The difference between Saint Petersburg and Moscow consists, among other things, in that the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg is a museum, whereas the one in Moscow is a theatre. However, at our Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg there is a theatre too. It was created for Catherine the Great by Giacomo Quarenghi, who built an amphitheatre and a stage above the first floor of Peter the Great’s Winter Palace. The theatre was primarily designed as an opera house, and Catherine II herself wrote some of the scenarios for the operas staged there. For centuries, performances at the Hermitage Theatre were the most noteworthy events in the cultural life of the imperial Russian court. In the 20th century, the theatre was integrated into the system of the museum’s activities, both scientific and theatrical/musical, the latter coming to play an increasingly important role.

The "museum-theatre" is a bidirectional cultural interaction. On the one hand, there is currently a pronounced trend for the theatralization of traditional museum events (primarily exhibitions), with displayed works of art often being regarded as scenery items or parts of a larger multimedia performance. But this is fraught with lost sensation of the peculiar authenticity that distinguishes museum-going from any other cultural activity. On the other hand, the museum tends to absorb theatrical practices, as well as those typical of other arts, to transcend the decorative role of "scenery" habitually assigned to it within the context of global cultural discourse - of which it strives to be an equal participant and interlocutor. Here, the interiors of the museum’s halls, as well as the facade of the Winter Palace, all form an integral aesthetic component for musical concerts, for which the stage was especially designed. Programmes are specially adapted to the specificity of the Hermitage Theatre - particularly as the area of its auditorium is nearly equal to that of the stage, which enables spectators to easily see not only the performers, but also each other.

"Museum" means "shrine of the Muses," many of which are theatrical. Numerous programmes being realized by the State Hermitage Museum, both on its own and in cooperation with the Mariinsky Theatre and Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, are aimed exactly at returning these Muses and rendering the museum their habitual home. Artistic synthesis can be based both on the deployment of innovative technologies, and on a return to early traditions - symbolized by the statues of Apollo Musagetes and the Muses looking upon the visitor from the recesses of the theater’s hall.

Mikhail Piotrovsky
Director of State Hermitage Museum

Contents of the magazine:

Events

Exhibitions
Olga Tararukhina on Louise Bourgeois

Music
Music of the Revolution series of concerts as held at the Hermitage

Architecture
Paul Andreu on Beijing Opera

Books
Favourite books of Ekaterina Andreeva

Cinema
Joseph Pew on Peter Greenaway

Discussions
Bloggers on the SocArt exhibition

Stage
Russian ballet as viewed by Deborah Turbeville
Ballet key to Tancred and Erminia by Nicolas Poussin
Elena Kolovskaya on Tristan and Isolde by Bill Viola
Nine counter-tenor participating in a new production of Sant’Alessio
Eimuntas Nekrosius interviewed
Venice as the ideal stage
Alexei Lepork on modern opera architecture

Art and Money
Geraldine Norman on museum falsifications
Art historian in search of the author
Modern art falsification

Collection
Hospitals where masterpieces come to be cured
Six collectors of Russia

In detail
J. Chardin’s House of Cards

Anniversaries
Oscar Niemeyer’s centenary

My Hermitage
Children at the museum

Promotions
Exhibitions in Russia and abroad. Choice of the Hermitage magazine
Auctions and trade

Retrospective
Lucian Freud

Hermitage Magazine. Winter 2007-2008,
No (4) 9