It would be safe to say that last Saturday night all, or almost all, of St. Petersburg's beau monde assembled in two beautiful buildings on Ploshchad Iskusstv. Jose Carreras performed with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. The Maly (Mussorgsky) Theater featured the Russian premiere of "Les Noces," a work first choreographed in Paris in 1923.


For opera fans, disappointed when Franco Zeffirelli backed out of staging "Aida" at the Mariinsky last Tuesday and Placido Domingo, pleading a sore throat, canceled a June 19 engagement at the theater, the Carreras concert was the last big event of the season. Given the astronomical price of the tickets (up to $245 in the front rows), it was a gesture of goodwill to install a huge TV screen outside the Philharmonic.


The event at the Maly was more moderately priced but artistically more significant. The theater staged two works with scores by Igor Stravinsky: "Petrushka" and "Les Noces," choreographed by two outstanding 20th century Russian choreographers: Mikhail Fokine and Bronislava Nijinska, respectively. Both pieces were created by artists living abroad and both were premiered by Sergei Diaghilev's company in Paris. And yet the two are strikingly different in their music, choreography, sets, and production history.


"Petrushka," musically in the tradition of Rimsky-Korsakov, with sets by Alexander Benois, premiered in 1911. A characteristic Mir Iskusstva piece, unlike other Fokine productions, it was first staged in Russia as early as 1920.


"Les Noces," or "Svadebka" as it is known to Russians, which was created and premiered only 12 years later, sounds and looks as if it comes not only from a different composer and choreographer, but from a different era. Bronislava Nijinska's geometric movements and Natalia Goncharova's sets and costumes were a radical modernist departure from the academic approach of classical ballet. No wonder the work was never performed in the artistically conservative Soviet Union.


The performance of "Les Noces" in St. Petersburg was a landmark event: For the first time a work by Nijinska was danced by a Russian company. Nijinska (1891-1972), the sister of legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, choreographed more than 80 ballets. "Les Noces" was also a breakthrough for the Maly Ballet Company, which seems forever lost in the looming shadow of the Mariinsky.


The presentation of the ballet was under the auspices of St. Petersburg 2003, a partnership launched by the Citizen Exchange Council, a New York- based private non-profit organization.


After the performance, we stepped out into the warm summer rain to catch Carreras' last crescendo on the outdoor monitor. It was the White Nights Season at its prime.