VALERY GERGIEV

A famous opera singer and conductor Placido Domingo has made a surprise appearance at last night’s concert at the Mariinsky Concert Hall in honour of Valery Gergiev. He conducted the Overture to Verdi’s La forza del destino, the opera that ...See More

Valery Gergiev’s 60th Anniversary. A birthday message from opera singer and conductor Plácido Domingo:

Working with Valery Gergiev has been has been of the great privileges of my career. Ever since our first collaboration — performing Otello in Spain in 1991 — we have worked together may, many times, in Russia, Western Europe and America. I am saying nothing new when I say that his communicative power and his ability to assimilate new material quickly are amazing, and he is completely at home in German, Italian, French and other repertoires as in the music of his native Russia. But equal to his musical talent is his dedication to the musical life of his country, to which he has given so much fundamental assistance and so much of his time and his seemingly endless energy (people say that he is the only performer in the classical music field who has even more hectic schedule than mine!). To the great, historic Mariinsky Theatre he has contributed incalculably over this last quarter century. Happy birthday, Valery, and may you have more wonderfully productive years at the Mariinsky Theater and all over the world!