The Nose

Mariinsky Theatre, Mariinsky II, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Scene 5 from the opera "The Nose", photo 2

Scene 1 from the opera "The Nose", photo 7

Scene 2 from the opera "The Nose", photo 8

Scene 3 from the opera "The Nose", photo 9

Scene 4 from the opera "The Nose", photo 10

Scene 6 from the opera "The Nose", photo 11

All photos (11)

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Important Info

Festival: Stars of the White Nights Festival 2022

Type: Opera

City: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Starts at: 20:00

Acts: 3

Intervals: 1

Duration: 2h 25min

Sung in: Russian

Titles in: Russian,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Festival

Stars of the White Nights Festival 2022

The Mariinsky`s Stars of the White Nights International Music Festival directed by Valery Gergiev was held from May 24 to July 17, in St Petersburg for the thirtieth time.

Overview

Shostakovich's phantasmagorical opera has only been staged in Russia at Leningrad's Maly Opera Theatre in 1930 (the world premiere) and at the Boris Pokrovsky Chamber Music Theatre in Moscow in 1974. Unlike his predecessors, Yuri Alexandrov did not regard The Nose as a satire of the tsarist regime or the bourgeoisie – his production at the Mariinsky Theatre had the secondary title of Passions for Kovalev. Apropos, the true hero of the production was not Kovalev, but the Nose itself, which appeared before the audience in many guises all at once: a prop nose of real-life proportions, a rubber canvas in the form of a nose, a dancer sewn into an elastic white bag and, finally, the Tenor-Nose that arises from the grave in the form of Napoleon.
Alexandrov admitted that "This piece by Gogol, the great mystifier and at the same time a great Russian sufferer, is seriously complex. I have made it even more complex." Here we have a circus, ROSTA posters, a chief of police dressed in Gogol's overcoat the size of a three-storey building and Sirin and Alkonost, soaring over a biblical-like crowd in Kazan Cathedral. The director used the same method employed at the Mariinsky Theatre five years earlier with Semyon Kotko: witty grotesque and the creation of a hypertrophied and at times riotous libretto of the on-stage plot. Combined with the staccato-arrangement of Shostakovich's constantly twisting and sparkling score, the result is rather extravagant. The "pivot" of this colourful and kaleidoscopic spectacle came with Zinovy Margolin's sets – an upside-down St Petersburg courtyard. At key moments in the opera a video backdrop is revealed and the plot unfolds in a stunning metallic tunnel – "a combination of Tatlin's Tower pushed on its side with urban catacombs inhabited by American thrillers."
Bogdan Korolyok

History

Premiere of this production: 18 January 1930, Leningrad Maly Operny

The Nose is Dmitri Shostakovich's first opera, a satirical work completed in 1928 based on Nikolai Gogol's story of the same name (1836).

Synopsis

Act I
Scene 1. Either in a dream or in reality, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich is doing his hateful job in a drunken stupor.
Scene 2. Ivan Yakovlevich and his wife Praskovia are taken aback to find a nose in a bread roll.
Scene 3. The panic-stricken barber tries to dispose of the evidence.
Scene 4. When he wakes up in the morning, Major Kovalev discovers his nose has disappeared.
Scene 5. Inside Kazan Cathedral, Major Kovalev unexpectedly meets his nose and tries to speak to it.

Act II
Scene 6. A newspaper advertisements department: Kovalev tries to submit an advertisement about the disappearance of his nose. Unsuccessfully.
Scene 7. Kovalev´s apartment. The major´s footman Ivan is relaxing quietly, and Kovalev´s despair increases.

Act III
Scene 8. A coaching-inn. The district constable is giving instructions to his men to capture the travelling Nose. A procession of travellers enters: a mother and father with their two sons, Ivan Ivanovich and Pyotr Fyodorovich, an elderly lady surrounded by hangers-on and a bread roll seller. Suddenly the nose appears. In the confusion, they manage to catch it.
Scene 9. Kovalev´s apartment. The district constable brings Kovalev his Nose and, on receiving his reward, disappears. In vain, the major tries to put the Nose back on his face. A doctor arrives but is unable to help Kovalev. Kovalev and his friend Yaryzhkin suspect the guilty party to be staff-officer Podtochina, acting in revenge for Kovalev´s contempt for her daughter. The friends write a letter to Podtochina, which Ivan the footman delivers. Ivan returns with an answer and Kovalev understands that the women are innocent.
Scene 10. A street. A rumour is spreading over the city that Kovalev´s Nose has run away. The horrific tale has captured the imagination of the whole city: Everyone, including the eminent merchant Khorzev-Mirza, is discussing the event in the most animated fashion. Unexpectedly Major Kovalev joins the mêlée: his nose is exactly where it should be.

Opera in 3 acts and 10 scenes, without intermission

Act 1

Prologue

St Petersburg. Kovalyov, a Collegiate Assessor is being shaved by Ivan Yakovlevich (a barber). He is one of Yakovlevich's regular customers.

The next morning, Yakovlevich finds a nose in his bread. His wife, believing he has cut off one of his customers' noses, requests him to dispose of it. He tries to dispose of it in the street, but is foiled by running into people he knows, then he throws it into the Neva River, but he is seen by a police officer and taken away for questioning. Meanwhile, Kovalyov wakes and finds his nose missing. His first reaction is disbelief, then shock, and he sets out to find it. He later sees his nose praying in the Kazan Cathedral, now the size of a human being. Since the nose has acquired a higher rank (State Councillor) than he, it refuses to have any dealings with him, and leaves.

Act 2

In his search, Kovalyov finds himself at the Chief of Police's apartment, but he is not at home. Next he visits the newspaper office to place an advertisement about the loss of his nose, where they are dealing with a missing dog. After explaining his loss, his request is refused on the grounds of the newspaper's reputation. Upon demonstrating his loss, the clerk suggests he tell his story. Kovalyov feels insulted and leaves.

He returns to his apartment, where his servant is playing the balalaika, he dismisses him and wallows in self-pity.

Act 3

The police take up the search. A group of policemen are at a railway station, in order to prevent the nose from escaping, where an inspector rallies them. The nose runs in and tries to stop the train, and a general pursuit ensues, resulting in its capture. The nose is then beaten into its normal size, wrapped and returned to Kovalyov by the inspector, but Kovalyov is unable to reattach it. Nor can a doctor. He then suspects that he has been placed under a spell by a woman called Madame Podtochina, because he would not marry her daughter. He writes to ask her to undo the spell, but she misinterprets the letter as a proposal to her daughter. She convinces him that she is innocent. In the city, crowds fuelled by rumours gather in search of the nose till the police restore order.

Epilogue

Kovalyov wakes up with his nose reattached, and dances a polka in joy. Yakovlevich has been released from prison and arrives to shave him. Afterwards Kovalyov wanders along Nevsky Prospekt greeting acquaintances, while people discuss the story.

Venue Info

Mariinsky Theatre - Saint Petersburg
1 Theatre Square

The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th-century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre. Today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanov's retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the theatre's general director.

The theatre is named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Tsar Alexander II. There is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer. The theatre's name has changed throughout its history, reflecting the political climate of the time.

The theatre building is commonly called the Mariinsky Theatre. The companies that operate within it have for brand recognition purposes retained the Kirov name, acquired during the Soviet era to commemorate the assassinated Leningrad Communist Party leader Sergey Kirov (1886–1934).

The Imperial drama, opera and ballet troupe in Saint Petersburg was established in 1783, at the behest of Catherine the Great, although an Italian ballet troupe had performed at the Russian court since the early 18th century. Originally, the ballet and opera performances were given in the wooden Karl Knipper Theatre on Tsaritsa Meadow, near the present-day Tripartite Bridge (also known as the Little Theatre or the Maly Theatre). The Hermitage Theatre, next door to the Winter Palace, was used to host performances for an elite audience of aristocratic guests invited by the Empress.

A permanent theatre building for the new company of opera and ballet artists was designed by Antonio Rinaldi and opened in 1783. Known as the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre the structure was situated on Carousel Square, which was renamed Theatre Square in honour of the building. Both names – "Kamenny" (Russian word for "stone") and "Bolshoi" (Russian word for "big") – were coined to distinguish it from the wooden Little Theatre. In 1836, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was renovated to a design by Albert Cavos (son of Catterino Cavos, an opera composer), and served as the principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and opera.

On 29 January 1849, the Equestrian circus (Конный цирк) opened on Theatre Square. This was also the work of the architect Cavos. The building was designed to double as a theatre. It was a wooden structure in the then-fashionable neo-Byzantine style. Ten years later, when this circus burnt down, Albert Cavos rebuilt it as an opera and ballet house with the largest stage in the world. With a seating capacity of 1,625 and a U-shaped Italian-style auditorium, the theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its imperial patroness, Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Under Yuri Temirkanov, Principal Conductor from 1976 to 1988, the Opera Company continued to stage innovative productions of both modern and classic Russian operas. Although functioning separately from the Theatre’s Ballet Company, since 1988 both companies have been under the artistic leadership of Valery Gergiev as Artistic Director of the entire Theatre.

The Opera Company has entered a new era of artistic excellence and creativity. Since 1993, Gergiev’s impact on opera there has been enormous. Firstly, he reorganized the company’s operations and established links with many of the world's great opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra Bastille, La Scala, La Fenice, the Israeli Opera, the Washington National Opera and the San Francisco Opera. Today, the Opera Company regularly tours to most of these cities.

Gergiev has also been innovative as far as Russian opera is concerned: in 1989, there was an all-Mussorgsky festival featuring the composer’s entire operatic output. Similarly, many of Prokofiev’s operas were presented from the late 1990s. Operas by non-Russian composers began to be performed in their original languages, which helped the Opera Company to incorporate world trends. The annual international "Stars of the White Nights Festival" in Saint Petersburg, started by Gergiev in 1993, has also put the Mariinsky on the world’s cultural map. That year, as a salute to the imperial origins of the Mariinsky, Verdi's La forza del destino, which received its premiere in Saint Petersburg in 1862, was produced with its original sets, costumes and scenery. Since then, it has become a characteristic of the "White Nights Festival" to present the premieres from the company’s upcoming season during this magical period, when the hours of darkness practically disappear as the summer solstice approaches.

Presently, the Company lists on its roster 22 sopranos (of whom Anna Netrebko may be the best known); 13 mezzo-sopranos (with Olga Borodina familiar to US and European audiences); 23 tenors; eight baritones; and 14 basses. With Gergiev in charge overall, there is a Head of Stage Administration, a Stage Director, Stage Managers and Assistants, along with 14 accompanists.