The organizers of the event spoke about this at a press conference.
The following officials answered the questions from journalists:
- Artistic Director of the Dresden Ball Hans-Joachim Fry,
- Chairman of the Committee on External Relations of St. Petersburg Evgeny Grigoryev,
- Chairman of the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg Konstantin Sukhenko,
- Director General of NTV Channel Alexei Zemsky,
- Director General of the film studio "Lenfilm" Eduard Pichugin and others.
Over the 10-year history of the project, the Dresden Ball will be held outside Germany for the first time, which will certainly emphasize the special friendly ties between St. Petersburg and Dresden. “The Dresden Opera Ball, which will be held in St. Petersburg, is very important for building cultural bridges between Germany and Russia, between the two twin cities of St. Petersburg and Dresden. Strong ties still remain between our two countries and both cities, ”says Hans-Joachim Fry.
Also, for the first time, another innovation will be instituted for St. Petersburg. In addition to the traditional gala concert of world opera stars (to be held at the Mikhailovsky Theater) and the ball itself (to be held at the D. D. Shostakovich St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic), the entrance to which is strictly by tickets, a special venue with a screen will be equipped on the Arts Square for broadcasting online events. Entrance to this site will be free. As Hans-Joachim Fry emphasized, this requires additional investments, but the organizers go for it to give a present to all Petersburgers.
For reference: In 2021, 60 years of twinning between St. Petersburg and Dresden will be celebrated.
In September last 2018, in Berlin, our cities were awarded with a certificate in the framework of the Russian-German Year of Regional-Municipal Partnerships 2017/2018. with the wording "for a significant contribution to the development of regional-municipal cooperation between Russia and Germany."
The first part of the ball will be held at the Mikhailovsky Theater with the participation of theater groups led by conductor Massimo Zanetti and such famous soloists of the world opera as Albina Shagimuratova, Nadia Michael, Aida Garifulina, Stephen Gould, as well as cellist Sergei Roldugin. The program will be led by Oksana Fedorova and Tom Vlashikha.
The second part of the program will be held in the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D. D. Shostakovich, where guests will expect a performance by jazz legend Igor Butman and his Big Band, the popular Genghis Khan group in Germany, as well as a choreographic staging of the Dresden debutants of the SemperOper Ball and Russian debutants from the St. Petersburg Suvorov Military School.
To participate in the "Dresden Ball", we expect a visit of a representative delegation from our partner city, headed by its chief mayor Dirk Hilbert.