On 15 June 2025, during the curtain call following a performance of La Bayadère, the principal of the Hungarian National Ballet was surprised with the announcement that she would be the recipients of the greatest honour of the ballet company of the Hungarian State Opera for the next season. She was presented with a swan-shaped award made by the Herend Porcelain Manufactory by ballet director Tamás Solymosi, amidst the celebration of her colleagues and the audience.
In the current season, Maria Yakovleva made her debut as Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow), and was also warmly received by the Hungarian audience in the roles of Swanilda (Coppélia), Manon, and Nikiya (La Bayadère). She delivered a memorable Spartacus grand pas de deux with Louis Scrivener, the Étoile of the 2024/25 season, at the 9th Iván Nagy International Ballet Gala. Audiences also had the chance to see her again as Odette/Odile (Swan Lake) and Princess Maria (The Nutcracker).
Born in Saint Petersburg, the ballerina graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy and spent one season with the Mariinsky Theatre before joining the ballet company of the Vienna State Opera as a soloist in 2005. She was promoted to principal in 2010. In the autumn of 2022, she made her debut as a principal of the Hungarian National Ballet in one of her signature roles, Mary Vetsera, in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling. Over the past three seasons, in addition to the roles already mentioned, she has appeared in nearly all the major leading roles of the classical and neoclassical repertoire, delivering powerful performances as Flavia (Spartacus), Gala (The Pygmalion Effect), Kitri (Don Quixote), Medora (Le Corsaire), and the Fairy (The Wooden Prince).
In the 2025/26 season, Maria Yakovleva will appear before the Opera House audience for the first time as Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), as Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), and in Jiří Kylián’s choreography Petite Mort. She will also return to the stage in her powerful leading roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Onegin.
With the Étoile award, modeled after the French ballet traditions, the management of the OPERA wishes to express its appreciation – similarly to the KammersängerIn title for its outstanding active soloists – to the talent and stage performance of the ballet dancers. The Étoile title can be awarded to one ballet dancer and it also comes with special remuneration during the season. In the past decade, the accolades were presented at the end-of-season gala. As an innovation, they are now presented during the season, allowing the audience to share in the surprise and joy of their favourite artists.
