Economic Forum: All About Town
Published: June 20, 2013 (Issue # 1764)
All work and no play would be a waste of a weekend at the height of White Nights in St. Petersburg. Take advantage of all the city has to offer with the St. Petersburg Times’ picks of cultural and social events available to forum participants.
Thursday, June 20
Take in the waters with the annual business regatta, which will kick off the forum with a yacht race by world-class yachtsman, followed by an on-deck reception. Set your sails from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Krestovsky Yacht Club, 4 Yuzhnaya Doroga Ulitsa.
Then, get your land legs as you walk to Palace Square for an outdoor classical music concert with a twist, featuring operatic pop vocal quartet Divo and Italian soprano ensemble Div4s, accompanied by the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, from 8 to 10 p.m.
Afterwards, “pop” into the nearby Kempinski Moika 22 Hotel to relax with a glass of champagne. Every night of the forum the hotel offers guests of the Economic Forum a champagne terrace, “Ruinart at Kempinski,” from 7 to 11 p.m. with special dishes from chef Christophe Laplaza.
Friday, June 21
Take a short detour out of the city with a charity music concert at Tsarskoye Selo, from 6-7 p.m., which will feature a symphony orchestra accompanying opera and ballet soloists from the Mariinsky Theater, among other performers, in the grand setting of Catherine the Great’s summer palace.
Get back in town in time for the dreamy ballet “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” danced to a Mendelssohn score, at the Mariisnky (1 Teatralnaya Ploshchad) at 8 p.m.
If you’re looking to be part of the dream yourself, “Cheerful Classics,” a concert of Italian composers under the crystal chandeliers of the Grand Hall of the Academic Shostakovich Philharmonic on Arts Square, may do the trick. The concert starts at 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 22
Admire ancient scrolls at the “Manuscript Treasures from the East on the Banks of the Neva” exhibition, offered every day of the forum by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oriental Manuscripts from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace at 18 Palace Embankment.
Later, take in the jarring rhythms and modern motions of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at the long-anticipated, highly lauded stage of the Mariinsky II theater (34 Ulitsa Dekabristov). The symphony will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Sunday, June 23
Cap off a true St. Petersburg weekend with the annual Alye Parusa (Scarlet Sails) high-school graduation celebration with open-air concerts and fireworks over the Neva just before midnight.