ST. PETERSBURG, April 16 (Itar-Tass) - The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg will hire two thousand new creative workers and technical staff after its second stage opens on May 2, Valery Gergiyev, the theatre’s artistic director, told journalists on Tuesday. Gergiyev talked to journalists after the first acoustic rehearsal held in the new building’s main hall. After that he personally took the guests on a tour of the new building located on an area of 80,000 square meters.
The Mariinsky Theatre (popularly known as Mariinka) has been hiring new employees for the third month. Mariinka’s orchestras will have 70 new musicians. Musicians from Germany, Italy, Japan, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan are applying for new jobs alongside with the Russians. All the newly-hired musicians will have a probation period to prove their right to present the famous troupe.
Gergiyev said that in future they would invite the winner of prestigious contests to the Mariinka’s orchestra in a bid to raise the performance level.
Maestro Gergiyev believes that the Mariinsky Theatre has received one of the best theatrical buildings in the world and it’s a matter of honor and principle for its collective to prove that they are worthy of such a gift.
The interior decorated with leopard-toned onyx is a matter of special pride. The natural design on the panels produces a fanciful effect perceived as a separate work of art. The new building certainly has its opponents who even claim that it should be dismantled. However, Gergiyev said that he wouldn’t enter into polemics. He noticed that architecture was a sophisticiated thing and laymen should not think of themselves better than of the architect. He also criticized the activists who demand the dismantling of the building for not being objective and ignoring the opinion of those who support the project.
In the meanwhile, Maestro Valery Gergiyev, a symphony orchestra, a choir and leading opera soloists Yevgeny Nikitin, Yekaterina Semenchuk and Yevgeniya Akimova on Tuesday took part in a sixty-minute acoustic test in the hall of the theatre’s new building. Gergiyev described the sound of voices and musical instruments as live acoustics.
He has recently returned from Argentina where he gave a symphony concert at Teatro Colon, the main opera house in Buenos Aires. Teatro Colon is renowned renowned for its acoustics. Gergiyev believes that the acoustics of Mariinka’s second stage could be compared to that famous hall - the pride of Argentina. Eleven meters beneath the stage and the stage going down 80 meters also contribute to good sound just like the position of musicians in the pit, which can change its configuration.
The main hall decorated with wooden panels is capable of accommodating up to 2,000 people. The new building can also boast three chamber halls for 120 and 130 people where concert life will also thrive. Great attention will be paid to attracting students and schoolchildren to the theatre on a daily basis.
"We did not invent a bicycle and tried to use the latest achievements that have appeared in the equipment of music halls over the past ten years,” Gergiyev said. He also made use of his own professional experience accumulated during trips to China, the Netherlands and Japan where he had been invited to open new opera houses.
The second stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will open on May 2. The opening ceremony will be preceded by a gala concert to be attended by veterans of the theatre and museums and also the older generation of St. Petersburg’s creative intelligentsia.