‘New Classics’ Ball

Move over, Vienna: your hegemony of the ballroom is over. Russian greatest dance-master power couple Mikhail and Yulia Gribov, who’ve already wooed over Austria’s snazziest ball venues, are hosting a majestic thé dansant in St. Petersburg’s Grand Hotel Europe this Saturday, October 20. Don’t you fret, classical dance rookies: the event will be prefaced by a Cinderella-style boot camp which will no doubt get you hot to trot. For others: read up on the dress code and polish your best pas: the dancefloor’s waiting. Tickets start at a whopping 3,000 rub, but don’t blanch: a ‘light appetizer’ and an opportunity to dump your coat in the cloakroom free of charge are included in the price (tickets with a full-blown dinner cost 7,000 rub, and you’re in for a 15,000 rub check for a pass plus a VIP dinner if you’re feelin’ super spendy and, well, VIP). The ball starts at 7pm, but you’re strongly recommended to arrive at 6pm – the organizers are not to be trifled with.

‘Ricordo di Roma’ (Remembering Rome) Exhibition

The Eternal City’s exquisite ruins and too-good-to-be-true statues, multiyear panoramic-view photos and ancient fine prints and gravures: villainous curators at the Rumyantsev Mansion have gathered their best weapons to make you fall in love with Rome all over again. The ‘Ricordo di Roma’ exhibition will feature best-of the impressive several-thousand Rome depictions the Mansion’s parent Museum of History of St. Petersburg has collected over the years. Tickets, this time, cost a modest three-digit number of 150 rub, and lucky students and pensioners can live it up at 100 rub. The Mansion is open from 11am to 6pm (5pm on Tuesdays), save for Wednesdays, when it’s fully and utterly closed. We wish you a very buona visione.

‘St. Petersburg Bassists’ Homage to Chaliapin’ Festival

Honoring the 145th birthday anniversary of the early 20th century singer doyen Feodor Chaliapin, the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music has devised a series of concerts by the crème de la crème of Russian opera singers, saving the best till last. In this weekend’s program, the world-renowned basso profondo Vladimir Miller will give you a tour of Russian minnelieds on October 20 (the topic is meh, but the execution will blow your mind). The next day, a Grammy-nominated bass prodigy Vladimir Feliauer will be hitting the low of the musical gamut in his performance of Mephistopheles’ aria from Charles Gounod’s Faust, Boris Godunov’s monolog from Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, and Farlaf’s rhondo from Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila. The events will be hosted in Chaliapin’s memorial flat, so expect a full immersion. Tickets cost 300 rub, all concerts start at 4pm.

‘Six Cellos by Candlelight’ Concert

Six cellists from The Cello Quartet are back to one of St. Petersburg creepiest churches, Annenkirche, to showcase their new program consisting of genius creations by Vivaldi, Rossini, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Paganini, Rimsky-Korsakov and many other musical greats, played by candlelight. The musicians are also throwing Casino Royale’s score and Giovanni Sollima’s futuristic pieces into the mix to cater for the most blasé of spectators. Tickets cost 600 rub if bought now and 800 rub on the day of the concert, so we advise you to get crackalackin' with your purchase if you’re interested.

‘Fashion of the Russian Art Nouveau’ Exhibition

Dozens of ornate, sightly dresses, panache-d vintage hats, modish gloves, and florid umbrellas: a famous Russian fashion historian Alexandre Vassiliev is bringing decadent Art Nouveau fashions to St. Petersburg’s Vitebsky railway station. If you think that’s an odd choice of venue, think again (and do your reading on St. Petersburg’s resplendent architectural diversity in a superb column by our very own architectonics expert) – the station is a living, breathing, puffing even, monument of the era, all smoothed-out corners, gilded statues and fluid lines. The exhibition will feature over 50 authentic garments dating all the way back to the late 19th century, so make sure to swing by the station from October 18 to December 29 to witness this goodness. Admission is free.

Have a nice weekend! Yours truly, ITMO.NEWS