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In Tarkovsky's venerable production, the Mariinsky orchestra and chorus are brilliant – but too brilliant for their soloists, including two replacement Borises for an indisposed Mikhail Petrenko.

Rodion Shchedrin's opera mixes singing, choreography and storytelling to lend a potent sacred and mystic overlay to Nikolai Leskov's folk tale.

Isabelle Patriot-Pieri's new production is a quirky mix of traditional and the opposite; Netrebko shows her star quality; Eyvasov impresses.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra celebrate Stravinsky with a gala that closes with an outstanding Firebird; young talent blooms in A Soldier's Tale

The Mariinsky’s Fountain of Bakchisarai fails to inspire.

The Mariinsky Ballet presents La Bayadère, here performed by a stellar cast with Diana Vishneva, Kimin Kim and Viktoria Tereshkina in the lead roles.

Angelin Preljocaj's sublime Le Parc is performed again by the Mariinsky Theatre, with Diana Vishneva leading the company in this ode to love.

Performing their prize winning The Taming of the Shrew in the Dance Open Festival at St Petersburg, this is a new-look Bolshoi company indeed!

Musically and emotionally, this Traviata mostly ran on a low flame, yet Maria Bayankina convinced as Violetta.

  Orthodox chant of the 17th century, beautifully sung, and programmed to highlight the telling details that create diversity within the tradition.

Presenting new Russian Orthodox music in a theatrical setting suggests new possibilities for the tradition, most ambitiously in the field of opera.

The beautiful city of St Petersburg is the birthplace of Russian classical ballet and home to some of the most famous dancers in the ballet galaxy, and it is here that Russia’s finest festival of dance takes place annually – Dance Open is now in its 13th year.

The energy exuded from The Eifman Ballet in Rodin was enough to light – and keep burning – the Olympic torch. At the Alexandrinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. 

How times change. Only a few decades ago, sacred music, if it was heard at all in Russia, was presented in a strictly secular concert setting, and even in many cases with the texts altered to reduce their religious significance. Today though, the Orthodox Church is an influential and highly visible player in Russian public life.

The second concert of the St. Romanos Melodos I International Composers Competition featured the remaining six winning pieces performed by two choirs: that of the Mikhailovsky Theatre with Vladimir Stolpovskikh, and the St. Petersburg Youth Chamber Choir with Yulia Khutoretskaya.

Last week, I was lucky enough to visit St. Petersburg to hear two concerts featuring winning pieces from the newly-launched St. Romanos Melodos I International Composers Competition. The aim of this competition is to revive ‘the spiritual and musical traditions founded in pre-revolution Russia’, and it was a fascinating window for me into a very different musical culture.