Sacred Stage: The Mariinsky Theater

Set against the backdrop of the magical White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Sacred Stage features the best in Russian symphonic music, ballet and opera at Russia's premier theater -- the Mariinsky, also known as the Kirov. Sacred Stage explores what the theater has meant to Russian and Soviet culture and how it has somehow maintained its artistic excellence through war, revolution and the collapse of Communism. It also looks at the life and work of Maestro Valery Gergiev, artistic and theater director at the Mariinsky, and captures the excitement of his world -- a world populated with artists, socialites, financiers, politicians and celebrities.