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Events, May 21, 2009 - July 19, 2009

XVII International Festival Stars of the White Nights

The Stars of the White Nights is one of the capital cities on the world´s music and theatre map and has emerged to be one of the most popular and grandiose music forums in terms of content and scale.

The Stars of the White Nights was founded in 1993 by Valery Gergiev, Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre. The Maestro has stated that he saw the first festival as as a "musical gift" to the city from the Mariinsky Theatre and the soloists who agreed to take part. Since its very inception, the Festival has focussed on masterpieces of world music, some rarely performed or undeservedly forgotten.

The Stars of the White Nights Festival has gained in strength, popularity and critical acclaim. Over the sixteen years since it was founded, it has expanded from ten days to three months. Renowned conductors and soloists consider it a great honour to perform at the Stars of the White Nights. Each year the Festival programme includes the Theatre´s finest opera and ballet productions, great symphonic works, masterpieces of chamber music and new premieres. In recent years the Festival playbill has included series of works by the great classical composers – such as symphonies by Prokofiev and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky´s operas, ballets and symphony music. Major events at the Stars have included a staging of Wagner´s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, as well as the All Shostakovich Symphonies and All Mahler Symphonies series. Each year the Mariinsky Theatre pushes back the Festival´s borders, appearing in Moscow and towns in the North-West Region, in addition to creating open air productions in natural settings.

Event source: Mariinsky Theatre

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