The city's prestige

A European Class Theatre is Just Two Steps from Nevsky Prospect.
Its Prestige Means Prestige for the City

Vadim Kruchina

        Many posters have changed on house № 18, Troitsky street, now Rubenstein street. Here, just two steps from Nevsky prospect, is one of the most popular theatres on the banks of the Neva - the Malyi Dramatic Theatre (MDT), directed by Lev Dodin.
        Formally, it has the status of a regional theatre. However recently the theatre's guilded sign along the frieze had two new words added: "Theatre of Europe." Last fall the Eighteenth General Assembly of International Union of Drama Theatres bestowed this title on the Malyi. Performances by the MDT troupe have gained popular recognition not only in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, but also in all of Russia.
        It has performed on nearly every continent, and there is always a full house. This is how the world's press has responded to MDT performances: "Deeply Moving," "Played from the bottom of the soul," "Burning Dramatic Thrill," "Cream of the Crop," "A Triumph of Russian Theatre."
        One critic attributed the success of the theatre not to the professionalism of its producers and the talent of its actors, but rather to a heightened interest in "Russian exotics". Lev Dodin has referred to these words as a "silly excuse to see notorious Russian exotics where there are none". He went on to say that, "today Russian exotics are more scary than attractive. The times when Russian restaurants, babushkas and balalaikas were in fashion are gone forever. Abroad, just like at home, people seek authenticity and sincerity in art. No one could trap people and make them patiently sit and watch a performance which lasts hours and hours, like the play adapted from Dostoevsky's The Possessed which lasts ten hours, unless what's happening on the stage is in accord with the audience, their thoughts, strivings and aspirations. The actors do not simply go through the notions of their roles, but share with the world their personal attitudes to today's moral and spiritual values with a rare passion and sincerity." The director claims that the secret of the theatre's great success in Paris, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, and St. Petersburg is the MDT's authenticity and sincerity in performing. "Our performances are not exactly meant for export," he notes, "they are meant first of all for our own audience who deeply feel and appreciate them".
        In the world of drama theatres there is no higher title than "Theatre of Europe." Lev Dodin's Dramatic Theatre is only the third one after the "Odeon" of Paris and the "Piccolo" theatre of Milan to be honored with this title. Immediately after the award was handed to them, both the Parisian and the Milan theatre received financial support from the governments of France and Italy. The MDT did not even get as much as official congratulation from the Russian government. Yet the prestige of the theatre means prestige for the city, the region, and the country. It represents the highest achievement of the Russian drama school.
        Strange as it may sound, the status of the Malyi Dramatic Theatre is ambiguous. It is regional by status and European by recognition. This means that the theatre is justified in expecting financial support from both the region and the city, as well as counting on the federal budget and the financial backing of sponsors who are concerned with the spiritual values of Russia.
        Unfortunately, however, reality is different and there are very few sponsors for the MDT. One of the exceptions is Kirishinefteorgsintez, the major oil company that has for years now helped the theatre, and, as notes Vadim Somov, its general director, also financed repair work and installation of modern equipment in the theatre in Kirishi which housed the MDT when it performed there.
        Today the Malyi Dramatic Theatre has a modern stage fully equipped for any kind of performance. The theatre opened its 55th season with Chevengur by Platonov, Dodin's latest premier. It was shown to great acclaim earlier last year in Weimar, Germany.

The city's prestige

WHAT WILL THE HERMITAGE
LOOK LIKE AT 250?

Mikhail Piotrovsky,
Director, Hermitage

        The history of the Hermitage began in 1764 when Catherine the Great bought 225 pictures by Dutch and Flemish painters from the Berlin merchant Getskovsky. Along with jewels and Chinese porcelain, they were stored in an inconvenient place in the attic of the empress' personal apartments, a narrow space with low windows. Catherine called her collection a museum and a hermitage, that is, a place for solitude. In her letters she confessed that "only me and the mice admire it, even my dogs seldom come here."
         Today the Hermitage is a unique depository of world culture. It kept the name given by Catherine, but the "place for solitude" turned into one of the largest and richest world museums. The Hermitage occupies seven buildings (127,478 square metres) and on January 1, 1999 numbered 2,893,292 exhibits. Realization of the grandiose Big Hermitage project will become one of Russia's most significant cultural projects of the 21st century.
         Our correspondent, Olga Bobrova, asked the Hermitage's director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, to talk about this project and the museum's image in 2014, the year of its 250th anniversary.
         - I think, the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage will begin in Palace Square with a theatre-like performance or parade. After that the Hermitage Theatre will present us something unusual in honor of the occasion. Maybe we will hold a ball like the kind Catherine so often gave. Of course a ball at the imperial palace must be superb, but I think we will pull it off. We will try to follow Catherine and prepare concerts at the Hermitage Theatre, balls and receptions. But the opening of the celebrations will take place in Palace Square, which will be turned into Hermitage Square for the occasion. The Aleksandriisky column will become a symbol of the Hermitage, like the athletes and horses perched on the Arch of Army Headquarters facing the building.
         According to our project, the Headquarters will house a 21st century museum containing unique art collections and modern electronic technologies.
         The main principle of the new Hermitage is maximum accessibility and openness. People will see restorers at work and artists creating their masterpieces. We also plan to open a wax museum, new lecture halls, and small movie theatres for historical film shows. We will offer a new, fun way of getting education and developing taste in children and adults.
         The left wing of Headquarters will house the Hermitage's famous collections of porcelain, furniture, monumental tapestry, arms, banners, costumes, and fabrics of different times and nations, as well as its collections of impressionists and post-impressionists. I hope as well that by 2014 we will have opened the Morozov and Schukin art galleries. We also plan to open at Headquarters a 20th century art gallery though now we possess only a few exhibits that belong the early years of our old century. But if everything turns out right, we shall buy pictures by other modern painters, and some pictures - I hope -, our museum will receive as presents.
         It would be very good to open a virtual arts gallery, that is, a gallery of 21st century art. As for 20th century art, we do not possess a lot of exhibits, but our perspectives are promising, all the more so as ultra-modern art is very compact and does not need much space.
         - Today people can see only five percent of the Hermitage's treasures.
         - That's indeed true. We plan to widen exhibition space by opening the Hermitage-Old Village Complex of Restoration and Storage. Construction is proceeding at full speed. We dream of the opening in 2014.
         The complex is being created not just for specialists. It will become an important centre of culture and education for St. Petersburg's rapidly developing outlying districts. Open storage will give people access to the Hermitage's famous repositories. There will also be lecture and video halls, children's circles, and exhibitions of modern art.
         Between the Old Village metro and our complex we want to open a special territory for cultural entertainment under the artistic direction of the Hermitage, that is, a stone garden, computer galleries, a historical cafe and shops with a museum slant to them. When people buy presents, they will be buying copies of world masterpieces.
         We plan to hold a carnival as well, and perhaps we will go by metro from Old Village to some central station, because it is impossible to drive up right to the Hermitage by metro.
         - Will the Hermitage change its appearance by2014?
         - The Hermitage will look as usual. We do not want to change its appearance, only its inner technical side will be changed, because we have very polluted air and so need air filters, ventilators, and means of protection from light.
         We would like to show the greater part of our treasures, but still our main purpose is to preserve the spirit of the Hermitage - this museum air mixed with the atmosphere of the tsar's palace and Russian history.
         - Do you plan to restore the palace's private apartments?
         - No, they have been dismantled - only the personal library of Nicholas II has survived. But now we are restoring the front halls of the Winter Palace. We have restored the Armory Hall and returned the portrait of Paskevich to Field-Marshal Hall. We will put an icon-stand in the Palace's chapel. This year Army Headquarters will house an exhibition of porcelain, and the freed space will be occupied with church relics. We are also restoring the 1812 Gallery. This is very expensive work, but we must finish it by the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage.
        - You prefer to attract foreign companies to the museum's reconstruction?
        - We do not give preference to foreign companies but it's not our fault if they win the tenders that we organize.
        - Do people abroad take interest in the Hermitage?
        - Our museum must be widely known and shown. We will demonstrate its collections in our new halls at our Centre of Restoration and Storage as well as through the Internet, but this is not enough. 1,800 thousand people visited the Hermitage last year, and its exhibitions abroad were visited by 1million people. People's interest in the Hermitage is really great, so our future exhibitions will be organized in a new way. This idea, in fact, is not ours but belongs to our friends abroad who wish to have the Hermitage at hand. We are currently negotiating on the opening of the Hermitage Exhibition Center in Amsterdam, special Hermitage apartments in London, and a Research and Exhibition Center in Japan. I hope that by 2014 these plans will be realized. We also hope to open Hermitage branch offices abroad.

Intervew by Olga Bobrova

The city's prestige

FIVE STAR DIAMOND AWARD
The Grand Hotel is 125 years old

By Evel Economakis

        The doorkeeper greets you and you catch a glimpse of the image of the Bronze Horseman on his coat's gold buttons as you walk in.
        Thousands of people from all over the world stay here - at St. Petersburg's oldest hotel. It is here, over a cup of coffee or tea in its cafes and restaurants that the jet set and international businesspeople meet, new joint ventures are born, and contracts between Russian and foreign companies are signed. Our story is about the Grand Hotel Europe, Russia's first five-star hotel, an award it received in 1991. It became the first Russian hotel accepted by the Leading Hotels of the World organization. In March of last year, the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences awarded the hotel with the Five Star Diamond Award.
        Long ago the space occupied today by Hotel Europe was the site of two buildings: the Smirdin and Glazunov printing-house and Coulon's tavern, which was described by the French traveller, Marquis de Custine. The other building belonged to a certain Rogov where the Rossiia hotel was situated, which was popular among the city's intellectual and artistic circles. Later the house was rebuilt. First it was changed from a 4-floor to a 3-floor building and then a fourth floor was added to it. Fyodor Dostoevsky commented about the construction site in July 1873: "such is the architecture of a modern, huge hotel - it's being done efficiently, this is Americanism, hundreds of rooms, a major enterprise".
        The hotel had a total of 260 rooms of various sizes. Although its rooms were high-priced, it was never empty. The most expensive rooms were usually taken by foreign emissaries, wealthy negotiators and rich entrepreneurs. Restaurant, pastry store, tobacco shop, bakery, establishment producing "fruit-water" and ice-cubes, wine cellar, laundry on the top floor (a first for Russian hotels: unpleasant odors were now no longer a problem), barber shop, cobbler's workshop, tailor shop - these were all present. All floors had a dumb waiter and the hotel even had a telegraph. Underscoring its status as an international island where foreigners could meet and feel at home in Russia, the Europe had a group of translators working for it who could "translate all the world's languages". Rich merchants opened kiosks and stores, and its walls were covered with posters in English, French, German.
        Because of the hotel's rising popularity a fifth floor was added to it in 1908. On the roof a garden was built and a restaurant opened which soon gained a reputation as the very best in St. Petersburg. In those days the hotel's doorkeeper was dressed in a Cossack's uniform. The administrator waited for guests in a black frock coat in the lobby. You couldn't mistake the headwaiter because he was the only hotel employee permitted to wear a mustache or beard.
        In 1917 everything changed. The hotel was now often used for revolutionary meetings. Part of the building housed the Central Children's Quarantine Station for the city's many "besprizornie" (homeless children) - the victims of famine and civil war. Herbert Wells was among those who visited the Quarantine.
        A tragic page in the history of Grand Hotel Europe was during the blockade of Leningrad when it housed an evacuation hospital. Just two weeks after it opened, 1,250 patients, including many defenders of the city, were being treated here. Winter set in and the hospital's rooms had temperatures of minus 8 degrees Celsius. The walls of the once-sumptuous rooms were covered with hoarfrost. Once, a large German shell crashed through the window of a room facing Nevsky prospect. In January 1942 electricity and water were cut off. Water was taken from the Neva. The buckets were placed in the lobby, where they immediately developed a film of ice on them.
        Like so many grand hotels in Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe (like Shepheard's in Cairo, Mena House in Giza, Maiden's in Delhi, Parker House in Boston, the Baur au Lac in Zurich or the Splendide Royal in Lugano), Grand Hotel Europe often received international celebrities. Over the last few decades the hotel's guests have included Helmut Kohl, Jimmy Carter, Jacques Chirac, Bill Clinton, the Prince of Wales, George Bernard Shaw, Neil Armstrong, Demis Roussos, and Elton John, who gave two concerts in the city, one of them in the hotel's Europe restaurant to a small number of his fans. The hotel has also hosted such celebrities as Monserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Maya Plisetskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich, Steve Martin, Jane Fonda, Ted Turner, Richard Gere, Joe Cocker, Sharon Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Vanessa Mae and Julio Iglesias, to name a few.
        There are no memorial plaques on the hotel. It is not part of official tours of city. But if its walls could speak, a fascinating slice of St. Petersburg's history would be told.