Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre is Russia's oldest and most famous opera and ballet house, a symbol of Moscow on a par with the Kremlin and Red Square. Its grand neoclassical building, fronted by a columned portico and a bronze quadriga of Apollo, stands on Theatre Square right in the city centre, a short walk from the Kremlin.

History

The theatre traces its founding to 28 March 1776, when Moscow's provincial prosecutor Prince Pyotr Urusov received a licence from Empress Catherine the Great to maintain a theatrical company. Together with the entrepreneur Michael Maddox he built the wooden Petrovsky Theatre on Petrovka Street, which opened at the end of 1780 with the pantomime ballet "The Magic Shop". That building burned down in 1805, and a new one, designed by the architect Osip Bove on Theatre Square, opened in January 1825 with the performance "Triumph of the Muses". In 1853 the theatre burned again, almost to the ground — the fire lasted three days, leaving only the outer walls and the portico columns standing. The rebuilding was led by the architect Albert Cavos, who gave the hall much of its present appearance; the theatre reopened in 1856. In 1924, during the Soviet period, the Bolshoi was granted academic status. In 2005 the historic stage was closed for a major reconstruction and reopened on 28 October 2011 with a gala concert; since 2002 it has been complemented by a modern New Stage nearby.

Architecture and interiors

The façade is crowned by an eight-column portico with a pediment, topped by a bronze quadriga of Apollo by the sculptor Pyotr Klodt. The five-tiered auditorium seats more than two thousand spectators; its ceiling is painted with nine muses led by Apollo, and bronze horses stand above the tiers of boxes. The famous crystal chandelier holds about 24,000 pendants and weighs more than two tonnes; it was originally lit by candles, then by oil and gas, before finally being electrified. Beneath the building, at a depth of up to 27 metres, lie technical rooms and scenery stores, and the Beethoven Hall was deliberately placed underground to isolate it from the noise of the nearby metro.

Legends

The Bolshoi has its share of legends. One tells how the peasant Vasily Marin carried a man out of the 1853 fire and was awarded a medal for it; his ghost is said to have watched over the theatre against fire ever since. Performers keep a superstition against saying the name of the ballet "Swan Lake" out loud before a show, calling it "the white ballet" instead — its 1877 premiere is remembered as a failure, and in 1991, during a tour in France, the sets for that very ballet burned down. There are also stories of underground passages to the Okhotny Ryad metro station, said to have served as an air-raid shelter during the Second World War.

Getting there

The theatre stands at 1 Theatre Square; the nearest metro stations are Teatralnaya and Okhotny Ryad, with signs pointing the way from both. Red Square and Zaryadye Park are both within easy walking distance.