Last month, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, hosted the premiere of a musical performance that completed a 150-year-old opera with the help of neural network technologies.
The mystic opera, Mandragora, was based on an idea by Peter Tchaikovsky and Sergey Rachinsky, and the work was recreated and completed by Peter Dranga and neural networks from Sberbank.
The libretto was finalised by GigaChat, the musical fabric by SymFormer, and Kandinsky created visual and scenic solutions.
“All artificial intelligence solutions were implemented under artistic control and with deep respect for the style of the era,” Sberbank said in a statement.
The performance became one of the central events of the XXXIII Stars of the White Nights Music Festival, marking a new stage in the development of the synthesis of art and technology.
The premiere of Mandragora, on 16 June, was timed to coincide with the 185th anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s birth.
“It is not only an act of remembrance, but also a continuation of his creative path,” said Sberbank. “It is also symbolic that this opera was presented on the stage of St. Petersburg, in the very city where the composer lived and worked and where, according to the original plan, the play was to be staged. Now, the play will become part of the Mariinsky Theatre’s repertoire in the 2025-2026 season.”
German Gref, president and chairman of Sberbank said: “Mandragora is a collaboration between a large number of people: our wonderful musician and composer Peter Dranga, the brilliant maestro Valery Gergiev and, of course, the artists of the Mariinsky Theatre. And all this is implemented together with AI, which saves a huge amount of time.
“Imagine how long it takes to arrange a score for a large symphony orchestra. This is not the composers’ favourite work, because it takes up years of their lives. And thanks to artificial intelligence, a person can focus on creativity — the realisation of what is inside him. And AI can be a very powerful helper and inspiration.”
Valery Gergiev, conductor, artistic director and general director of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theaters, spelled out the significance of the event: “An incredible number of interesting things has already been done in the world, and in the world of opera and ballet, using new technologies for real without breaking the natural connection with the creative work on which it is superimposed, is the most difficult thing.”
Composer Pеter Dranga said that AI offers options, helps to refine, speeds up the process, and makes it even more interesting.
“This is by no means a competition, but an absolute collaboration,” he said. “I think it will help us all a lot in the future. And our opera should change not only our characters, but also everyone around who watched it.
“Because people always do certain things in the name of something. They are growing spiritually. The opera is about that. And everything happens inside the head that you will see on stage. This is the personification of Mandragora herself.”
The performance involved more than 170 artists, including the Grand Symphony Orchestra and soloists. The central scenic image is a giant head, inside which fantastic worlds unfold with the help of video mapping.
The director of the play is Ilya Ustyantsev, the costume designer is Sergey Novikov. The set designer is Alexander Kudryavtsev. Alexander Sivaev (lighting), Murad Ibatullin (3D graphics), Boris Tsibisov (mapping) worked on the visual part. The head of the production group is Maxim Kozlov.
The performance has become an international project, involving soloists, choirs and orchestras performing on leading stages in Europe and Asia. The main roles were performed by Vasily Ladyuk and Alina Chertash, whose performances take place at the largest opera venues in the world.
The performance was implemented under the guidance of Sber Metaverse Tech and Sber Marketing.