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The Mikhailovsky’s traditional winter tour of Japan is now in its thirtieth year, and Japanese theatregoers grant each performance a warm welcome. The group played to sold-out houses, even in a 5,000-seat hall at the Tokyo International Forum.
The guest performances opened on 3 December with a concert by the theatre’s chamber orchestra. The special holiday programme featured music by Mozart, Vivaldi, Schubert, Handel and Tchaikovsky. The theatre’s large symphony orchestra performed a Christmas concert, and on 28 December performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which has become a permanent fixture in the holiday tour of Japan. Both the chamber and symphony orchestras’ concerts featured the theatre’s leading opera soloists: Marina Tregubovich, Svetlana Moskalenko, Dmitry Karpov and Nikolay Kopylov.
The ballet company presented the Japanese public with many surprises: the first was their performance of Farukh Ruzimatov’s version of the ballet Le Corsaire, in which Ruzimatov himself debuted in the role of Conrad. Leonid Sarafanov made his first appearance in Japan as the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s lead dancer. The audience enthusiastically greeted the performers, especially in Osaka, a city famously in love with ballet. The company’s tour opened with a gala-concert that featured excerpts from classical ballets. The Mikhailovsky Theatre offered Swan Lake as its traditional holiday gift to Japanese theatregoers, who adore this famous ballet.
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