After more than half a century out in the cold, German opera is
set to make a dramatic comeback to the Mariinsky stage with the premiere of
Strauss's "Salome" on Friday, June 30.
This tale of salacious and macabre passion has not been staged in St Petersburg
since the 1920s. Then it was seen 40 times over seven seasons, between 1924 and
1929, under the Mariinsky's then-conductor Vladimir Dranishnikov. The opera
proved a hit, with Valentina Pavlovskaya taking the lead as Salome.
And this time around it should have every chance of succeeding. After all, it
is to be conducted by St Petersburg's finest conductor, Valery Gergiyev, and is
to be masterminded by New York producer Julie Taymor in conjunction with
designer Georgy Tsipin, also from the US.
What Catherine did when friends dropped in for dinner
It's a wonder that, while so much of Russia's imperial legacy was
destroyed in the turbulent years of the Revolution, Civil War and World War II,
some of its most delicate treasures survived intact.
Complete porcelain dinner sets, presented by various crowned heads of Europe to
the tsars, survived remarkably intact and are the subject of a new exhibition
in the Hermitage Museum.
Exhibition of banished talent
Original letters and documents by Russian intelligentsia emigres
Ivan Bunin, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Georgy Golitsyn and other post-revolutionary
writers living in France, the US and Britain are now on display at the
Menshikov Palace.
FOOD
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Taste of adventure
Narva was well known some years ago. For its clientele, it was an entrepreneurial symbol of the birth of a new Russia through perestroika and the dawn of Soviet
reforms. It was the restaurant for the then-emerging Russian financial
heavyweights. But now, with so many new restaurants in town, they seem to have
abandoned the place.
EXCURSIONS
The fairy tale castle fit for Sleeping Beauty
If you were asked to imagine a fairy tale castle you
probably would picture those impressive medieval and Gothic buildings in
England, Scotland and Germany.
Russia, you would imagine, would be the last place on earth to find a castle,
especially one that looks suspiciously like Osborne House on the Isle of Wight
or Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
But Russia does have a castle -- the not-so-well-known palace at Gatchina,
located 40 minutes by train from classical St Petersburg.
MUSIC
Blues brothers
Blues might not be the most popular type of music in Russia, but
Nikita Vostretsov, the founder of St Petersburg's first blues club and shop,
feels the situation is changing.
