MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has opened up its 242nd season with Boris Godunov, and Swan Lake is slated for the weekend, the theater administration said at its traditional troupe meeting.

"Overall, we intend to put on over 10 new productions, including the ballet Nureyev," Director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin told TASS.

All dates for the premiers have been set. According to Urin, among the first, on September 24, a children’s opera by French composer Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals, and Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, directed by Alexey Frandetti, and conducted by Anton Grishamin will be shown.

Next, theater-goers will have an opportunity to see The Maid of Pskov by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, conducted by music director and chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, Tugan Sokhiev.

On the new stage, the premier will take place in October 18 with Handel’s Alcina, directed by one of the best contemporary opera directors Kathy Mitchell, said Urin. The performance will be a joint project with the International Opera Festival in Aix-en-Provence.

Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades is slated for February 15, 2018, which will be directed by Rimas Tuminas, the head of the Vakhtangov Theater.

Verdi’s Masked Ball will take the stage on April 20, directed by Davide Livermore, with the season being wrapped up by Puccini’s Le Boheme, put together by a young artistic team from France.

The entire 2017-18 seasonal program of the Bolshoi’s ballet troupe will be devoted to Marius Petipa's 200th birthday. A gala concert in his honor will take place on May 31 and June 1, on the historic stage.

Ballet aficionados can look forward to the classics in a new interpretation, such as the return of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Alexey Ratmansky and Anna Karenina, directed by John Neumeier.

As far as the Nureyev ballet is concerned, Urin said that he is waiting for permission to meet with director Kirill Serebrennikov, so that he can decide on how to go about rehearsing the production, that was postponed from last season.

Serebrennikov is currently under house arrest, pending an investigation on financial mismanagement. His Nureyev production was delayed this spring, because the Bolshoi administration said the choreography was not ready.

"I want to talk to Kirill Serebrennikov about the possibility of having a premier this season without him present, " Urin said, explaining that he spoke with Nureyev choreographer Yuri Posokhov, who is prepared to work on the premiere by himself, by they still need Serebrennikov’s go-ahead for it.

"As soon as the theater has information on this matter, the media will be immediately notified," Urin promised.

The Bolshoi also has plans for the season’s special events, for example, a concert on the last day of the FIFA World Cup Championship.

Another fascinating project will take place on November 5, in honor of the 1917 Soviet Revolution, titled Hammer and Sickle, which will feature Beethoven, Liszt and Isaac Dunaevsky, Urin specified.

And at the end of September, the legendary theater will celebrate 100th birthday of Yuri Lyubimov, with three showings of Prince Igor, which was the last production Lyubimov staged, before his death in 2014. On September 30th, the Bolshoi will hold an evening event in honor of the late director, with an award ceremony named after him.

As always, the Bolshoi theater has a full tour schedule which includes Beijing and Seoul, to name a few, as well as a full visitor performance dance card - among them the Sofia Opera.

Also, throughout the entire fall, the Bolshoi will lend its stage to the contemporary dance festival, Dance Inversion.