Valery Gergiev expands his empire

Valery Gergiev expands his empire

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norman lebrecht

June 07, 2019

The head of the Mariinsky theatres in St Petersburg and Vladivostok has signed a cooperation agreement with the Acting Governor of the Sakhalin Region, Valery Limarenko.

This gives Gergiev’s Mariinsky empire exclusive rights to a new theatre complex on Sakhalin Island.

 

Comments

  • Don Ciccio says:

    The Munich Philharmonic better start negotiating with Manfred Honeck. Fast.

  • esfir ross says:

    Wonderful news. VG ‘ll bring cultural high level life to the region. Read Anton Chekhov about Sakhalin island.

  • MusicBear88 says:

    Before I started to abhor Gergiev’s political stance, I always wanted to be excited by his conducting, except I never actually was. He manages to get the full score of Nutcracker onto one CD, and a lot of the playing is driven so fast as to become slapdash. I think that what reads to an audience as “excitement” is actually “panic” to the orchestra…

    • Nik says:

      Most of the time I’ve seen him he’s been obviously unprepared and looked like he was being dragged along by the orchestra rather than leading it.
      In March I saw his Khovanshchina in Milan, a new production of what should be his core repertoire. He spent most of the evening battling to keep everyone together and on several occasions lost the fight in spectacular fashion. There was no hint of the richness and subtlety of this wonderful music, as I remember it from Abbado.

    • Ned Keene says:

      Of what atrocities do you believe Gergiev is guilty? What is it that you ‘abhor’? Please try to be specific in your reply. If you are able to reply, of course?

  • Ned Keene says:

    Good news for opera-loving oil drillers, and seabirds, I suppose.

  • PHF says:

    Politics as usual…

  • Petros Linardos says:

    New theater complex at Sakhalin of all places? That’s the kind of news that makes us look up info online.

    The island’s population is about 500,000, in an area approximately of 72,492 km2, i.e. about the size of Belgium and the Netherlands combined. More important, “following the collapse of the Soviet Union and economic liberalization, Sakhalin has experienced an oil boom with extensive petroleum exploration and mining by most large oil multinational corporations.” (Wikipedia)

    • Ned Keene says:

      There is a large population of American citizens working there – almost entirely high-end specialist oil industry staff.

  • The extension of the “Mariinsky” brand to Vladivostok and now Sakhalin has to do with fostering tourism from nearby Japan, Korea and China. Any Gergiev earnings are chump change. Sadly the “Primorsky” name, with its own rich history, is subsumed in the process.

  • Karmadon says:

    Not correct information on Gergiev this time: the agreement is about a concert tour of Mariinsky to Sakhalin island. No plans for a new opera house.

  • Ned Keene says:

    In other reports, the Regional Governor of one of Russia’s most remote and under-developed offshore regions announces a collaboration that will bring the best of the world-famous Mariinsky Theatre’s work to people at the other end of the country who pay their taxes too, and deserve a slice of the cake.

  • Nik says:

    Do his hands flutter when he signs a contract?

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