Fire at the Maryinsky destroys costumes

[Alexandra]

Thanks to rg for this, just posted on the BBC News site:

Fire destroys Kirov costumes

A fire destroyed the costumes and sets for the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on Thursday, including those for the world-famous Kirov Ballet.

The blaze, in one of the theatre's warehouses, destroyed costumes for a forthcoming Kirov tour of Japan.

[Marc Haegeman]

Reports about the real damage are still unclear. The Mariinsky press service itself for example declared that no sets were destroyed. Anyway, more to come later.

[Alexandra]

Thank you, Marc.

There's a brief video at that link as well (Our correspondent thinks Swan Lake is an opera, but what the hay.) Look to the right of the story.

[Marc Haegeman]

According to Izvestia (http://www.izvestia.ru/emergency/article38101) the damages are now estimated to amount to 7 million rubles. The sets of Chemyakin's Nutcracker were probably stored in the warehouse, just as (most likely) the sets for the coming tour to Japan, namely of La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Evgeni Onegin. However, of every production there seem to be one or two copy-versions preserved in the theatre. So there is no reason to panic and the tours won't be affected, according to Valentina Gannibalova, former ballerina of the Kirov.

Let's hope this is true.

[rg]

a tad off the tragic of this BBC report, but where are its fact-checkers?

surely the Marinsky Theater or Theatre Marie was named for Empress Maria ALEXANDROVNA, the wife of Czar Alexander II, born Maximiliana-Wilhemina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria, daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II and Grand Duchess Wilhemina-Louisa of Hess, Darmstadt, a.k.a. Marie of Hesse, and rechristined Maria Alexandrovna for her marriage to Alexander II. In any case, if it were named for Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Dagmar, she was the wife of Alexander III, not Nicholas II, whose wife was Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

how odd that the land of royals would get this ident. so cockeyed.

(i admit that perhaps i'm wrong on some point or other in this geneology, but i'm not writing a story for the BBC news.)

[Mel Johnson]

Score cards! Getcha score cards here! Can't tell yer Marias from yer Feodorovnas widdout yer score card!

--HRH Prince Michael of Kent (I wish!)

[Marc Haegeman]

Errr, yeah sure....

Anyway, here's some more about the drama from Novosti: 'VALERY GERGIEV: I SEE NO GROUNDS TO SPEAK ABOUT RUSSIAN CULTURAL CRISIS'

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?msg_id=3435148

[Alexandra]

Update: Damage worse than first reported

Theater: Brave face of the Maryinsky

Because the Maryinsky is federally owned, the government in essence acted as a self-insurer. The low damage figure quoted in the press, according to the theater, reflected the accounting-book value of the warehouse not its true value or that of its contents. After several analyses, it was estimated that the theater would need about $15 million for restoration and resumption of normal operations. The cause of the fire on Sept. 5 remains under investigation; arson, possibly by vagrants, has not been ruled out..

[Mel Johnson]

That's one spooky thing about working for government, this "self-insurance" gag. You're never completely free of the suspicion that there's some cubicle up the line with a number-cruncher in it, saying, "Gee, it would be great if X workplace would burn down, so my books will balance!"