The Nutcracker (Mariinsky - 2007)

2007 Mariinsky Theater production of The Nutcracker. We pay homage to Tchaikovsky by specifically presenting the Mariinsky Ballet dancing The Nutcracker.

There are many very fine productions of The Nutcracker and each year we will present a different version. Enjoy the variety!

Valery Gergiev is the current artistic director of both the Mariinsky Theater and the Bolshoi Theater, the first person to hold both titles simultaneously. He has been the conductor of the Mariinsky Theater since 1988 and artistic director since 1991. In 2005 he became the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (he resigned that position in 2015). Gergiev is most closely associated with the Mariinsky Theater for opera, ballet and orchstral works.

In 2007 he was invited by Henry Segerstrom to open the OCPAC Segertrom Hall. Under his baton and guidance the collective Mariinsky artists performed the ballets, "Raymonda" and "Romeo and Juliet", the operas, "Boris Godunov" and the Wagner "Ring Cycle". Your humble servant was among the attendees for the "Ring Cycle".

In recent years Gergiev has had engagements cancelled due to his close alliance with Putin and a refusal to denounce Putin's activities against the Ukraine.

The Mariinsky Theater was built in 1860 under the sponsorship of Tsarevna Maria Alexandrovna. The Mariinsky hosts the opera company, the ballet company and the symphony orchstra. During the Soviet era, the venue was renamed the Kirov Theater just as St. Petersburg itself was renamed to Leningrad. After the fall of the Soviet Union pre-Soviet names all over the country were restored.