Bolshoi Opera
Works of domestic musical dramatic art firmly
established in the repertoire: at first there were operas vaudevilles and
ballets-variety entertainments based on folk melodies and stories, and later -
full-length operas, the best oI which was "Askold s Grave" by Alexei
Verstovsky.
Beginning from 1840-s, operas by Wolvgang Mozart, Joaccino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Daniel Auber, and others start to appear in
the repertoire.
Opera productions of Mikhail Glinka, the founder of Russian classical music, became
the most important event in the history of the Bolshoi Theater. Ao stagin: "Ivan
Sussanin" in 1842 and "Ruslan and Ludmila" in 1846 the Bolshoi Theater started
to create national classical repertoire.
In March 1853, a destructive fire failed to
exterminate only the external walls of the theater and its columned front
facade. The edifice xi.as restored and slightly reconstructed by the architect
Albert Kavos and was opened in 1856. In this appearance, my minor alterations,
it exists up to now.
The great significance to the history of the theater was provided by opera
and ballet legacy of the great Russian composer Piotr Chaikovsky. His operas
"Eugene Onegin", "The Queen of Spades", "The Cherevichki", "Maxepa", "Iolanta",
ballets "The Swan Lake", "The Sleeping Beauty" produced in 1870's - 1890's and
later - the ballet "Nutcracker" are placed on golden record of the repertoire.
In 80's and 90's of the XIX century, works of composers from "The Mighty Group"
- "Boris Godunov" by Modest Mussorgsky, "Sadko" and "The Snow Maiden" by Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov, "The Prince Igor" by Alexander Borodin- were produced on the
stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The history of the Bolshoi Theater numbers many
distinguished singers who were passing traditions of Russian vocal school and
actor's mastery from generation to generation.
The history of the Bolshoi Theater numbers many distinguished singers who
were passing traditions of Russian vocal school and actor's mastery from
generation to generation.
The real golden age of Russian vocal-execution
school set in at the beginning of the XX th 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.
Traditions of national
Russian ballet started to form on the Bolshoi Theater stage as far back as the
beginning of the XIX-th century and were connected with activities
ofbaIler-master Adam Glushkovsky, later - with ballet-dancers Ekaterina
Sankovskaya, Nadezhda Bogdanova, Praskovia Lebedeva, on the eve and at the
beginning of the XX th century - with Liubov Roslavleva, Adelaida Jury, Ekatenna
Gueltser, Yassili Tikhomirov, ballet-master Alexander Gorsky.
At the
conductor' s desk of opera and ballet- performances there stood conductors
Ippolit Altani, Vyacheslav Suk, Sergey Rachmaninov, chorus leader Ulrikh Avranek, sets were
designed by Carl Waits, Alexander Golovin, Konstantin Korovin.
After the
year of 1917, works of Soviet composers - the operas "The Still Don-River" and
"The Upturned Virgin Soil" by Ivan Dzerzhinsky, the ballet "The Red Poppy" by
Reingold Glier - ' were produced on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater together
with the best works of Russian and foreign classical composers.
The operas "The Decembrists" by Juri Shaporin, "The War and the Peace", "Semion Kotko", "The Gambler" by Sergei Prokofiev, "The Optimistic Tragedy" by Alexander
Kholminov, "The October" by Vano Muradeli, "The Unknown Soldier" and "Quiet Are
the Dawns Here" by Kirill Molchanov, "The Stealing of the Moon" by Otar
Taktakishvili, "The Dead Souls" by Rodion Schedrin, the ballets "Romeo and Juliette", "The Cinderella", "Ivan the Terrible", "The Stone Flower" by
Sergei Prokofiev, "Spartacus" by Aram Khachaturyan, "Assel" by Vladimir Vlassov, "The Legend of Love" by Arif Melikov, "Anna Karenina", "The Sea-Gull", "The Lady with
a Doggy" by Rodion Schedrin, "The Hussar Ballad" by Tikhon Khrennikov, "Aniuta" by Valeri Gavrilin are brilliant productions of the
Bolshoi Theatre in 1950s - 1980s.
The opera dramatic art of the XX-th
century is represented by the names of Nadezhda Obukhova, Valeria Barsova, Ivan
Kozlovsky, Alexander Pirogov, Ksenia Derzhinskaya, Serguei Lemeshev, Mark
Reizen, Nikolai Ozerov, Maria Maksakova, Maxim Mikhailov, Dmitri Golovin, Elena
Stepanova, Panteleimon Nortsov, Irina Maslennikova, Nikandr Khanaev, Elizaveta
Shumskaya, Vera Davydova, Georgi Nelepp, Alexei Ivanov, Ivan Petrov, Alexei
Krivchenia, Alexander Ognivtsev.
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