Journey to St Petersburg Part III

Last night I attended Aida at the Mariinsky with Mlada Khudoley singing the title role. What an experience! As you can see from the attached photo of the old Mariinsky (Gergiev is building a new Mariinsky Opera house across the canal from the old one) there is a lot of history in the old hall.







Very ornate with gold leaf everywhere. I don't think there is a bad seat for acoustics. The performance was very traditional with lots of stand-and-sing performances. It was an all-Russian cast and vocally very commanding.

Mlada was the only one who really gave a theatrical performance as the rest of the cast remained firmly planted Down Stage Centre. The sets were big and very traditional and the costumes were ornately elaborat. No animals but many, many supers for the Triumphal march! The orchestra was very good and conducted by Russian maestro Boris Gruzin.

Oh, and a little note about Russian time: the performance was due to start at 7:00pm but it was closer to 7:12 by the time it started. And the 20 minute intermissions are closer to 30, making it a 4 + hour evening!

~ Tom Wright, Director of Artistic Planning