Gallery
About
The Music Festival Stars of the White Nights 2026 at the legendary Mariinsky Theatre invites you into a world where opera, ballet, and symphonic music unfold with grandeur, precision, and emotional depth. Set in the cultural heart of Saint Petersburg, this prestigious festival continues its tradition of presenting the finest achievements of Russian and international performing arts — a living dialogue between heritage and innovation.
The 2026 season is gradually being revealed, with the programme currently announced for May and additional highlights expected to follow. Even at this stage, the festival promises a rich and diverse artistic journey, where iconic masterpieces and new productions coexist on the same stage, reflecting the Mariinsky’s signature breadth and ambition.
At the core of the festival lies a compelling operatic programme. Audiences can expect monumental works of the Russian repertoire, including Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov - one of the most anticipated productions of the season, Gioachino Rossini's L’italiana in Algeri, Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello — works that combine dramatic intensity with the extraordinary vocal and orchestral power for which the Mariinsky is internationally celebrated.
The festival also shines through its ballet programme, a cornerstone of the Mariinsky tradition. Spectators will experience timeless classics such as Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, and The Sleeping Beauty alongside contemporary choreographic works and premieres that continue to redefine the language of ballet.The Mariinsky Ballet, with its world-renowned dancers, brings elegance, virtuosity, and expressive depth to every performance.
The festival’s concert programme expands the artistic landscape even further. Symphonic evenings with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev include works by Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff, while chamber recitals and vocal concerts create moments of intimacy and reflection amid the grandeur of the season. The White Nights atmosphere gives every performance a unique emotional resonance, with concerts often continuing late into the luminous northern evenings.
Among the officially announced leading artists of the 2026 festival are world ballet star Diana Vishneva, bass Ildar Abdrazakov, soprano Hibla Gerzmava, mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina, and violinist Pavel Milyukov, whose appearances add exceptional artistic prestige to the programme.
What truly defines the Stars of the White Nights is its constellation of leading artists. The Music Festival Stars of the White Nights 2026 is more than a programme — it is a living organism, continuously evolving as new performances are announced. It invites you not only to witness great art, but to become part of a cultural tradition that has shaped the global stage for generations.
The full programme for the festival will be posted at a later date
About the Stars of the White Nights Festival
The Stars of the White Nights is one of the brightest stars of the music and theatre universe and has emerged to be one of the most popular and grandiose music forums in its context and scale.
The Stars of the White Nights Festival was created in 1993 by Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Theatre Artistic and General Director. Maestro Gergiev says that he conceived the first Festival as a "musical gift" to the city from the Mariinsky and its star-artists. From the very beginning the Festival has been focused on the masterpieces of the world's music discovering for its audience some rarely performed or undeservedly forgotten pieces.
The Stars of the White Nights Festival has gained in strength, popularity and international acclaim. The duration for the Festival it has expanded from ten days to three months during the last sixteen year. Renowned conductors and star-artists take as great honour the invitation to perform at the Stars of the White Nights. Each year the Festival programme includes the Theater's finest opera and ballet productions, great symphonic works, masterpieces of chamber music and new premieres.
During the last years the Festival programme has included the works created by the great classical composers – Beethoven symphonies, Prokofiev's and Tchaikovsky's operas, ballets and symphony music. Major events at the Stars have included the production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, in addition to the Shostakovich and Mahler Symphonies series.
This festival is a must for ballet, opera and classical music amateurs. The annual Stars of the White Nights Festival takes an inspiration for its name from the short summer season when the sun never sets, and the beauty of St-Petersburg White Nights contributes to the festival's special atmosphere and its world-class programme of concerts, as audience comes out of the historic theatre at midnight into daylight to stroll along the streets of the theatrical setting of St Petersburg.
