First Winter International St. Petersburg Theatre Festival
November 14 - 29 2013 St.Petersburg, Mikhaylovsky Theatre, Maly Drama Theatre - Theatre de l'Europe, Komissarjevsky Theatre, St. Petersburg State Youth Theatre on Fontanka, Lensoviet Academic Theatre, Baltic House Festival Theatre, Aurora Cinema |
In the second half of November during the Winter International St. Petersburg Theatre Festival a wide palette of modern European drama theatre was presented on the Neva shores. The programme of the festival included the productions by Peter Brook, Luc Bondy, Toni Servillo, Luk Perceval and Thomas Ostermeier. As a tribute to Piotr Fomenko his brilliant production of Family Happiness was shown during the festival. Finally, a series of legendary European productions of the XX century was broadcasted in Aurora Cinema. The Festival was organized by the Government of St. Petersburg and it was held for the first time. The Art Director of the festival was Lev Dodin, the legendary director of the Maly Drama Theatre.
The Festival was opened with the concert of the brilliant piano duo of Labèque sisters, who are famous for their ability to breathe modernity into the grand classical music. This musical prelude revealed the very essence of the festival where the outstanding directors harmoniously combining classics and contemporaneity in their works were presented.
On November, 15th and 16th the festival was continued with the premiere in Russia – the production of Magic Flute by Bouffes du Nord (Paris), the great opera by Mozart adapted by Peter Brook. Thomas Ostermeier and Schaubuhne (Berlin) presented Death in Venice/Kindertotenlieder, their recent premiere that skillfully combines the novella by Thomas Mann with the vocal cycle “Kindertotenlieder” by Gustav Mahler (November,16th and 17th, first performance in Russia).
Family Happiness, a breathtaking production by the outstanding Russian master Piotr Fomenko, was performed on November, 24th. Thalia Theater Hamburg presented Every Man Dies Alone, a stage adaptation of one of the strongest anti-fascist novels of the XX century by Hans Fallada. Its director Luk Perceval ponders over the problem of personal choice in a totalitarian society (November, 26th and 27th, first performance in Russia).
Happy Days of Aranjuez, the production of Burgtheater Vienna by Luc Bondy, according to the play by Peter Handke, is called “the summarizing of the results of the century of sexual revolution”. This filigree story about elusive and devastating love was splendidly played by two great actors (November, 26th and 27th). The Festival was closed with the Russian premiere of Piccolo Teatro (Milan). Toni Servillo, an idol of the Italian public, film actor and director, presented the Inner Voices, the play by Eduardo De Filippo that has never been performed in Russia before, where he himself was starring in the main role.