© St Petersburg St Petersburg on Wikipedia recent Kirov reviews Graham Watts reviews

A trip to St Petersburg should feature on the ‘to do’ list of any balletomane. All contemporary ballet has roots that passed through the art’s golden age in Imperial Russia, and wherever one’s enthusiasm for ballet has been nurtured, spending time in a city that is still steeped in the culture of classical dance is a fillip for the soul.

My recent visit to the city of the Tsars was unfortunately not during the midsummer ‘white nights’ and the international festival that comes with this special time, nor – I confess – was it specifically to indulge my passion for ballet but for other business reasons. But I wasn’t about to let the opportunity go without soaking myself in as much of this unique culture as time would allow.

There was ballet to see on every one of my 12 nights in the city; sometimes 3 or even 4 different performances within a few hundred yards. It’s been said that one in every ten ballets performed in Russia is ‘Swan Lake’ and I can quite believe this since I could have seen it on just about any night of my stay.

The first stop has to be the Mariinsky Theatre[1]. Just as the Soviets renamed St Petersburg (firstly to Petrograd and then - after Lenin’s death in 1924 - to Leningrad), the Mariinsky Ballet Company was known as the Kirov Ballet from the 1930s, commemorating the assassinated Bolshevik leader, Sergei Kirov. The Imperial names returned in the early ‘90s after the fall of communism.

The Mariinsky’s autumn season was already underway when I arrived– unlike most ballet companies, the Mariinsky does not perform one or two ballets several times before moving onto the next production. My stay coincided with five performances of five different ballets: I arrived just too late to make it for ‘The Fountain of Bakhchisarai’, Zakharov’s dramatic choreography illustrating Pushkin’s poem of the same name, but on the next evening I was able to capture Alexei Ratmansky’s modernist approach to Prokoviev’s ‘Cinderella’[2]; and subsequently Gusev’s version of ‘Le Corsaire’[3] and the stunning ‘Silenzio’[4], a one-off gala performance in honour of the great ballerina, Diana Vishneva. I had a slightly bizarre experience trying to obtain a ticket for the new-old 4-hour version of Petipa’s ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ where the box office insisted that there was no performance even as people were entering the theatre – subsequently explained by the fact that it was some kind of private event for a sponsor.

The first thing that strikes one about the internal aspect of the Mariinsky Theatre is that the common areas are unsuitable to modern demands; the foyer is tiny and sometimes accessed by only a single open door; and although there are areas to sit and food and drink to buy (surprisingly inexpensively – a glass of reasonably decent champagne and a smoked salmon sandwich was about £4), there is little space in comparison to the audience size. There are spectacular, great chandeliered rooms that ooze imperialism from the reflection of all that gilt; and souvenir stalls in every corridor but overall there’s an impression of decaying splendour, much in need of an overhaul.

The programmes are available in English and proudly denote in big golden letters that this is the company’s 225th season. 225 years of consecutive ballet – 122 of which have been in this theatre; that’s when the enormity of this culture kicks in. The Royal Ballet has recently celebrated its 75th year but when it was but a twinkle in the eye of Ninette de Valois, the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg was already about to celebrate 150 years! Looking around the gorgeous interior of the theatre, the past springs back to life –it’s easy to imagine the Tsarevich - the future Nicholas II - gazing down from the huge Royal box upon his beloved Kschessinska.

The second ballet company in St Petersburg is based at the Mussorgsky Theatre - formerly known as the Mikhailovsky and Maly Theatre, which is situated along one side of a square diagonally opposite the Russian Museum[5]. Both the theatre and the Mussorgsky Ballet underwent a significant renovation last summer (2007): the theatre’s extensive restoration has cost around $12 million (300 million rubles); and the ballet company is now under the direction of former Mariinsky Principal, Farukh Ruzimatov. His first season opened during my stay with a rousing ‘Don Quixote’, led by the Guest appearance of the Bolshoi’s Denis Matvienko. To celebrate the theatre’s reopening, a lavish pre-performance party was held in the square, complete with fiery flamenco dancers and the guest appearance of Don Q, Sancho Panza and their faithful donkey!

One by-product of the Mussorgsky’s renovation is a new ticketing policy – unlike the Mariinsky the discriminatory pricing where Russian citizens can buy cheaper tickets has been abolished: ID cards are no longer required at the door to prove entitlement to subsidised entry. Prices at the Mussorgsky range from 100 rubles (£2) up to 3,500 rubles (£70) but strict segregation now applies – buy a cheaper ticket and you’re not allowed into the elegant foyer and bars, and bouncers are on duty to make sure no-one sneaks in! By contrast, the cost of my foreigners’ tickets at the Mariinsky varied from 1,200 rubles (£24) for a front seat in the upper tier to 3,600 rubles (£72) for a central Orchestra stalls seat. Obviously, buying direct from the theatre will always be less expensive than buying from a third party.

There are a host of other theatres where ballet is regularly performed and I managed to get to see ‘Swan Lake’ at two of these, on successive nights. There is no denying that these performances are specifically designed to cater for the mass tourist market. The huge theatre of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, now named after Rimsky-Korsakov[6], which is located directly across the street from the Mariinsky, is part of the home of the first public school of music in Russia (inaugurated in 1862). Now it’s the group destination for every cruise ship and coach tour that arrives in the city, with a nightly audience consisting of blocks of holidaymakers on a day trip, shepherded by guides in anoraks holding aloft numbered paddles. I heard an American ask loudly if this was the home of the famous Russian ballet and being told, simply, “yes” by her guide. Unfortunately this was not a complete lie, since the site of the Rimsky-Korsakov is that of the old Bolshoi theatre which was the original home of the Imperial Ballet, before it moved across Theatre Street to the Mariinsky in 1885.

The Rimsky-Korsakov theatre is certainly looking threadbare which is not the case of The Hermitage Theatre[7], the oldest theatre in St Petersburg dating back to 1785. It was Catherine the Great’s personal theatre for eleven years until her death in 1796, after which all performances ceased for nearly 200 years! It’s a charming, tiny theatre, decorated profusely in marble and enamel, which provides the experience of watching ballet in the ballroom of a stately home.

Both performances of ‘Swan Lake’ were generally poor and the performance at the Rimsky-Korsakov bordered the farcical, with the late arrival of tour parties delaying the start for over 20 minutes; a particular problem when other tour parties are on a deadline to leave promptly to catch their cruise ship before it sails! The result was the fastest ‘Swan Lake’ I’ve ever heard, with national dances cut and NO pas de trois whatsoever! The saving grace was Odette/Odile who turned out to be an uncredited Mariinsky soloist, dancing a role – very well - that she is certain never to dance on her home stage. The Hermitage production was also not great but again their Odette/Odile (Natalia Potekhina) was a class above the rest of the dancers. On another night, I could have seen a (credited) Tatiana Tkachenko – another Mariinsky soloist. At 800 rubles (£16) the Rimsky-Korsakov was acceptably priced, even if only for the comedy value of an allegro Odette; the Hermitage has no numbered seats and every ticket is a cash-only 2,500 rubles (£50) – a lot of money, but a wonderful theatre that can’t be seen any other way.

I didn’t get to see a performance at the Musical Comedy Theatre (also known as the Palace Theatre) which is across the square from the Mussorgsky[8]- another venue that performs a continuing rota of ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Giselle’ and ‘The Sleeping Beauty’.

Finally, any trip to St Petersburg should include a pilgrimage to Mathilde Kschessinska’s mansion, an early twentieth century palace that was the prima ballerina’s home in the final years of her career at the Mariinsky. It was allegedly connected to the Winter Palace by a tunnel under the River Neva to allow secret love trysts between the ballerina and the Tsar, which - like the allegation that a fortune in Fabergé, furs and precious gems is hidden somewhere in the mansion – is a peculiar soviet myth designed to discredit the Tsar and the object of his pre-marital, juvenile crush.

Kschessinska’s home was requisitioned by the Bolsheviks and it was from a tiny balcony off her son’s bedroom that Lenin famously addressed the Russian people. Now, her former home is the Museum of the Political History of Russia[9] although one small room is devoted to the ballerina and her life. It’s a small – and rather lovely - shrine for the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg (although I found it incongruously decorated with various photos of abandoned Trabants and other old soviet cars) and, with the never-ending repetitive chords of the opening bars of ‘Swan Lake’ drifting through the mansion, Mala’s house was a very evocative spot to end this spiritual tour.

[1] 1 Teatralnaya Ploshchad – +7 812 326 4141 - www.mariinsky.spb.ru – nearest metro: Sennaya Ploshchad - but allow 25 minutes for the onward walk

[2] see October 2007 Ballet.co Magazine for review

[3] see November 2007 Ballet.co Magazine for review

[4] see November 2007 Ballet.co Magazine for review

[5] 1 Iskusstv Ploshchad – or Arts Square - +7 812 595 4284 - http://www.mikhailovsky.ru - nearest metro: Nevsky Prospekt then a short walk

[6] 3 Teatralnaya Ploshchad - +7 (812) 314-9693 - http://www.conservatory.ru – nearest metro: Sennaya Ploshchad - but allow 25 minutes for the onward walk

[7] 34 Dvortsoraya Naberezhnaya - +7 (812) 579-02-26 - http://rus-ballet.com/kontakt-1.htm - nearest metro: Nevsky Prospekt – but allow 15 minutes for the onward walk

[8] 13 Italyanskaya Utska (http://rus-ballet.com/static-komediy-1.htm )

[9] 2/4 Kuybysheva ul – Open 1000 – 1700 hours (closed on Thursdays) – nearest Metro: Gorkovskaya and then 5 minute walk – combine with a visit to the nearby Peter & Paul Fortress.