The main event of the season 2015-2016 is the stage production of the opera extravaganza by outstanding composer Rodion Shchedrin.
Rodion Shchedrin has made another gift to the Mariinsky Theatre. Earlier, the composer created the opera "Lefty" specially for the theater. The composer claims the Mariinsky Theatre to be the best in the world and admires its equipment and artists' skills. The new opera has been written specifically for the New Stage and is timed to the winter holidays.
According to the composer, he has created a Christmas story on Russian basis. Pyotr Tchaikovsky did something similar once, but his ballet-extravaganza The Nutcracker is based on Hoffmann's tale, which is a German source.
Rodion Shchedrin's new opera is dedicated to his recently deceased wife, ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, as well as to the staff of the Mariinsky Theatre and its art director Valery Gergiev. The famous conductor personally says that Christmas Fairy Tale is the most important event of the 233rd season.
Opera singers of the Mariinsky Theatre have already noted the new opera to be Shchedrin's most difficult work to perform and an undoubted masterpiece.
Christmas Fairy Tale will premiere on December 31 (from 7 to 9:20 pm),  January 2 (from 2 to 4:20 pm and from 7 to 9:20 pm), and January 14 (from 12 to 2:20 pm and from 5 to 7:20 pm)
Address of the Mariinsky Theatre (New Stage): 34a, Dekabristov Street, next to Sadovaya metro station, Saint Petersburg