Yesterday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre Valery Gergiev. From the very beginning, Vladimir Putin assured the master that "support for music will always be one of the government's top priorities in culture," which is why "the government will allocate a total of 6.4 billion roubles ($218.6mln) from the federal budget for supporting musicians in 2010." Vladimir Putin also promised to support touring musicians to prevent "people living in remote Russian regions from feeling alienated from the country's cultural life."
However, the construction of the Mariinsky Theatre's second stage (the main issue which worries Valery Gergiev) was discussed in private. The only thing that the musician mentioned in front of journalists was that "the concert halls that would be the pride of Russian cities had to be built." The construction of the second stage was launched in 2003. Then the French architect Dominique Perrault won an international contest for his design, but his futuristic project failed to pass technical standards. Unfortunately, there had already been a foundation pit made for the building, and thus the epopee started all over again. In 2009, the Canadian firm Diamond and Schmitt Architects won a new contest. But not everything ran smoothly here either. The Canadians have no intention of becoming licensed to work in Russia; they simply want to carry out this particular project and get back home. Meanwhile, the construction never began because it took more than the support of Valery Gergiev for the project to be launched. In all probability this was the main topic of yesterday's private discussion.
By Anastasia Savinykh