Congratulations to Irma Nioradze, who celebrated 15 years since winning the '91 Jackson IBC and, shortly thereafter, joining the Mariinsky Theater as principal. As impressions and reviews trickle in, I'll translate & post them here (or maybe we'll even get a first-hand report or two). In the meantime, this was the programme, as posted in the Mariinsky website www.mariinsky.ru . It includes what appears to be an 'alternate fourth movement' of Jewels - 'Sapphires'!:

SAPPHIRES
(The Play of Jewels)

Music: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy & David Yevgenidze
Choreography: Georgy Aleksidze & Yegor Druzhinin
Sets: Anna & Anatoly Nezhny
Costumes: Alexander Vasiliev

Performed by Irma Nioradze,
Mikhail Lavrovsky, Ilya Kuznetsov, Mikhail Lobukhin
and artists of the State Academic Musorgsky-Mikhailovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre

SCHEHERAZADE
Fokine/Rimsky-Korsakov

Performed by Irma Nioradze & Danila Korsuntsev

LE PAPILLON Premiere

Music: Maurice Ravel (Piano Concerto in D major for left land)
Choreography, sets and costumes: Jean Christophe Blavier
Lighting design: Vladimir Lukasevich
Coaches: Yuri Fateyev & Viktor Baranov

Performed by Irma Nioradze, Mikhail Lobukhin
and the Men´s Corps de Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre

AUTUMN COLOURS

Music: Arvo Pärt
Choreography: Yevgeny Panfilov

Performed by Elvira Tarasova & Andrei Batalov

TANGO

Music: Astor Piazolla
Choreography: Alexander Polubentsev

Performed by Ketevan Papava & Mikhail Lobukhin

THE DYING SWAN

Fokine/Saint-Saëns

Performed by Irma Nioradze