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The Mariinsky opera company is famous throughout the world. Its soloists are invited to perform in such top opera houses as La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, in Paris and Vienna, at international ...
The Mariinsky ballet company is indelibly linked to the history of Russian choreographic art. This history embraces more than two and a half centuries and begins in 1738, when Empress Anna Ioannovna ...
The symphony orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre is one of the oldest in Russia. Its history dates back to the Court Instrumental Capella, created during the reign of Peter the Great. Mostly composed ...
The strange and eclectic style of St Michael’s Castle so aptly reflects the principles, artistic tastes and philosophical views of Paul I that it is often referred to as an “architectural self-portra...
Ligovka is the popular name for one of the most notorious districts of St Petersburg – a haunt of debauchees, thieves, prostitutes and other social outcasts. Many post-revolutionary artists depicted ...
The Mikhailovsky Theatre enjoyed a happy fate in the twentieth century, occupying a special place in the cultural life of Petrograd, Leningrad and St Petersburg. At one point intended to be a “labora...
On 6 March 1918, a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera Il barbiere di Siviglia was given in the premises of the former Mikhailovsky Theatre, which had been abandoned by the French company ...
Over the past two centuries, the Mariinsky Theatre has grown into one of the world’s top opera and ballet companies. Throughout this time, the theatre has amassed a unique collection of works of art ...
The St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest in Russia. Its official birthday, 1882, is preceded by a series of events that now comprise the history of musical life in the former capital of...
The history of the building now famous as the Small Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonic begins in the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was used to hold balls and masquerades for the arist...