SAINT-PETERSBURG: Russia's famous Mariinsky theatre in Saint Petersburg inaugurated a new ballet and opera house on Thursday in a gala ceremony attended by a glittering array of celebrities including President Vladimir Putin and singer Placido Domingo.
In his opening speech, Putin paid tribute to the "boundless energy" of the theatre's hugely ambitious and well-connected director Valery Gergiev, celebrating his 60th birthday.
"The most important thing is that we have here everything you need for a theatre, the most up-to-date technology," added Putin, after some had criticised the architecture and cost of the new opera house.
Putin, who on May Day gave Gergiev one of five prestigious Hero of Labour medals in a revival of a Soviet tradition, lavished the conductor with praise.
The director "has succeeded not only in preserving the traditions of the Russian opera and ballet but has also created the conditions for them to develop," gushed Putin.
In a birthday message earlier Thursday, he hailed Gergiev as "one of the outstanding musicians of our time."
For the gala opening, Spanish singer Domingo was expected to perform alongside stars from the world's opera and ballet scene, including Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, whose early career at the Mariinsky catapulted her to international stardom.
Among the ballet dancers performing will be the supreme Russian ballerina of modern times, Ulyana Lopatkina, and the much-admired Diana Vishneva, in a gala that the theatre clearly hopes will outdo the reopening of Moscow's Bolshoi in October 2011 after a major refit.
The event, which is being broadcast live on Russian state television, kicks off a series of lavish events later in the week.
The new theatre lies just behind the historic Mariinsky Theatre, which was founded in the 18th century and was the birthplace of ballets like Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" and Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet".
The theatre is the centrepiece of Gergiev's vision of making Saint Petersburg an international capital for music, which has already seen the creation of a brand new Mariinsky concert hall nearby.
The building, completed by Canadian firm Diamond and Schmitt Associates for a total of 21.6 billion rubles ($700 million), had come under criticism from some prominent cultural figures like Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky and filmmaker Alexander Sokurov.
But Gergiev told people to reserve judgement until they see the interior.
"The answer to why we built (this) will be apparent when you enter the theatre," he said as he showed off the vast modern space to journalists Thursday.
He said he picked the architects because they had just completed the opera house in Toronto.
"We never had a space with such outstanding acoustics (in Russia)," he said. "I think that now we have one of the best modern opera theatres in the world."
The contemporary white space of the theatre with a magnificent view of Saint Petersburg through large windows is markedly different from the baroque surroundings of the main Mariinsky building.
The centrepiece of the cavernous hall is a honey-coloured onyx wall, while the classically shaped main auditorium is lined with blond wood.
Gergiev, currently also chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, openly acknowledged that none of the plans would have been possible without the support of strongman Putin, whom he has publicly praised for restoring stability in Russia.
"Performances and concerts... allow people to feel what joy it is to live on this earth, what joy to live in Russia, to live today in a stable country, a country that is wealthy, first and foremost with human talent," Gergiev said Wednesday at his medal reception.
<Center><b><i>Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2013</b></i></center>
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