Bolshoi Theatre Main (Historic) Stage Reconstruction and Renovation
Video: Bolshoi Theatre Main (Historic) Stage renovation is over, you are welcome
to visit the main ballet and opera venue in Russia
Historic building of the Bolshoi Theatre is closed for renovation between July 2, 2005 and October, 2011.
The exterior of the building will remain nearly the same. The
extensions along the Northern Facade that were previously used as scenery
storage will be removed. The storage will be moved underground to allow for
proper restoration of the rear faзade. Number of the best
construction companies from Moscow and abroad will take part in the renovation.
The German company Bosch Rexroth, one of world's leaders in the field, has won
the bid to supply the stage equipment for the Bolshoi.
Press Conference regarding the renovation of the Bolshoi
Theatre took place at the ITAR-TASS News Agency on December 1, 2004. Anatoly Iksanov, Bolshoi Director
General: - Renovation means life under extreme conditions.
The New Stage will help us to preserve the repertoire and the core of the
company. This transfer will require some adjustment to fit our productions on
the smaller stage. It means we will need to rebuild some sets and reconsider
some of the staging. There are some limitations too. Our large-scale
productions, such as Boris Godunov, Spartacus, Daughter of Pharaoh will
not fit onto the New Stage. We are now negotiating with the State Kremlin
Palace, that used to be Bolshoi second performance venue in the past, and hope
to be able to present those productions there. While
maintaining our continuous presence in Moscow we will significantly expand our
touring - both in Russia and CIS as well as abroad. Our company will be
celebrating the 60th anniversary of the V-Day in Samara where Bolshoi
was evacuated during the war. This will happen before the closing of our Main
Stage. The first city where we will tour after the closing will be
Rostov-on-Don. The tour will begin on February 10, 2006. Of
Russia's 34 musical theatres only 3 or 4 have big enough stages to accommodate
our large-scale productions. We will continue looking for the appropriate venues
abroad. Next summer, for instance, we will be presenting Daughter of
Pharaoh at the Met. We will be traveling to mid-size Russian theatres as
well. This kind of touring is rather expensive. Such tours will
be financially a pure loss for the Bolshoi - unless we will be able to receive
support from the local and federal governments. Fortunately, this is already the
case in some instances.
One
of the main objectives for the renovation is to restore the legendary and
largely lost original acoustics of the Bolshoi and to create the most
accommodating stage floor. Associate Director General of the Bolshoi
Vyacheslav Yefimov about restoration of the acoustics
and the new floor of the Bolshoi stage: - Bolshoi has
undergone numerous renovations (never at such a grand scale though, ) and each
attempted improvement did an irreparable harm to both the national landmark
itself and to its acoustics. The treatment of the orchestra pit back in the old
days was, let's say, far from delicate. The orchestra pit used to be a wooden
platform with a dedicated barrel-like huge hollow space beneath serving as a
resonator. The platform, made of elm tree, was accepting the vibration like a
giant soundboard. The sound, amplified by the resonator, was streaming from the
orchestra to the upper canopy tilted toward the audience. The audience therefore
was listening to the amplified music. In 1920s the entire hollow space was
filled with concrete. The orchestra platform itself was elevated for 20 cm to
level with the adjacent hallway. There was more. Initially the
electric lighting instruments were installed in the stage floor. (Nowadays,
naturally, they are all located at the rear of the house.) The apron was
extended at the expense of the orchestra pit. Originally the orchestra pit was
going well under the apron. That is why now we can't accommodate the entire
orchestra at the pit, and therefore some operas can't be part of our repertoire
- including most of Wagner and some of Richard Strauss. We
intend to restore the hollow space and the soundboard and to place it on the
elevating platform so that we could raise the pit to the parterre level. It
would enable us to present symphony concerts on the Main Stage. The orchestra
pit for such occasions will be replaced with the seats for the audience. The
orchestra will occupy the stage where a special wooden shell will be installed
to optimize the acoustics. Technically important is the fact that the orchestra
pit platform will also be able to descend to the musical storage level. The loss of acoustics is due not only to the ‘wrongdoing' to the
orchestra pit. It is known, for example, that the chorus has difficulty hearing
the orchestra. When hanging the fire curtain they have installed brick
construction border (it is covered with the cloth and therefore is not visible.)
The brick wall has obstructed the sound. Sound from the stage does not reach the
canopy over the orchestra pit while the reflection of orchestra sound also can't
reach the stage via that canopy. We have to use the monitors to transmit the
orchestra sound onto stage. Both the soloists and the chorus are forced to move
down the stage. It is because the audience will not hear them should they sing
upstage. The apron, needless to say, has to become acoustically
transparent. The ceiling above the audience used to be wooden.
It was also functioning as the soundboard. It was hanging ceiling, it was
vibrating while perceiving and reflecting the sound. The sound was distributed
evenly to the parterre and all the galleries. They have tightened the soundboard
to the framework. This is almost like muting a violin. They
treated the floor of the house the same way. Originally the floor was flexible.
They used to have balls receptions in the theatre, and the floor used to tilt
from flat for danced to angled for watching the theatre. The wooden floor was
based on eight legs; it was perceiving and resonating the sound serving as the
integral part of the acoustic system. Nowadays the floor is also tight to the
concrete foundation. I am not trying to accuse anybody in
barbarism. There were numerous emergencies in the building, and emergencies had
to be treated accordingly, and I guess there was insufficient awareness of the
acoustics back then. The theatre has suffered a lot when they started replacing
wooden structures with the concrete ones. This was driven purely by good
intentions. They came to realize the scale of the damage only much later when
certain things were literally in concrete. I am not saying that
Bolshoi now has absolutely no acoustic features. In preparation for the
renovation we have conducted a series of research in the audience, and it is
proven that there are plenty of spots with excellent acoustics.
We have conducted some very thorough acoustic research with the
participation of several Russian and Western companies. Among our engineering
contractors is Mьller BBM from Germany, one of the best in the West. Their
assignment is to ensure complete acoustic rehabilitation of the Bolshoi. Theatre
is not their only field, but their theatre experience is more than solid. This
company tuned the acoustics in most of the best German theatres as well. They
worked at the Bayerisch Opera. In Bayreuth they conduct special testing and
issue their recommendations prior to every performance. They worked in France a
lot, in Zurich Opera, in America, Korea, Japan, participated in the renovation
of Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Their only competitor in the world is American
company called Artex, and most likely we will seek their help as well. As soon as our New Stage was opened we were reprimanded of its
acoustic imperfections - and unjustly so, I think. The mishaps that there are,
can be repaired. The acoustics in our new theatre can be tuned up - just the way
they do it in other theatres. Even hanging the wall curtains in proper
locations, considering the acoustic absorption ratio, could change things for
the better. The height of orchestra pit against the parterre level can be
altered at the New Stage. We have long tried various levels until the position
optimal sound has been found. A few more specific steps, and I believe the
acoustics at the New Stage will finally improve. We will also need to discover
how the sound there corresponds to the sound on the Main Stage. There are
productions that we perform in both theatres. The orchestra doesn't have to
learn two different ways of playing the same music; otherwise what sounds well
here may turn into fiasco there. We will need to equate the acoustics of both
theatres. A few more words should be said about the stage floor
in our theatres. For the first time in Russia the surface we use for opera and
ballet will be different. Opera floor will be different from ballet floor.
Modern set tends to be very heavy, movable and composite. The floor therefore is
subjected to a major weight burden, and subsequently gets warped. While this is
less crucial for the opera performances, the potential damage for ballet dancers
can be truly devastating, including the loss of professional abilities. This is
why we have decided to create a special floor surface for ballet performances at
the Bolshoi. It has been ‘tried' at the New Stage, but there it only covers a
part of the surface. For the Main Stage we will cover the entire surface with
this new floor. The distinct feature of the new surface will also be its
acoustic quality: as the ballet dancers require not only flat but also
sound-absorbent surface for their performances. The floor for opera performances
will have to naturally reflect the sound.