Mariinsky Offers Brief Window for Prokofiev’s War and Peace

Or one may wait for a year

The Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg will present five performances of Sergei Prokofiev’s monumental opera-epic “War and Peace” from Jan. 23 to Jan. 25, featuring a massive production led by Valery Gergiev.

The performances, staged at the Mariinsky’s new stage, will be directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, a People’s Artist of Russia. The schedule includes a single evening performance on Jan. 23, followed by double-headers on Jan. 24 (12 p.m. and 7 p.m.) and Jan. 25 (12 p.m. and 6 p.m.).

Based on Leo Tolstoy’s four-volume masterpiece, the production is widely considered one of the most ambitious Russian operas of the 20th century. Its scale is rarely matched in the operatic world, requiring 200 performers, 1,000 individual costumes, and 60 tons of sets. Due to its technical complexity, the Mariinsky typically only stages the full production once per season.

Konchalovsky, a veteran film director and screenwriter, brings a cinematic lens to the production. The staging alternates between elegant ballroom scenes and massive, high-stakes battle sequences, mimicking the pacing of a motion picture.

The performances also mark a continued legacy for Gergiev. The conductor made his professional debut at the theater on Jan. 12, 1978, leading this very opera. Gergiev has since conducted all three subsequent major productions of the work at the Mariinsky in 1991, 2000, and 2014.

While the opera first premiered at the theater in 1977 under Yuri Temirkanov, the current Konchalovsky production remains a cornerstone of the Mariinsky’s repertoire. Last season, the theater experimented with a two-part concert hall version of the score to critical acclaim, but this January run returns the work to its full, grandiose theatrical for