Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet

Friday I left work at about 5:30 so that I could go to the Mariinsky Theater to see the ballet Romeo and Juliet. As the Mariinsky Ballet, or Kirov Ballet, as they are generally called outside of Russia, is apparently one of the greatest and most important companies in the world, I figured this was something I needed to do while in St. Petersburg. I thought leaving at 5:30 would give me plenty of time. An hour later I was less than halfway to the theater because of a series of things. First, the bus didn't come for about twenty minutes. Then, after going two stops, the driver announced that the bus I was on was not going to be completing the route, but was stopping at Moskovskiy Voksal, which was only a couple stops away, so I had to get off and wait for another bus to come. Then the traffic was insane because streets were closed all over the place. I watched the minutes tick by, and when the clock hit 6:35 and we still had twenty or thirty minutes to go had traffic been normal, I jumped off the second bus and started to run. The bus route to the theater is not that direct, so I figured with the bus stuck in traffic and me being able to walk a more direct route to the theater I had a chance. Unfortunately I wasn't really dressed for running (shirt and tie, dress pants, and dress shoes). After running several blocks in church shoes I figured I wasn't going to be able to keep up a run the whole way, and my bruised rib was kind of throbbing, so I slowed to a really fast walk. I got to the theater, very sweaty, at 6:59. Good thing. My ticket was really expensive and I did not want to be shut out. It took a little while for me to get comfortable, given my sweaty, tired condition (also because I was sitting on an uncomfortable wooden chair), but by the end of the first act I felt pretty good.

If you want to listen to some music while you read the rest of this post, here's a link to the music from the ballet that was the most familiar to me. I didn't expect to know any of the music, so I was happy to find that I did. I really like the way it starts. It will get kind of loud at first, but don't turn down the volume too much because it gets quiet very suddenly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LSxpxjMQ9c
Juliet was danced by Alina Somova and Romeo by Andrian Fadeyev. Since I know almost nothing about ballet I couldn't really be much of a judge, but they looked pretty good to me! Here's kind of an interesting review I read afterwards about Alina Somova. The audience loved it. The clapping went on for FOREVER. One of the things that I noticed in Lithuania, and which apparently also happens here, is that within about ten seconds of beginning to clap everyone starts clapping in unison, so instead of a general noise, people are clapping out a definite beat. I think it's kind of an interesting cultural thing.

The theater itself was very nice too.

After I got tired of clapping I went over to a place where I could get this picture of the hall. You can't quite see my seat in this picture. I was just to the left of the royal box, in the first balcony. It was a really good seat.


I was in a really good mood afterwards, and when I came out of the theater, at about 11:00 pm, it was such a beautiful night I decided to walk all the way home. I ended up taking a ton of pictures on the way. I'm going to share just enough of them so you can imagine what my walk home looked like. It was pretty nice.

The view up the Moika Canal to St. Isaac's Cathedral

The Mariinskiy Palace

A view of the Admiralty

A rollerblading gang in palace square. People here rollerblade all the time, it seems, but this was the first gang of rollerbladers I had come across.

A view of palace square

Art students

Church of the Savior on Blood

By the time I took this last picture I was almost home and it was almost midnight. As I was walking up to this spot I noticed a familiar looking man looking at me. We both looked at each other a couple times, and as I was taking this picture he came and stood next to me to take a picture too. I realized it was Brother Kosak. He's from Germany and was the coordinator for the church seminary and institute programs in the Baltics and some other parts of Eastern Europe while I was on my mission. I had met him several times when he was in Lithuania. He had thought I looked familiar, and he and his wife, who was with him, thought I looked like a member of the church, probably because I was wearing a white shirt and tie and had a backpack on. Not many people over here are sporting that look. It was fun to talk to him for a little while. He's now the head of seminary and institute for all of the Europe East Area, so he lives in Moscow now, and he informed me that there is an Institute building in St. Petersburg, not far from my apartment. I don't know why I haven't been able to find this out from people at church that I've talked to, but I'm excited to start participating in Institute. It will be a great way to meet some people that I can start doing things with, practicing my Russian with, and will provide me with a support network, which is always nice. It was a great way to end of the day. I went to bed feeling very happy.