LOCAL NEWS

MARIINSKY DIVA BACK WITH NEW PRODUCTION

“I am happy, I am so very happy,” whispered Mariinsky star soprano Anna Netrebko, one of the world’s most acclaimed opera singers, as the curtain fell. The 37-year-old diva, who in September gave birth to her first child, son Tiago, made a triumphant comeback on stage on Wednesday night singing Lucia in John Doyle’s production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

The role of Lucia in Doyle’s ascetic and elegant production, which became a favorite with both critics and audiences after it premiered at the Scottish Opera in 2007, came naturally to Netrebko. The diva was on top form vocally with a fluid, soaring style.

The Mariinsky’s artistic director Valery Gergiev searched for a director to stage “Lucia” for many months after discovering Netrebko’s interest in the role. The maestro came across Doyle’s staging in August 2008 during his company’s tour to the Edinburgh International Festival, and immediately felt the production would be ideal for Netrebko.

STEEP PRICE HIKES TO HIT CONSUMERS IN 2009

Every New Year in Russia seems to bring price hikes, but this year increases in the cost of numerous goods and services seem particularly steep. Communal services (utilities), transport, cars, medicines, alcohol and some other products have all gone up in price in the first weeks of 2009.

Experts say price increases during a time of economic crisis may change the purchase patterns of the population.

NATIONAL NEWS

RIOTS IN LATVIAN CAPITAL LEAVE DOZENS WOUNDED

RIGA, Latvia — Latvia’s government and opposition politicians blamed each other Wednesday for rioting in the capital that left more than 40 people injured in the worst violence since the country split from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The violence erupted late Tuesday after a peaceful anti-government demonstration in downtown Riga, where participants criticized ministers for the country’s worsening recession and called on the president to dissolve the parliament.

AUSTRIA ARRESTS SHOOTING SUSPECT

MOSCOW — Austrian authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested a Chechen suspect in the audacious killing of a fellow Chechen on a Viennese street and are investigating whether certain “secret services” may have been behind the attack.

In Brief

Writer Marks 90th

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Famed Russian writer Daniil Granin was awarded with the Order of St. Andrew on his 90th birthday in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

St. Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko presented Granin with the medal in a solemn ceremony at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Interfax reported.

LOCAL BUSINESS

ECONOMY-CLASS STORES SEE BOOM IN BUSINESS

Turnover at Lenta supermarkets reached $2.04 billion last year, the chairman of the company’s board of directors, Stephen Ogden, announced this week. Growth stood at 30.7 percent compared to 2007, and December last year brought the company 6.7 billion rubles in revenues — 44 percent up on November, he said.

From October to November 2008, Lenta opened five new outlets, compared to two in 2007, and this is reflected in the growth rate of sales in December, which grew by 23 percent compared to December of the year before, or 10 percent if the new outlets are not taken into account, said Ogden.

IN BRIEF

Austrian Pulkovo Bid

ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Flughafen Wien, the operator of Vienna International Airport, plans to submit a bid for the airport in St. Petersburg, the Austrian Press Agency reported, citing Chief Executive Herbert Kaufmann. Flughafen Wien is part of a consortium with six other partners including Gazprombank, the report said.

OPINION

A REASON FOR HOPE WOULD EASE THE PAIN

Owing to the harsh economic situation, it was decided to cut off the light at the end of the tunnel as a temporary measure.” That is but one of the jokes making the rounds these days as the country faces its most severe crisis in a decade.

Having been born in the early 1960s, my generation remembers two crises.

THIS CRISIS ISN’T SO BAD AFTER ALL

The most common way of formulating an economic forecast is to compare current events to similar cases in the past, analyze how those historical events unfolded and then base the prediction on that model.

CULTURE

RAISING THEIR VOICES

CHUVASHKA, Russia — When Olga Tannagasheva starts to sing, her gentle voice transforms into a bass-line growl designed to invoke other-worldly spirits.

Tannagasheva, one of Russia’s 14,000 remaining Shors, also wants to communicate with modern Russians, as her ancient culture strives to reassert itself after decades of Soviet repression and enduring economic hardship.

WORD’S WORTH

If you work with translators or translations, here are a few things translators wish you knew about us and the work we do.

1. Ïåðåâîä÷èêè ïåðåâîäÿò íà ñâîé ðîäíîé ÿçûê (Translators translate into their native language).

CASE CLOSED

MOSCOW — Investigators have closed an investigation into the shooting by Bolshevik revolutionaries of Russia’s last Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1918, Itar-Tass news agency reported Thursday.

Launched after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the investigation was broadly viewed as a review of the country’s Communist past — considered by some as 70 years of national glory and others as a bloody nightmare.

MIXED BAG

Russia’s fractious political and economic relations with its former Soviet territories are much in the news with the ongoing gas dispute with Ukraine and, most bitterly, last summer’s war with the tiny Caucasus nation of Georgia.

PUTIN, THE ARTIST?

There are few governors as loyal as Valentina Matviyenko, the governor of St. Petersburg, but she may outshine Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as, despite the crisis, businessmen compete to throw money at her and Putin’s art at a charity auction in the city on Saturday.

Putin makes his artistic debut in an auction for paintings made by celebrities including rock singer Sergei Shnurov, which will raise money for a local hospital, the restoration of a church and a cancer unit in the city.

BLOCKBUSTER

There are projects so conspicuous that even while they’re at the concept stage they seem doomed. Let’s be honest here, when Fyodor Bondarchuk — the bearded, shaven-headed son of a hallowed Soviet film director with an omnipresent media persona and inherited courtier skills — announced a few years ago that he was going to direct a screen adaptation of a saga written by the gods of geeky Soviet science-fiction epics, the Strugatsky Brothers (who probably are as far from today’s popular culture as they were from having any courtier skills back in the U.

WORLD

BRITISH GOVERNMENT APPROVES PLANS FOR $13 BLN EXPANSION TO HEATHROW

SIPSON, England — The oldest resident of a village that will be wiped off the map by the expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport has vowed to stay in his home and defy the bulldozers.

Jack Clarke, 96, who has lived in Sipson since the days when surrounding farmland supplied fruit and vegetables for London’s markets, said he will never accept compensation to move.

124 ARRESTED IN PAKISTAN OVER INDIA ATTACK

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said on Thursday security forces had closed five training camps run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attack, and arrested 124 of its leaders and those of a related charity.

SPORT

NALBANDIAN, DJOKOVIC THROUGH TO SEMIS

SYDNEY — Argentina’s David Nalbandian scored a sweet victory over fierce Australian rival Lleyton Hewitt to power into the semi-finals of the Sydney ATP International on Thursday.

The tournament fourth seed dominated with his groundstrokes from the back court as he parcelled up a 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 win over the former world number one in one hour and 48 minutes.

MAN CITY’S KAKA DEAL REMAINS IN DOUBT

LONDON — Manchester City’s reported world record bid for AC Milan’s Brazilian playmaker Kaka hung in the balance on Thursday with conflicting reports on how the transfer talks were progressing.