Rhinestones in concrete

The Mariinsky Theater invited journalists to the second stage building for an acoustic rehearsal: the technical equipment of one of the most expensive opera halls in the world is offset by the modesty of the interiors.

Representatives of the developer and management of the Mariinsky Theater spoke about the wonders of technology and engineering that are hidden behind the facades of the new stage, about its fabulously beautiful interiors immediately after the scaffolding was removed from the building and St. Petersburg residents fell into shock at the sight of it. The wonders of technology are undoubtedly present, although hidden from the eyes of visitors. The interiors are rather striking in their modesty and minimalism, and judging by this, not the first rehearsal, the acoustics still have to be worked on.

Behind the yellow wall

The main entrance to the second stage of the Mariinsky Theater - through glass doors - is located on the corner of the Kryukov Canal and Dekabristov Street. Next is a vestibule with metal detector frames. The first thing that catches your eye in the lobby, and then in the main foyer, is a huge number of stairs with steps made of glass or stone: they run along the front facade from Dekabristov Street, twist in spirals in the corner part of the foyer - you can climb the stairs from the first floors to the exit to the roof. The theater is also equipped with a large number of elevators that can lift spectators to any of the ten floors - seven above ground and three underground. There is even one small escalator from the first floor to the second. But the elevators and escalators are still closed: the theater is still on the balance sheet of the North-Western Directorate, which continues finishing work.

Besides the staircases, the two main attractions, the two main decorations of the foyer, are the outer wall of the auditorium, lined with plates of yellow onyx, and the Swarovski rhinestone pendants that thread down from the ceiling. Onyx is truly stunning - warm in color with velvety dark veining. If you come closer to the wall and look into the gap between the plates, you can see behind them a dense network of wires, pipes and other communications - thanks to the illumination from the inside, the onyx shines like a quiet autumn sun. You can imagine how advantageous this design element looks on dark autumn and winter evenings - there is a cobalt twilight outside the windows, and the stone illuminated from within shines through the glass façade wall.

But if you don’t illuminate the onyx from the inside, then the reflections of the gray northern sky (remember: this is the northern wall of the facade), the shadow of a dark gray building standing across the road, the reflection of concrete walls on the polished stone extinguish its internal light and make it look like yellow plastic. In addition, the cladding resembles the famous precious baldric of the musketeer Porthos - magnificent only on one visible side: this is the only bright and eye-warming element, all other interiors are sparse in color, the walls are sadly smooth. Onyx unexpectedly appears in one of the service buffets: a fragment of a wall made of onyx, apparently saved for the rest of the interiors, suddenly appears above the bar counter.

Swarovski rhinestones are strictly dosed: they decorate the main foyer - threads of rhinestones hang here from the ceiling at a fairly decent height. A garland decorates the VIP box in the hall. That's all.

The two-thousand-seat auditorium looks compact and modern: modest chairs upholstered in light gray loose fabric and solid wood make it look not only like a Finnish sauna, but also like hundreds of similar halls around the world - faceless and absolutely functional.

According to engineers, the acoustics in this hall are ideal. True, the half-hour concert, conducted by Valery Gergiev, made a mixed impression. The voices of individual soloists - for example, bass Gennady Bezzubenkov as Ivan Khovansky, bass-baritone Evgeniy Nikitin as Shaklovity - were heard from almost anywhere in the hall. But when Ekaterina Semenchuk appeared on stage as Olga Larina from the opera Eugene Onegin, the audience in the last ten rows of the amphitheater only partially heard the singing and almost did not hear the words.

But when Gergiev motioned for the soloist to move to the back of the stage, her voice sounded deep and her words became clear.

The group of strings sounded great in the fragment of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, but the winds played a cruel joke on the choir and soloists: they actually drowned out not only Andrei Zorin's tenor, but even the entire choir from Verdi's Requiem.

In general, in order for the acoustics in the hall to truly become impeccable, Valery Gergiev still has a lot of work to do: it is no longer possible to radically change the structural elements, so the orchestra and performers will have to adapt to the characteristics of the hall, working out each mise-en-scène.

Any comfort for our money

The comfort in the hall and the wonders of engineering are a source of special pride for the management of the Mariinsky Theater and the authors of the project. Special ventilation, air conditioning and dust removal systems will allow you to constantly refresh and clean the air in the hall, while the noise from operating mechanisms, as the designers promise, will not interfere with listening to music.

The stage, 80 meters deep, will allow several performances to be staged simultaneously. Previous breaks between productions, when the scenery and machinery for the next performance required several days of preparation, as for Prokofiev's War and Peace, will become a thing of the past. There will no longer be huge intermissions between acts in Wagner’s Nibelungen, which caused the performance to drag on for such a long time that the audience left without finishing the opera in order to catch the metro.

But the transport nightmare - from which the designers and management of the theater promised to save spectators - will remain and, perhaps, even increase. Because instead of the initially planned 200 parking spaces, there are only 93 left in the underground parking lot - not enough even for the cars of theater employees and leading soloists. After all, Gergiev had already had to hire an additional thousand specialists to service the new stage. Not to mention the musicians, ballet dancers, and singers who continue to be recruited! There are no additional outdoor parking areas for private cars and buses on the surrounding streets. So, most likely, the square in front of the theater and the surrounding streets after the performances will resemble Khodynka, when thousands of people almost simultaneously leave the hall and office premises.

Answering questions from journalists about how he felt about the acutely negative reaction of townspeople to the poor appearance of the Mariinsky 2, Valery Gergiev shrugged it off: “I think about Mussorgsky and Prokofiev, but I don’t think about that!” Commenting on the proposal of some radical opponents of the second stage of the Mariinsky Theater to dismantle the remake that has crippled the historical center of St. Petersburg, Valery Abisalovich replied with pathos: “Only those who, apparently, are accustomed to throwing away large budgets, can say this, and I am a supporter of small budgets.”

We remind you: if back in December 2012 the final amount was called 21.6 billion rubles, now the developer is officially talking about 22 billion. This is more than 720 million dollars. And the theater’s required budget for maintaining a gigantic staff and maintaining the operation of all systems will now have to be increased to at least 4 billion rubles a year. It is difficult to say yet how much of the funds it needs the theater will earn itself. It is obvious that, opening a new stage of the theater for the beginning of the high tourist season, for the white nights and, of course, for his 60th anniversary, Valery Gergiev reasonably expects high attendance figures and income for the theater. But whether tickets to all three Mariinsky venues will be sold out just as easily in the next six months, when there are few tourists in the city, is unknown.