Gergiev pointed out the importance of uniting the artists of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters.

The association of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, which has been operating for two years, expands the possibilities of the artists involved there, they can perform both in Moscow and in St. Petersburg. This was announced on March 28 by Valery Gergiev, Director General of cultural institutions.

"The directorate of the Imperial theaters, which once worked very successfully, allowed the best singers of that time, the best ballerinas, the legendary ones, to perform both there and there. We've been doing this for two years now, without really claiming any compliments," he said.

Illustrating this process using the example of the role of the Russian opera singer Ildar Abdrazakov, who plays a role in Boris Godunov, Gergiev asked a rhetorical question about the meaning of limiting this figure to performances in one of the cities if both Moscow and St. Petersburg audiences are equally happy to see him.

He added that theaters have rich resources. Thus, many productions return to the general repertoire, and only one Bolshoi Theater gives 12 premieres a year.

Very Big: the country's main theater celebrates its 250th anniversary

Fires, shelling, bombing, the proclamation of a new country and absolute world greatness

A day earlier, on the eve of its 250th anniversary, the Bolshoi Theatre presented Giuseppe Verdi's opera Othello to the audience. Izvestia correspondent Maxim Prikhoda, who covered the premiere, recalled that the building of the main Moscow theater remembers not only the grand dukes and emperors, but also the composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninov, as well as such artists as Fyodor Chaliapin and Maya Plisetskaya.

On March 24, Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, meeting with workers involved in the field of art, called domestic theaters one of the main pillars of the "soft power" of the Russian Federation. In her speech, she referred to the statement of the Russian theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky, who noted that the theater "not only entertains, but also ennobles a person."

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