Superbly performed opera by Rimsky Korsakoff provisional highlight of changeable opening weekend Gergiev Festival

"My commitment to the city (Rotterdam) and the orchestra knows no end," Valeri Gergyev spoke on the occasion of the Gergyev Festival taking place in Rotterdam this week. This is good news, as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the former principal conductor still get along well. And to be backed by this global top-5 conductor is extremely important in these harsh times of irresponsible budget cuts.

That conductor and orchestra still have a 'click' was evident on Saturday night at de Doelen in a scintillating performance of the opera Sadko (1892-96) by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakoff. This work has not been performed in our country before and is definitely worth staging. The St Petersburg composer is considered one of the founding fathers of Russian composition. He composed several operas and, as in his concert repertoire, in Sadko he combined Russian folk music with sometimes pure impressionism.

The libretto is by the composer himself and rattles on all sides. The legend is about Sadko, to merchant with musical talent. He plays a goesli, a stringed instrument, with which he accompanies his enchanting singing. Sadko allows himself to be seduced by Princess Volkhova, daughter of the King of the Ocean. She lets him catch golden fish, thus embarrassing the overweening merchants of Novgorod. However, as Sadko is lured away from his lawful wife, a pilgrim (in the legend, St Nicholas of Myra) intervenes and order is restored and the gods of nature disbanded as a relevant power.

The cranky story is told by Rimsky Korsakoff beautifully held together by its brilliant composition. The sea scenes are purely impressionistic, and precursory to the Nocturnes and La Mer of Claude Debussy. The performance by the RPhO and soloists and choir of the Mariinsky Theatre from St Petersburg was relaxed, sparkling and of great class. All elements fell into place as a matter of course, the balance was perfect and the orchestra played with enormous depth and great transparency. Moreover, the casting was excellent. There was a small role for a big voice for Mikhail Kit and Daniil Shtoda; Sadko was exceptionally well played by Viktor Lutsyuk.

The concertantly performed Sadko was of a higher order than Les Troyens by Berlioz a day earlier. The immoderate Berlioz processed Virgil's Aeneas in a four-hour opera telling pretty much the entire fall of Troy, complete with the stories of Cassandra and Dido and Aeneas. Now the entire company of the Mariinsky Theatre from St Petersburg was playing. Although this opera is a repertory piece for them that has not been performed for a long time, the ze production was downright messy and sloppy. The opera got off to a ponderous start, but despite the miscasting (Didion was sung not by Anna Markarova as stated in the programme book but by mezzo-soprano Elena Vitman), it had some wonderful moments. In a matching video, the sand art of Kseniya Simonova projected on a screen and Didion and Aeneas' declaration of love was beautiful, both in terms of musical performance and in its design in sand.

Furthermore, the Russian orchestra played messily and not precisely; moreover, depth of sound was lacking. Only the male soloists (Sergei Semishkur as Énée - Aeneas) scored satisfactorily in this respect. Nor was Gergiev satisfied with this performance.

The opening concert, Thursday night, was also a somewhat lesser turn by Gergiev. Mahler's 9th Symphony was paired with the overture to Lohengrin by Wagner and the surprising suite Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten. Lohengrin was beautifully played by the RPhO, Britten, with the many percussion pieces, was a real find, but Mahler's immoderate and manic symphony never came to an end. Now Mahler himself buzzed on endlessly, Gergiev didn't really know what to do with it either. Every time you think: yes, now it is finished, Mahler needed another fifteen minutes to reach his final notes. A great Mahler conductor already, Gergyev is not, but this work requires more insight into the tormented mind of this composer to achieve a satisfactory performance. And the only link that could be made to the overall programme at this festival is Benjamin Britten's appreciation of Mahler. But with the sea or the city, this does not have much ut to do.

Attended: Gergiev festival in Rotterdam on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings 9, 10 and 11 September