The main event of the season 2015-2016 is the world premiere of the opera Christmas Fairy Tale by the outstanding composer Rodion Shchedrin.

      |Rodion Shchedrin have made another gift to the Mariinsky Theater. The operas earlier created by him for the Mariinsky Theater include The Lefthander and The Enchanted Wanderer. The composer considers the Mariinsky Theater to be the best one in the world and admires its equipment and actors' mastery. The new opera has been composed specially for the New Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre and is timed to winter holidays.

      According to the composer, his Christmas Fairy Tale is based on the Russian background. Something similar  was once made by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, but his ballet The Nutcracker was based on Hoffman's fairy tale, i.e. a German source.

      Rodion Shchedrin devoted the new opera to his recently deceased spouse, the prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, as well as the staff of the Mariinsky Theater and its art director Valery Gergiev. Valery Gergiev considers The Christmas Fairy Tale the most important event of Season 233.

      The theatre actors find the new opera Rodion Shchedrin's most difficult work to perform, and an apparent masterpiece.

      The opera will premiere in the Mariinsky Theater on December 26 and 27 and 31, and on January 2 and 10.