St. Petersburg Cultural Events February 18, 2026

PHOTO by Alexandra TSUKANOVA

Big Concert Hall “Oktyabrsky”

On February 18, the first concert of the large project “Music of Joy” (6+), dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the St. Petersburg symphony orchestra “Classics”, will take place. Since its founding, this group has been distinguished by its skill and fidelity to the performing traditions of the Northern capital. The basis of his repertoire consists of works by Mozart, Haydn and Tchaikovsky. At the anniversary concerts “Music of Joy”, the permanent director of the orchestra, maestro Alexander Kantorov, will talk about the history of “Classics” and share facts from the lives of the musicians. And the musicians, in turn, will perform masterpieces by Russian and foreign composers, including waltzes beloved by the St. Petersburg public.

Musical Comedy Theater

On February 20 – 22, theater artists will perform the premiere of Florimond Herve’s operetta “The Time of Love” (12+). With the sense of humor characteristic of this composer and librettist, it tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of one family. Hervé composed more than one hundred works for musical theater. However, in our country, only one of his operettas, “Mademoiselle Nitouche,” is well known. “The uniqueness of our premiere is, first of all, that the work of an outstanding composer who stood at the origins of the genre will appear on stage, not performed anywhere except in St. Petersburg. The theater’s chief conductor, Honored Artist of Russia Andrei Alekseev, did a lot of research, clearing the score of later layers, and delicately corrected the musical material with fragments from the works of Herve himself,” says Nikolai Pokotylo, stage director.

Alexandrinsky Theater

On February 21, the premiere of a solo performance by actress Olga Belinskaya and director Elizaveta Moroz, “Leka’s Diary” (18+), will take place on the 7th tier. The literary basis of the production was the diaries of Olga Berggolts – records from 1939 – 1949 and later. Thanks to this, the performance does not create a formal biography of the poet, but a living emotional portrait of the heroine, acutely aware of the era and experiencing a deep personal drama against its backdrop. The story of fate is told not in chronological order, but in the interpenetration of different times and events, in the polyphony of thoughts and feelings of different years. The past and the present are mixed in a single stream. The performance turns to the internal biography, decomposed into three voices, three hypostases of Leki – this is the childhood name Bergholz called herself in her diaries. She is in romantic youth, in young years, in adulthood.

Maltese Chapel

On February 21, the Divertimento chamber orchestra, led by Honored Artist of Russia Ilya Ioff, will perform a concert dedicated to the work of Antonio Vivaldi, a Venetian composer, virtuoso violinist, conductor and… Catholic priest, nicknamed the red abbot for his hair color. Program “Happy Birthday, Red Abbot!” (6+) will include well-known Vivaldi masterpieces, including concerts from the “Seasons” cycle, as well as rarities, rarely performed on the St. Petersburg stage.

Catherine’s Collection

On February 21, “Petersburg Concert” invites you to an evening of ancient and modern choreography, in which stars of the national ballet scene (6+) will take part. The central part of the program is the one-act ballet “Pavana Moor”, created by choreographer Jose Limon based on Shakespeare’s “Othello” to the music of the English composer Henry Purcell. In the Great Hall of the Catherine Collection, “Pavan the Moor” will be presented in the version of the People’s Artist of Russia Farukh Ruzimatov, where the outstanding dancer will perform the main role of Othello, and the audience will see the part of Desdemona performed by the Honored Artist of Russia, prima ballerina of the Mikhailovsky Theater Irina Perren. The evening program also included: “Russian Dance” and adagio from the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” by Tchaikovsky, “Magdalene Passion” to music by Bregovich, “Bolero” by Ravel.

Palace of Princes Beloselsky-Belozersky

On February 22, for Defender of the Fatherland Day, the St. Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra will present a concert program that brings together masterpieces of Soviet music of the 20th century – “Time, Forward!” (6+). At the conductor’s stand is the artistic director of the group, an expert and master of interpretation of musical works of this period, Alexander Titov. The central place in the program is occupied by the music of Georgy Sviridov. A significant event will be the performance of his memorial orchestral piece “In Memory of the Fallen,” created in 1973 for the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk. The score of the work was considered lost for a long time, and only in the 2010s this music began to return to the concert stage. The program will be complemented by works by Dmitry Shostakovich, Boris Tishchenko, Alexander Harutyunyan and Sergei Vasilenko.

Buff Theater

On February 22 and 23, the musical performance “Salute, entertainer!” will be shown here. (12+) based on the play by Grigory Gorin. The recent premiere of artistic director Mikhail Smirnov is a declaration of love for the stage, humor, and the art of being on stage. The entertainer and his friends – singers, dancers, magicians – live and create, following the biblical: “Rejoice in life and make others happy.” The hero jokes and philosophizes, sings and improvises, draws the viewer into the game, making everyone a participant in what is happening. The prototypes of the heroes of the play were Arkady Raikin, Boris Sichkin, Tarapunka and Shtepsel, Leonid Utesov, Lidiya Ruslanova and thousands of others. These are artists who, performing on the front line, supported the fighters, bringing the day of the Great Victory closer.