Mikhaylovsky Theatre
Encyclopedia
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
houses in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It was founded in 1833 and is situated in a historical building on the Arts Square in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. It is named after Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia was the tenth child and fourth son of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.-Marriage and issue:In St...
.
History
The theatre was established in 1833 by decree of Tsar Nicholas INicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
.
Before the 1917 Revolution the Mikhailovsky did not have its own company: performances were made either by a French company, hired by Russian Imperial Theatres, or at the end of the century by the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
and Alexandrinsky Theatre companies.
Most of great French actors were invited to stay at the theatre by the different emperors. So did Jeanne Sylvanie Arnould-Plessy
Jeanne Sylvanie Arnould-Plessy
Jeanne Sylvanie Arnould-Plessy was a French stage actress. The daughter of a local actor named Plessy, she was a pupil of Samson at the Conservatoire in 1829. Plessy made her debut as Emma at the Comédie-Française in 1834 in Alexandre Duval's La Fille d'honneur...
, Rachel Félix, Lucien Guitry
Lucien Guitry
Lucien Germain Guitry was a French actor.In 1885, while living in Saint Petersburg, he appeared at the French Theatre. His son, the future actor, writer and director Sacha Guitry, was born in Saint Petersburg and named in honour of Tsar Alexander III...
, or Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
, as well as singers (Hortense Schneider
Hortense Schneider
Hortense Catherine Schneider, La Snédèr, was a French soprano, one of the greatest operetta stars of the 19th century, particularly associated with the works of composer Jacques Offenbach.-Biography:...
). Classical and also contemporary authors were produced to great acclaim in French, like Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
, Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
, Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
or Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
and were praised by the intelligentsia and the Russian aristocraty, such as Tolstoy or Tchaikovsky.
When the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s took power, the French company was forced to leave Russia. Shortly after the Mikhailovsky changed its name to Maly Operny (Maly Opera Theatre). New management and artists followed. In 1920-1930 the Maly Operny established itself as one of the leading experimental stages in Russia, new musical theatre. Shostakovich made his debut at the Maly Operny, Samuil Samosud
Samuil Samosud
Samuil Abramovich Samosud |Georgia]], — Moscow, 6 November 1964) was a Russian conductor. He started his musical career on the cello, before conducting in the Mariinsky Theater, Petrograd in 1917. From 1918 to 1936 he conducted at the Maly Operny, Leningrad. In 1936 he became musical...
conducted world premiere performances of Shostakovich's The Nose
The Nose (opera)
The Nose is a satirical opera composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. The libretto by Shostakovich, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, and Alexander Preis is based on the story The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. The plot concerns a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own...
and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op.29. The libretto was written by Alexander Preis and the composer, and is based on the story Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is sometimes referred to informally as Lady Macbeth...
, the famous Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
production of The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
was staged there, the world premiere of Prokofiev's epic opera War and Peace
War and Peace (Prokofiev)
War and Peace is an opera in two parts , sometimes arranged as five acts, by Sergei Prokofiev to a Russian libretto by the composer and Mira Mendelson, based on the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...
took place on the theatre's stage on June 12, 1946.
From 1989 to 2007 the theatre bore the name of Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
, then it returned to the name Mikhaylovsky Theatre.
Recent developments
In 2007 the Russian businessman Vladimir Kekhman sensationally was appointed as a General Director of Theatre. Russian theatre is usually managed by an artistic person, there is no tradition to make clear difference between artistic and administrative management. Thus Kekhman's effort to build effective organisational structures at the Mikhailovsky received controversial reviews from the media. However, when Mr Kekhman donated 1bn roubles for renovation of the building and invited Elena ObraztsovaElena Obraztsova
Elena Vasiliyevna Obraztsova is a Russian mezzo-soprano, widely recognised as one of the greatest opera singers of all time, thanks to her outstanding stage presence and the vocal abilities....
and Farouk Ruzimatov
Farouk Ruzimatov
Farukh Ruzimatov is a ballet dancer, the Artistic Director for ballet in Mikhaylovsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg. He was formerly the Principal Dancer and Assistant Artistic Director of the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg....
to coordinate the artistic revival of the Mikhailovsky, public opinion changed drastically.
In 2007, Yelena Obraztsova was appointed Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Opera and Farouk Ruzimatov
Farouk Ruzimatov
Farukh Ruzimatov is a ballet dancer, the Artistic Director for ballet in Mikhaylovsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg. He was formerly the Principal Dancer and Assistant Artistic Director of the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg....
started his work as the Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet. As of 2009 both Obraztsova and Ruzimatov hold a seat in the Artistic Committee of the Theatre, while Peter Feranec
Peter Feranec
Peter Feranec is a Slovak conductor. In 1995, he became the first foreign-born, as well as the youngest, person to be appointed Chief Conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre. From 2007 to 2009, he was the Principal Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic...
is Music Director of the Theatre and Michael Messerer is Ballet Master in Chief.
The Mikhailovsky Ballet has made its London debut in July 2008 on the London Coliseum stage. The short season led to a nomination for the Best Foreign Dance Company Award at National Dance Awards 2008. Subsequently, NYCB has won the prize with a small lead.