Your intrepid reporter gets jazzy

Although St.Petersburg is renowned for it’s opera, ballet and architecture, it also has a strong literary culture and with that goes the intellectual stimulus of jazz. The Hat Bar, which is conveniently just around the corner from where I live, is a cool dive with young musicians queuing up to play each evening. There’s also the chance of a jazz superstar coming along to jam after a concert elsewhere in the city. The trick is to get a seat, which really means arriving before 10:30pm. The venue is square shaped,with a three sided bar to the rear and the stage upfront. Limited snacks are available-but they do know how to make decent cocktails (I always order a Negroni here) and have a good selection of Russian draft and bottled beers. It’s a hang out dive, so not expensive, and usually open until 4-5am.

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Ivan the Terrible contemplates whether he should chop off the head of the Pskov High Priest.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Maid of Pskov” – a tale featured the doomed Princess Olga (death by cannon) and Ivan the Terrible at the Mariinsky. More choral than arias, but an impressive set and costumes, plus horses on stage made for an entertaining evening. In Italian operas, everyone falls in love, in Russian ones, they all die. Except Ivan, who lived on, grief struck. Par for the course?

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The hapless fish merchant Mendoza, wooing the woman he thinks is the rich and beautiful Louisa. Actually she’s Louisa’s poor, ugly yet very savvy Nanny

Everything about this has a joke, including the title, in Prokofiev’s romantic opera, composed between 1940-46 and completed in Almaty, Kazakstan. It’s a nod to the Italian influence on Russian opera, with the plot involving Don Jerome, who intends his daughter Louisa to marry the vain, wealthy and ugly fish merchant Mendoza. However, she loves instead Antonio, who is poor, though noble in spirit. Furthermore, Don Ferdinand, son of Don Jerome and prone to fits of jealousy, wants to marry Clara d’Almanza, who is a virtual prisoner of her stepmother. It’s the Italian classic story of being married off for financial gain rather than for true love.

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The Snow Maiden Opera. This is a 25 foot tall Rooster welcoming in the Chinese New Year. It flapped its wings

It was a truly nutcase “Snow Maiden” at the Mariinsky last night, Rimsky-Korsakov’s operatic masterpiece of returning spring, reimagined via copius amounts of LSD in a surreal world of fairy tale meets Sacre Du Printemps via liberal helpings of marijuana. What were the set designers on? Shades of Chinese New Year as well as our heroine eventually melts and the sun is free to shine and usher in a very late spring. Madcap, but fun.

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Tonis Magi

They say everyone has a double, and I seem to have found mine. Having grown my hair and beard long, I have come to resemble an Estonian rock star. The hair and beard growing is down to three things actually, early morning laziness, the winter cold, and just because I can.

Anyway, my doppelganger is Tonis Magi, a popular rock singer from Estonia. Some of these photos are of me, some of him. I know where’s he’s been, too, because certain bar staff and hotel managers have been saying “Good to see you again!” at places I’ve never been before.

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Sadko and his band of travelling merchants en route to Venice.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s fairy tale opera “Sadko” at the Mariinsky last night. Telling the tale of Sadko, a down beat Minstrel who is bewitched by the Sea Princess, forgets his wife and goes on adventures to find his fortune. After 12 years away and becoming rich, he is summoned to marry the Sea Princess under the waves, and nearly does so before Neptune intervenes – after all, Sadko is married. The Princess is turned into the River Volkova as punishment and Sadko wakes up on a lonely beach, only to find his broken-hearted wife searching for him. He thinks its all a dream until he finds his crew have safely returned and he is now the richest merchant in Novgorod. Moral: Try for your dreams.

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Khan Konchak (Sergei Aleksashkin), Konchakovna (Olga Borodina), Prince Vladimir Igorevich (Yevgeny Akimov) & Prince Igor (Alexander Morozov)

I love going to the opera at the Mariinsky but especially so in the winter. The evenings are -25, snowy,dark and ice-covered, yet the bright lights and warmth of the audiences at the opera provide a way out of the deep winters gloom. Russian composers knew this, and would create spectacular, long pieces to best illustrate their adapations of Russian stories. Many last for over three hours, with the intermissions being a chance to catch up with friends, drink vodka, champagne and enjoy caviar, which can still be done in the Mariinsky today.

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Eugene (Konstantin Zverev) looks down at the flooded Neva

Gliere’s ballet “The Bronze Horseman” was revived at the Mariinsky last night. A Pushkin tale of how Peter the Great built St.Petersburg, and of the real flood in 1824 that destroyed large parts of the city. It is centred around the statue built by Falconet and sited in Senate Square. The plinth incidentally, in the largest rock ever moved into position by humans. The ballet,for which Gliere wrote the music in 1948, is a three hour extravaganza with awesome dancing, effects, and stage sets. It really is a Petersburg ballet, with local legends stating that if the statue is removed, St.Petersburg will fall. Since the city underwent tremendous stresses over the centures, the legend has remained true.

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The Soviet era Opera “Kai & Gerda”, based on the story of the Snow Queen  by Hans Christian Andersen has been revived in Russia recently, with both the Bolshoi and Mariinsky featuring revivals. The opera was originally premiered at the Mariinsky (then known as the Kirov) on Christmas Eve 1980; the performance I saw is the third production, with significant improvements available in terms of costumes, sets and technologies that were not conceivable 40 years ago.

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As is my tradition, I spend New Years Eve and the Orthodox Christmas (January 7th) is Russia, usually at my St. Petersburg apartment. The Russians celebrate New Year with enthusiasm just as everyone else does, and unless I get my annual share of winter snow, icy temperatures and that feeling of Christmas spirit at this time, I don’t feel quite right for the next twelve months. A cold traditional Christmas has become rather more than an annual celebratory event, it has become a necessity.

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