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Why lucky??? Valery Gergiev will be conducting Kirov Orchestra for 4 nights in the Birmigham Symphony Hall and one night in Cardiff: 23 May: Shostakovich Symphones 3&10 24 May: Eugene Onegine (in concert) 25 May: La Forza del Destino (in concert) 26 May: Borodin, Prokofiev & Tchaikovsky (in Cardiff) 27 May: Mlada (in concert) Exactly for the reason that for these performances there'll be first cast Mariinsky Orchestra and Great Maestro Gergiev, this means that in St Petersbug the orchestra will be just "second class" with some mediocre conductors (e.g. Sinkevich or Gruzin), conducting kind of boring music: Minkus, Slonimsky (Ugh!). What a waste of so carefully earned miles, when thousands of people dream about going to the UK for these Kirov "first class" performances... Please, remember: Kirov on tour and Kirov at home (WHEN the main company is on tour) are two completely different companies, alas! It's usually worth going to St Petersburg for the second half of June, when you could see Gergiev conducting almost every night (and sometimes even matinee performances) for some two weeks... And this year there should be somewhat great: Shostakovich Symphonies 1,2,4,7,9,10! "The Nose", "Katerina Izmailova"... Ah! If I had your miles, I would've known how to spend them! Don't go to Maly Theatre: horrible orchestra and horrible conductors: you won't sleep of nightmares the whole night if you listen to the music there. "Esmeralda" is also a rather boring score. And the quality of ballet company there is very-very far from world class standards: they could fall down on the floor very unexpectedly...