"Acclaimed music journalist John Ardoin focuses on the inspired directorship of Valery Gergiev in this celebration of the Kirov theater and its heroic survival. In the 1990s the great artistic institution regained its original name, the Mariinsky Theater, and thanks to Gergiev's tireless efforts won back its status as Russia's premier opera theater. At Gergiev's invitation, Ardoin moved to St.

Petersburg and endured the long Russian winter of 1995-1996 to chronicle the struggles and triumphs, the people and politics, of opera and ballet at the Kirov.

Four stories are woven together in these pages: an intrepid arts reporter's exhilarating year of discovery in Russia; a lively portrait of the jet-setting Russian conductor; a history of the theater and its fabled occupants since its inception in 1860; and the tale of an artistic entity surmounting great odds to meet the 21st century."--BOOK JACKET.