Noilly Prattle: Europe Summer 2017: Russia 7

September 15

THE CITY

the Neva River

Winter Palace - Hermitage

St. Petersburg, located at the western end of Russia, is a port city situated on the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Finland, about four hours by high speed train, northwest of Moscow. It is the second largest city in Russia with a population of some 5 million inhabitants. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 and bears his name today. St. Petersburg, like Amsterdam and Venice has many waterways and canals running around it and through it, most notably the broad Neva River. The city has undergone a couple of name changes in its history: in 1914 after the Bolshevik revolution St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd, and in 1924 renamed Leningrad in honor of Vladimir Lenin, and back to St. Petersburg after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1703 after an assassination attempt in the Kremlin left him fearful of staying in Moscow.
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Palace Square - General Staff Building

Palace Square - Winter Palace

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St. Isaac's Cathedral

Mikhailovsky Theater

After two days basically wasted acquiring the cash to pay the rent on our apartment, and although I was still somewhat under the weather, we began to explore St. Petersburg and its transportation system, metro, local buses, the location of various theaters we planned to attend, etc. We made our first exploration of the Winter Palace and Neva River area and made our way to the Mikhailovsky Theater to buy tickets for a Sunday night performance of Mozart's opera “The Marriage of Figaro”.

Mikhailovsky Garden - Russian Museum

Palace Square - the Admiralty

Equestrian Statue of Peter the Great

Cinderfella

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Kazan Cathedral - designed on the plan of Belini's Vatican portico in Rome
Kazan Cathedral is the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg

THE BALLET

We already had tickets bought on line for our first ballet. In the evening I felt well enough and we walked to the Mariinsky II Theater for the ballet Le Corsaire (The Pirate).

Mariinsky II - photo by Александров (Alexandrov)

Mariinsky II - lobby

The Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg is internationally famous for its ballet performances. That fame is more than justified in my opinion. A word about the theater itself. The Mariinsky II Theater opened in May 2013. The new building is a modern design with a sumptuously appointed interior right next door to the old 18^th Century Mariinsky Theater.

Mariinsky II - auditorium

The dancers in Le Corsaire were nearly flawless and the male dancer playing Birbanto, the leader of a mutiny aganinst Conrad, the pirate leader, stood out as a supremely accomplished dancer. Although not the title role, he justifiably got the biggest round of applause, even more than the prima ballerina, playing Medora, a slave girl, who was also superb. The performance was magical and fully lived up to our expectations of Russian ballet.