It's been more than a decade since Russia changed the name of the former Czarist capital back to St. Petersburg, but in Japan, where commercial concerns overrule even historical destiny, it took a long time for the reversion to take hold. For most of the '90s, any orchestra or ballet company from the city was invariably advertised as being from Leningrad (with "St. Petersburg" added in parentheses), since the Soviet name has a stronger grasp on the imaginations of classical music buffs in Japan. Even at the height of the Cold War, Japan welcomed these artists almost annually. In fact, the St. Petersburg Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre tours the archipelago every December and January, but in Japan they change their name to the Leningrad State Ballet and Opera.

The final nail in the Leningrad coffin should be driven in this fall, when almost every major Russian artist will find his or her way to Japan to celebrate the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Czar Peter I founded the city as "a window to Europe" in 1703 after he captured the area from the Swedes and built the Fortress of Peter and Paul there. It has always been considered the most Westernized city in Russia, which is one of the reasons the Bolsheviks moved the capital to Moscow after the revolution.

The city's dedication to European art is represented by the Hermitage Museum and the Mariinsky Theatre, which is home to the Kirov Opera and Ballet. The Kirov is arguably the one great Russian artistic institution that has flourished, artistically, since the fall of the Soviet regime. While its Moscow counterpart, the Bolshoi, hemorrhages artists to the West and becomes increasingly mired in power grabs and scandals involving (supposedly) overweight prima donnas, the Kirov rivals the great opera houses and ballet companies of the world, and for one reason: Valery Gergiev.