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| Bolshai Theater |
Thirty years ago, during my first trip to Russia, I bought a ticket for the Bolshoi Ballet. Though I paid an excessive amount by 1984 Soviet standards for a restricted-view seat all the way on the side of the sixth, uppermost ring, I didn’t care: I was in the Bolshoi Theater for the first time. It was the world premiere of Yuri Grigorovich’s new production of the three-act ballet “Raymonda” (1898). To see better, I switched to a slightly more central place. To steady myself, I sometimes placed my hand on the ceiling.
It’s strange to return to any theater for the first time in 30 years, but none more than the Bolshoi. The Russian nation and its capital city have greatly changed; Russia’s dealings with the West — and its presentation of its own history — have been transformed; and the Bolshoi Theater itself has been completely renovated and partly rebuilt. By 2005, structural problems within the opera house had caused several vertical cracks to open in the building’s outer walls. It was closed for six years for extensive top-to-bottom renovations.
The 2011 reopening was a grand gala affair, screened live around the world. Opera and ballet stars performed; celebrities in the audience included two of the theater’s greatest legends, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (who died the next year) and the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. Today’s Bolshoi Theater gleams bright, and, like so much of Russia, it recaptures more of its own past than could be seen in the Soviet era. The insignia of the double-headed eagle — an emblem of the czarist era — is to be seen again in many places, not least on the spectacular curtain.
This is one of the great 19th-century opera houses and its central place in Russian culture includes both czarist coronation celebrations and Communist Party policy announcements. Premieres by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Prokofiev occurred here. Money has been spent to restore its pre-Soviet acoustics; I wish the three performances I saw there in late March had featured music more distinguished than that of Auber’s 1857 ballet, “Marco Spada”; and I should love to hear how superb voices fill it. But visually, in its auditorium and its public spaces, the Bolshoi may well now be the world’s most splendid theater.
“Bolshoi” means “big.” But — though Bolshoi dancers certainly move on a big scale — this theater is not too big. Its stage, though wider than that of the Metropolitan Opera House, is not Europe’s largest; its auditorium has never been a world leader in terms of audience capacity.
In Soviet days, the Bolshoi had a capacity of almost 2,000. That has now been reduced to 1,740, with the audience in the parterre section (as the orchestra is called) seated on individual free-standing upright chairs. The Bolshoi’s top gallery, now as 30 years ago, is only three rows deep. The Metropolitan Opera House, inhumanly large to European tastes, seats 3,800.
What has always been thrilling about the Bolshoi is its six-tier height, matched only by that of some Italian opera houses (notably La Scala in Milan and San Carlo in Naples), the glamorous intensity of its gold-and-red interior auditorium, and — brilliantly restored to pre-Soviet beauty — the large number of spectacular foyers. The largest processional space on the second floor is a rectangle; in the old days, members of the audience would politely parade during intermissions around its perimeter, often in twos and threes, making conversation and acknowledging one another — an Old World custom that seems now to have vanished.
Outside the sixth ring, in a hall where once the ballet company used to take class, there is now a vast, pleasantly spacious cafeteria. Some of the second-floor foyers feature exhibitions about the theater’s past. This March, one room honored the beloved ballerina Ekaterina Maximova (1939-2009); another exhibited the Bolshoi’s tradition in the operas of Mussorgsky, with photographs of performers in “Boris Godunov,” “Khovanshchina,” “Sorochinsky Fair” and others.
Some members of the audience dress to the nines, others wear jeans; both extremes pass without fuss. Many pose for photographs. Dancing registers easily here, and it comes across as a luxury art in a luxury setting.
The restoration has helped recapture the theater’s lost czarist brilliance. Onstage and backstage, however, nothing old remains. Equipment is state of the art; a whole new area has been added behind the stage, for further scenery and rehearsals.
The facade of the Bolshoi is famous — though few pictures show the house’s café-crème color (replacing the dirty gray it acquired in Soviet days). Eight massive Ionic pillars support a grand pediment, which in turn acts as a platform for Apollo, god of the arts, and his quadriga — his chariot and four horses, which are caught in mid-action as if ready to race into the air ahead of the theater. (Inside, Apollo is also seen on the theater ceiling, with the nine Muses.)
During a tour of the theater, it delighted me to find that the costume department is situated just behind the quadriga. People are now at work on ballet and opera costumes that will be seen on the company’s American visit in May (Kennedy Center, Washington) and July (Lincoln Center in New York). Beyond them, the windows give an astonishing view: past Apollo, his chariot and steeds, and over toward the domes and spires of Red Square. Those who labor over tutus and robes backstage have nonetheless one of the most spectacular views in Russia. –NY Times
It’s strange to return to any theater for the first time in 30 years, but none more than the Bolshoi. The Russian nation and its capital city have greatly changed; Russia’s dealings with the West — and its presentation of its own history — have been transformed; and the Bolshoi Theater itself has been completely renovated and partly rebuilt. By 2005, structural problems within the opera house had caused several vertical cracks to open in the building’s outer walls. It was closed for six years for extensive top-to-bottom renovations.
The 2011 reopening was a grand gala affair, screened live around the world. Opera and ballet stars performed; celebrities in the audience included two of the theater’s greatest legends, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (who died the next year) and the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. Today’s Bolshoi Theater gleams bright, and, like so much of Russia, it recaptures more of its own past than could be seen in the Soviet era. The insignia of the double-headed eagle — an emblem of the czarist era — is to be seen again in many places, not least on the spectacular curtain.
This is one of the great 19th-century opera houses and its central place in Russian culture includes both czarist coronation celebrations and Communist Party policy announcements. Premieres by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Prokofiev occurred here. Money has been spent to restore its pre-Soviet acoustics; I wish the three performances I saw there in late March had featured music more distinguished than that of Auber’s 1857 ballet, “Marco Spada”; and I should love to hear how superb voices fill it. But visually, in its auditorium and its public spaces, the Bolshoi may well now be the world’s most splendid theater.
“Bolshoi” means “big.” But — though Bolshoi dancers certainly move on a big scale — this theater is not too big. Its stage, though wider than that of the Metropolitan Opera House, is not Europe’s largest; its auditorium has never been a world leader in terms of audience capacity.
In Soviet days, the Bolshoi had a capacity of almost 2,000. That has now been reduced to 1,740, with the audience in the parterre section (as the orchestra is called) seated on individual free-standing upright chairs. The Bolshoi’s top gallery, now as 30 years ago, is only three rows deep. The Metropolitan Opera House, inhumanly large to European tastes, seats 3,800.
What has always been thrilling about the Bolshoi is its six-tier height, matched only by that of some Italian opera houses (notably La Scala in Milan and San Carlo in Naples), the glamorous intensity of its gold-and-red interior auditorium, and — brilliantly restored to pre-Soviet beauty — the large number of spectacular foyers. The largest processional space on the second floor is a rectangle; in the old days, members of the audience would politely parade during intermissions around its perimeter, often in twos and threes, making conversation and acknowledging one another — an Old World custom that seems now to have vanished.
Outside the sixth ring, in a hall where once the ballet company used to take class, there is now a vast, pleasantly spacious cafeteria. Some of the second-floor foyers feature exhibitions about the theater’s past. This March, one room honored the beloved ballerina Ekaterina Maximova (1939-2009); another exhibited the Bolshoi’s tradition in the operas of Mussorgsky, with photographs of performers in “Boris Godunov,” “Khovanshchina,” “Sorochinsky Fair” and others.
Some members of the audience dress to the nines, others wear jeans; both extremes pass without fuss. Many pose for photographs. Dancing registers easily here, and it comes across as a luxury art in a luxury setting.
The restoration has helped recapture the theater’s lost czarist brilliance. Onstage and backstage, however, nothing old remains. Equipment is state of the art; a whole new area has been added behind the stage, for further scenery and rehearsals.
The facade of the Bolshoi is famous — though few pictures show the house’s café-crème color (replacing the dirty gray it acquired in Soviet days). Eight massive Ionic pillars support a grand pediment, which in turn acts as a platform for Apollo, god of the arts, and his quadriga — his chariot and four horses, which are caught in mid-action as if ready to race into the air ahead of the theater. (Inside, Apollo is also seen on the theater ceiling, with the nine Muses.)
During a tour of the theater, it delighted me to find that the costume department is situated just behind the quadriga. People are now at work on ballet and opera costumes that will be seen on the company’s American visit in May (Kennedy Center, Washington) and July (Lincoln Center in New York). Beyond them, the windows give an astonishing view: past Apollo, his chariot and steeds, and over toward the domes and spires of Red Square. Those who labor over tutus and robes backstage have nonetheless one of the most spectacular views in Russia. –NY Times
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