Rimsky-Korsakov's
aria from the opera "Snow Maiden" and his aria from "Tsar's Bride,"
Mussorgsky's Coronation scene from "Boris Godunov," Tchaikovsky's
"Romeo Juliet Fantasy-Overture" and Glinka's "Ruslan Ludmill
Overture."
Gergiev, however, will not stop his crusade during the music
fest. Tomorrow, he will conduct the orchestra to play the concert
version of Shostakovich's opera "The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk
District" at the Poly Theatre.
This is among the series to mark the 100th anniversary of the
Russian composer's birth.
"The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," Shostakovich's
second opera, was referred to by the composer as a
"tragedy-satire."
Written between 1930 and 1932, the four-act, 150-minute opera is
based on a short story by Nikolay Leskov. Shostakovich and his
co-librettist, Alexander Preis, made alterations to the original
story, all designed to humanize the central character of Katerina,
portrayed in the original story as a brutal and self-serving
woman.
The composer's use of music greatly strengthened his
interpretation of Katerina as a sympathetic character driven to
crime by boredom and despair by contrasting the lyrical music
written for her with raw, grotesque, discordant music written for
those around her.
The opera premiered on January 22, 1934, in Leningrad at the
Maliy Operniy Teatr. Two days later, the opera was produced by the
Stanislavsky-Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow, which
made some cuts and alterations and billed it as "Katerina
Izmaylova." Although the productions were significantly different
in approach, both enjoyed great success.
"Although a concert version without settings and costumes,
Shostakovich's score remains powerful, dramatic and demanding, when
played by Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under the baton of Gergiev,"
said Yu Long, artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival.
The orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre enjoys a long and
distinguished history as one of the oldest musical institutions in
Russia. In 1988, Valery Gergiev was elected artistic director of
the opera company, and in 1996, the Russian Government appointed
him as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Under Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Theatre has forged important
relationships with the worlds' greatest opera houses.
Valery Gergiev has developed a fan-base in China since he took
the orchestra for its debut tour of China and joined the First
Beijing Music Festival.
Now, eight years later, Gergiev, with his Mariinsky Theatre
Orchestra, has returned.
(China Daily October 2, 2006)
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