The Bolshoy Theatre

The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia is one of the most famous musical theatres in the world. The theatre was founded in 1776, when the first regular company was organized by Peter Urussov and his partner Mikhail Maddox to the commission of Catherine the Great. The company was formed from the actors of an earlier Moscow theatrical company, students of Moscow University, and newly engaged serf actors. Originally the theatre did not have its own building therefore performances were staged in  private house of Vorontsov. But in 1780 the theatre moved to  special theatrical stone edifice built on the place of the modern Bolshoy Theatre. According to the name of the street, where the theatre was situated, they called it Petrovsky Theatre. The repertoire of this first professional musical theatre in Moscow consisted of drama, opera, and ballet performances. However, the centre of special attention was opera - that is why the Petrovsky Theatre was more often called the Opera House.

After a fire in 1805 which destroyed the building, the ownership of the theatre went to the state. In 1824 another fire burnt the entire city, so in 1825 as a part of the reconstruction plan of the city, a new theatre building was erected. It became one of the most beautiful thatre buildings in the world due to its perfect classical architecture.

Another disaster happened in 1853 when the theatre caught fire once more, which destroyed the interior almost entirely. The building was reconstructed in 1856 by the architect Albert Kavos, the designer of Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.Of great significance in the history of the theatre was opera and ballet legacy of such great Russian composers as Piotr Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin. The history of the Bolshoi Theatre numbers many distinguished singers and dancers who were passing traditions of Russian vocal and actor school from generation to generation. The real golden age of Russian vocal-execution school set in at the beginning of the 20th century and was connected with coming to the Bolshoi Theater of Leonid Sobinov, Antonina Nezhdanova, Feodor Shaliapin. Creative work of these great actors placed Russian vocal-dramatic art among the best in the world. The  celebrity of the theatre dancers, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev, Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nuryev and many others, helped to make the Bolshoy Theatre a diamond in the crown of Russian cultural heritage.