A celebration of the classics on Palace Square

A gala concert entitled Classics on Palace Square will take place on 26 May to mark St. Petersburg’s 315th anniversary. It is set to be highlight of a dazzling programme of events to celebrate the founding of this great city, and concert organizers are not going to depart from established traditions: admirers of the classics who come to Palace Square may look forward to seeing the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s symphony orchestra under the leadership of conductor Mikhail Tatarnikov, and a number of opera stars. Works by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Gounod, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, Cilea, and other classic composers will be performed.

The concert will feature a host of truly outstanding singers, including Roberto Alagna, Oksana Volkova, Venera Gimadieva, Pavel Kolgatin, Aleksandra Kurzak, Alexei Markov, Valentina Naforniță, Alexei Tikhomirov, and Alexander Trofimov. In the dance part of the programme, Irina Perren and Marat Shemiunov, principal dancers at the Mikhailovsky Theatre and also a married couple, will demonstrate their artistry. They will perform a fragment of the ballet scene Walpurgis Night from Faust by Charles Gounod, choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky.