OK, we're at Sunday March 9th, and by the time I got up had breakfast and showered, it was pretty much time to head back to the Mariinsky Theatre for another early show: the Carmen Suite one act ballet. This one was at the new theatre, the Mariinsky 2. The original Mariinsky Theatre (known from 1935 to 1990 as the Kirov, a name probably still more familiar to us) dates from 1860. It's currently celebrating its 231st season of performances (no, I can't make that math work out either...). The new theatre is right next door, just across a canal from the old one. I had wanted to see both theatres, so I booked a performance at each.
Today's performance, starting at 11:30am, was the Carmen Suite ballet. When I got my programme I found out that there was a second piece as well after the short one-act Carmen Suite, which I had not noticed when I booked my ticket. My programme was confused about what the second piece would be; on the title page it called it Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, a ballet in two scenes, while inside it described Le Carnaval, a pantomime ballet in one act. I compared programmes with the man next to me, who had the Russian version, and it named Le Carnaval (Лэ Карнабал), so mine was a misprint.
This time I arrived at the theatre in plenty of time, found the cloakroom and my seat. It's a beautuful theatre, with 6 tiers of seating, some with a column of single seats lining the balcony overlooking the floor.
The Carmen Suite was outstanding: great music, great dancing, and overall excellent presentation. I recognized a few of the tunes; remember, everything I know about opera and ballet, I learned from either Bugs Bunny cartoons or Jeopardy! It was distracting though to see some of the performers moving about backstage. The set was a semi-circular wall (half of a bullring, for some scenes), and from my seat I could see backstage movement behind the wall. And there were spectators two levels higher than I, so the performers and stage manager should have been more careful about where they went.
After the interval was Le Carnaval, which was kind of fun, but not quite as excellent as the first piece. I retrieved my coat and backpack after a long wait in a mostly organized huge mob of people (crowd management really isn't a fine art here), and headed out. I found a Georgian restaurant on my way back to the metro station, and stopped for a late lunch. I headed on towards my next show: the circus. On my way there was supposed to be a neat shop called Retro, where I expected to find some interesting Soviet-era items to browse, but I was unable to find the shop at the address listed in my book. I'm not sure if it's closed, or if it was hidden somewhere in a back lane way, as places often are here.
As a result, I arrived at the circus pretty early, about an hour before the show. I wandered the neighbourhood a bit, enjoying the views from the adjacent canal. It was warmer today, and all the ice in the canals has melted!
Entered the circus and checked my coat. The crowd was mostly parents with young kids, though there were some child-free adults as well (I wasn't the only one!). They were selling all manner of sweets for the kids, including candy floss, and the place had a slight smell of animals. I knew there were tigers involved in the show, but wasn't sure what other animals I might see.
The curtain to the seating area opened up a half hour before the start of the show, and I found my way to my hard wooden seat. I was in the 7th row, with a great view of the ring.
The show was a mix of acrobatics, juggling, clown acts and animal acts. There were 5 large white dogs that jumped and rolled and stood on their hind legs, and a few bears that did somersaults and rode/drive scooters, bicycles, motorcycles and trucks (I figured most of these were remote-controlled while the bear just stood in place). The highlight of the show was the tiger show in the second act. There were 8 gorgeous tigers, and they stood on their hind legs, rolled, jumped through flaming hoops, and roared on command. It was quite impressive, though I kept wondering if the animals are treated well (probably not).
(Still having trouble getting photos from my iPhone into the blog, though the process was working well a few days ago; will come back and insert some photos when I can.)
Next post: http://mrjohngross.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-day-22-little-shopping-and.html
Monday, March 10, 2014
Russia Day 20: St Petersburg. Cold, rainy, windy day.
Today was the first day of really crappy weather I had had all trip; it was cold, windy and rainy. It had rained in Sochi one or two days, but it was much warmer there, not windy, and I had my umbrella with me!
I decided to explore the Peter & Paul fortress, the seed from which the city of St Petersburg grew. It's on a small island north of the downtown area. I took the metro to a sort of nearby station, and had a long walk past the cruiser Aurora, famous for firing a blank shot that launched the 1917 revolution. I had been thinking of going aboard for a tour of the boat, but the bad weather discouraged that idea (and I've done several other boat tours before, which tend to be pretty similar.
So I walked on to Peter & Paul fortress. I grabbed a snack from one of the vendor kiosks inside and explored the grounds, going in for a look at the mint & a da Vinci exhibit with a lot of recreations of contraptions he came up with.
Back to hotel for a rest, and then headed out to the Mariinsky theatre, It was further from a metro station than the other places I've been to, which made for a longer walk on a sore knee. It took me about 50 minutes to get there, including traveling one stop on the metro. I arrived at the theatre with only a few minutes to spare, and in my haste to find my seat I did not spot the cloakroom, so I committed the faux pas of bringing my winter jacket into the theatre with me. No one said anything, but I felt self-conscious about it. And I was also pretty sweaty after hurrying at the end of my walk, slightly overdressed in my warm winter coat, and of course the theatre was overheated. The seats were very cramped and packed closely together. Other than that, it is a beautiful old theatre. The atmosphere was not at all stuffy. While some people were all dressed up for theatre, others were very casual. Once I stopped sweating, I felt comfortable in my jeans and button-up casual shirt.
I had neglected to do my homework before the show; though I had read a bit about it months ago when I booked the ticket, I came in not remembering much about the story. I was seeing Nabucco: an opera in Italian, with Russian surtitles above the stage. I understood exactly one word of the Italian singing ("Si!"), and maybe a quarter of the Russian surtitles, including the occasional complete sentence. I sort of caught the gist of the story, and at the interval I found a programme in English that explained it in detail, which made it only slightly more comprehensible. The symphony was outstanding, the operatic singing was fine (I didn't expect to like it, but it was OK). I was surprised at a few amateurish notes in the staging: a stagehand dashing across the stage after the rise of the curtain for Act 2, some parts of the set swinging around after being lowered into place, and other backstage noise clearly audible at times. Perhaps it's a tribute to the acoustics that I could hear the pages of the musical scores being turned in the orchestra pit from my seat up in the first circle. Apart from that, the theatre was impressive, and overall it was a great experience
Another long walk home and to bed, exhausted as usual!
I decided to explore the Peter & Paul fortress, the seed from which the city of St Petersburg grew. It's on a small island north of the downtown area. I took the metro to a sort of nearby station, and had a long walk past the cruiser Aurora, famous for firing a blank shot that launched the 1917 revolution. I had been thinking of going aboard for a tour of the boat, but the bad weather discouraged that idea (and I've done several other boat tours before, which tend to be pretty similar.
So I walked on to Peter & Paul fortress. I grabbed a snack from one of the vendor kiosks inside and explored the grounds, going in for a look at the mint & a da Vinci exhibit with a lot of recreations of contraptions he came up with.
Back to hotel for a rest, and then headed out to the Mariinsky theatre, It was further from a metro station than the other places I've been to, which made for a longer walk on a sore knee. It took me about 50 minutes to get there, including traveling one stop on the metro. I arrived at the theatre with only a few minutes to spare, and in my haste to find my seat I did not spot the cloakroom, so I committed the faux pas of bringing my winter jacket into the theatre with me. No one said anything, but I felt self-conscious about it. And I was also pretty sweaty after hurrying at the end of my walk, slightly overdressed in my warm winter coat, and of course the theatre was overheated. The seats were very cramped and packed closely together. Other than that, it is a beautiful old theatre. The atmosphere was not at all stuffy. While some people were all dressed up for theatre, others were very casual. Once I stopped sweating, I felt comfortable in my jeans and button-up casual shirt.
I had neglected to do my homework before the show; though I had read a bit about it months ago when I booked the ticket, I came in not remembering much about the story. I was seeing Nabucco: an opera in Italian, with Russian surtitles above the stage. I understood exactly one word of the Italian singing ("Si!"), and maybe a quarter of the Russian surtitles, including the occasional complete sentence. I sort of caught the gist of the story, and at the interval I found a programme in English that explained it in detail, which made it only slightly more comprehensible. The symphony was outstanding, the operatic singing was fine (I didn't expect to like it, but it was OK). I was surprised at a few amateurish notes in the staging: a stagehand dashing across the stage after the rise of the curtain for Act 2, some parts of the set swinging around after being lowered into place, and other backstage noise clearly audible at times. Perhaps it's a tribute to the acoustics that I could hear the pages of the musical scores being turned in the orchestra pit from my seat up in the first circle. Apart from that, the theatre was impressive, and overall it was a great experience
Another long walk home and to bed, exhausted as usual!
These ramp tracks are on every stairway in the metro.
I had seen them in Moscow and Sochi as well.
They appear to be intended for use by those in wheelchairs,
though the incline is so steep I can't imagine
anyone navigating them successfully alone,
and even with someone pushing/holding a wheelchair,
I think it would be difficult. I have not seen anyone in a wheelchair use them.
Russia Day 19: St Petersburg, Grand Maket and Playoff game!
Awoke at 4am with some stomach distress, which went away with some fluids, antacids and getting vertical for a while. Got back to sleep, and was up again around 9:30, but not feeling full of energy. Sent some laundry in to be cleaned (just as expensive here as in Moscow, but I need some more clean clothes!), and had breakfast.
My left knee is feeling sore, so I decided that today won't be a major walking day. I thought about a couple things to do: taking the hop on/hop off city bus tour that drives around all the major sights, and visiting the Grand Maket: a large model representing all of Russia. There might be time for both before grabbing dinner and getting to the hockey game. By the time I was ready to head out it was lunch time, so I had a nice bowl of spaghetti at an Italian restaurant down the street, and then walked on to Nevsky Prospekt, to the bus stop for the tour bus. For some reason it didn't come when the online schedule said it would. Maybe it's not running in the winter, and they haven't updated the web site? Maybe it was running very late due to bad traffic? For whatever reason, after waiting about 10 extra minutes, I gave up and headed to the nearby subway station, and went to the Grand Maket museum. I got the audio guide (in English, after initially getting a Russian one by mistake), and started exploring the massive model.
My left knee is feeling sore, so I decided that today won't be a major walking day. I thought about a couple things to do: taking the hop on/hop off city bus tour that drives around all the major sights, and visiting the Grand Maket: a large model representing all of Russia. There might be time for both before grabbing dinner and getting to the hockey game. By the time I was ready to head out it was lunch time, so I had a nice bowl of spaghetti at an Italian restaurant down the street, and then walked on to Nevsky Prospekt, to the bus stop for the tour bus. For some reason it didn't come when the online schedule said it would. Maybe it's not running in the winter, and they haven't updated the web site? Maybe it was running very late due to bad traffic? For whatever reason, after waiting about 10 extra minutes, I gave up and headed to the nearby subway station, and went to the Grand Maket museum. I got the audio guide (in English, after initially getting a Russian one by mistake), and started exploring the massive model.
The Peter and Paul Fortress model
This thing is massive, covering about 800 sq m or about 8,000 sq feet.
Apparently there are over 200,000 little tiny people in the model, along with countless cars, busses, trucks and trains, all driving back and forth, and many other interactive features that you can activate with a button, like cranes and helicopters. While not at all to scale, it tries to generally represent all of Russia, including recognizable features from a few major cities. The overhead lights dim every several minutes, so you can see the model at night, with all the lights illuminates. It was pretty wondrous.
I found a cafe on my way back to the metro, and had chebureki for dinner. These were similar to a calzone, with some questionable meat and onions inside. I'm glad I tried them, but am not a huge fan.
I quickly noticed today that most women are carrying flowers with them. Tomorrow is International Women's Day, and in Russia that is one of the most important holidays. At first I thought perhaps these women were getting flowers for their mothers, but as the day went on and I saw more and more of them, I thought perhaps every woman got flowers at work (since it's Friday and the holiday falls on the weekend this year).
After dinner I got back on the metro to go to the hockey game. And here's another observation about the metro: the escalators are so long that when two people ride together, one of them generally turns around and rides backwards, so they can talk on the way. Or make out.
The SKA team's rink is a lot newer, larger and nicer than the one where I saw CSKA play in Moscow. And the food is a lot better; I would have been better off eating at the game, but based on my previous experiences in Sochi and Moscow, I assumed the food would be crappy there. I bought a nice SKA hat at a souvenir stand, and then found my way to my seat: firth row up at the blue line. Every seat in the lower bowl (and some in the upper bowl) had a blue SKA Tshirt draped over it, along with a pair of inflatable noisemakers that you bang together as you cheer. There was a special cheering section (for the home team this time), with a drum, huge flags, and all the people in it chanting and swaying/jumping in unison all through the game. The crowd was very noisy, and it really felt like a playoff game. I recognized at least two of the SKA players: Ilya Kovalchuk and former Leaf Alexei Ponikarovsky.
The cheering section, right behind the net.
SKA appeared to be wearing their third jersey,
with "Leningrad" (the former name of St Petersburg)
in place of the usual "CKA" over a red star.
I found it kind of strange that the front of the jersey had Cyrillic writing,
while the names on the back were all in English/Roman lettering.
(I have more photos on my iPhone, but for some reason they have not synced across Google+/iCloud to be accessible for this blog from my iPAD. I may need to fix that up from my laptop when I get home...)
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