Major changes after the reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater. Chronology of the Bolshoi Theater reconstruction

Panasonic and the Russian Railways Museum

Vladimir Dunkovich: Stage mechanics control systems.

Synchronization. New level of show. OSC for the show

Maxim Korotkov about the realities with MAX\MAX Productions

Konstantin Gerasimov: design is technology

Alexey Belov: The main one in our club is a musician

Robert Boym: I am grateful to Moscow and Russia - my work is listened to and understood here

pdf "Showmasters" No. 3 2018 (94)

Four concerts from one console at the Munich Philharmonic Gasteig

20 years of Universal Acoustics: a story with continuation

Astera wireless solutions on the Russian market

OKNO-AUDIO and seven stadiums

Ilya Lukashev about sound engineering

Simple Way Ground Safety - safety on stage

Alexander Fadeev: the path of a beginning lighting artist

What is a rider and how to compose it

Stupid way to process a barrel

pdf "Showmasters" No. 2 2018

Panasonic at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center

Concerts "BI-2" with orchestra: traveling gothic

Dmitry Kudinov: a happy professional

Sound engineers Vladislav Cherednichenko and Lev Rebrin

Lights on Ivan Dorn's "OTD" tour

Ani Lorak’s show “Diva”: Ilya Piotrovsky, Alexander Manzenko, Roman Vakulyuk,

Andrey Shilov. Rental as a business

The Matrex social and business center in Skolkovo will rightfully become one of the new symbols of Moscow, not only in the architectural, but also in the technical aspect. The latest multimedia systems and solutions that are ahead of their time make Matrex unique.

Everything I know I learned on my own. I read, observed, tried, experimented, made mistakes, remade again. Nobody taught me. At that time in Lithuania there were no special educational institutions that would teach how to work with lighting equipment. In general, I believe that this cannot be learned. To become a lighting designer, you need to have something like that “inside” from the very beginning. You can learn to work with the remote control, programming, you can learn all the technical characteristics, but you cannot learn to create.

The new design possibilities for active spaces should not be confused with the 'assisted reverberation' that has been used since the 1950s at the Royal Festival Hall and later at Limehouse Studios. These were systems that used tunable resonators and multi-channel amplifiers to distribute natural resonances to the desired part of the room.

their results are below. Participants of the “Show Technology Rentals Club” actively discussed this topic.
We offered to answer several questions to specialists who have been in our business for many years,
and their opinion will certainly be interesting to our readers.

Andrey Shilov: “Speaking at the 12th winter conference of rental companies in Samara, in my report I shared with the audience a problem that has been greatly troubling me for the last 3-4 years. My empirical research into the rental market led to disappointing conclusions about a catastrophic drop in labor productivity in this industry ". And in my report, I drew the attention of company owners to this problem as the most important threat to their business. My theses raised a large number of questions and a long discussion on forums on social networks."

The Bolshoi Theater will not be envied this spring. You watch TV, listen, read - there are continuous scandals and crimes. It’s as if there are no performances in the theater, and rehearsals don’t go on all day, but premiere after premiere descends onto the stage straight from a gentle cloud! After the reconstruction of the old, historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater, there were many complaints. They continue to this day in particular, one of the most significant: the acoustics are not the same!

After the reconstruction of the old, historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater, there were many complaints. They continue to this day - in particular, one of the most significant: the acoustics are not the same! This phrase, especially from the lips of “experts” who do not distinguish a trumpet from a violin, causes such irritation that the Bolshoi, losing one information battle after another, finally decided to talk in detail at least about the acoustics - what it was like and how it was restored. Fortunately, the chief engineer of the Müller-BBM company, Jürgen Reinhold, is now in Moscow, working on the revival of the sound appearance of the great hall.

The theater’s chief conductor, Vasily Sinaisky, even grumbled: “The Germans worked very hard, pedantically to the point of tediousness, in the mornings, evenings, on weekends - on Mondays. Often I, the artists, were invited for testing. Jurgen listened and said, “I don’t like it,” and we met again a week later. He made notes, took them with him, they were studied, and he returned to Moscow again.”

The acoustics of the Bolshoi Theater were handled by a German company created after the war with the goal of restoring the destroyed theaters and concert halls in Germany. Jürgen Reinhold says that 80 percent of the hall did not need any modifications: excellent acoustics were already built into the very configuration of the hall. Architect Albert Kavos once built - when viewed from above - a huge wooden violin, into which the hall is enclosed. Even the ceiling, which was supposed to be made of iron, was risked being built in wood in order to avoid the special resonance inherent in metal.

The Bolshoi Theater has a special sound thanks to panels made of resonant spruce - an acoustically responsive wood. Now all the panels, partially lost over the years, have been restored.

Finding the right spruce was not easy: it must be 100-120 years old, it must be strictly vertical, symmetrical, have a pointed crown, a 5-6 meter cylindrical fragment must be free of knots and damage.

Jürgen Reinhold restored the acoustics of the opera houses La Fenice in Venice, San Carlo in Naples (the oldest in Europe); set it up in the new Mariinsky-2.

What has been done at the Bolshoi?

“First of all, we enlarged the orchestra pit. They moved it deeper back from five to seven meters - the ramp is now where Kavos marked it,” says Reinhord. - Secondly, we changed the slope of the floor in the stalls. It was small for such a huge hall - only 56 cm. Because of this, already in the third or fourth rows the spectators had to look over their heads. And there is an unwritten rule: if it’s hard to see, then there’s less sound. We raised the height of the stage by a meter, lowering the front part of the stalls, because we had to maintain the level when entering the hall. The concrete poured under the ground floor was removed. The floor here is classic wooden - like in all opera houses and concert halls. If you jump, everyone feels a strong vibration. This is the same way that the viewer feels the vibration in his feet when he plays fortissimo or when he hears the timpani in the orchestra pit. All decorative elements have been preserved on the balconies. They are made of papier-mâché. Papier-mâché is acoustically excellent because it has no pores. And after being coated with gold, it becomes an excellent surface for reflecting sound. There are round barred holes under the chairs. The ventilation here was very unmodern. Now in the area of 9-10 rows under the hall there is a hollow space 1.5 m high, and at the end of the hall - 2.5 m; the supplied air accumulates in it. Now I come to Moscow once every two to three months to make sure that the orchestra uses mobile elements correctly. After all, the orchestra pit can move apart, rise and fall; there are small panels that, depending on the angle of rotation, reflect or absorb sound. And under it we restored the cavity - a large wooden half-barrel 2.5 meters deep. It was a lost element. But we know him from the ancient theaters of Italy.”

Vasily Sinaisky insists that the very concept of “hall acoustics” is an ephemeral concept. He says that when they were preparing for the first concert, the opening of the historical stage, there was only one acoustics, but now everything sounds different. “It depends on the nature and position of the scenery, and on the seating arrangement of the orchestra. In Mozart, light winds and accompaniment are important; in Richard Strauss - the dense sound of brass.”

Journalists were allowed to listen to the performances of soloists from different rows from the stalls and from the fourth tier. No, you can’t complain, you can hear it perfectly. But the questions began immediately.

- They say that there is a soundtrack on stage.

Y. Reinhold: This is done all over the world. There are a lot of backstage and decorations on the stage, and performers often stand at the back of the stage. But the sound does not go to the hall - but to the stage. So that the artists could hear the orchestra and sing in an ensemble.

- They talk a lot about “sound holes” in the stalls. What places are these?

V. Sinaisky: Even before the alteration, many soloists complained that they could not be heard somewhere. They say that Nelepp and Maslennikova marked on the stage with a cross the place from which it was best to sing. It seems to be best heard in the fourth tier. In the stalls, the first rows are always noticeably inferior in sound to the middle rows, boxes, and dress circle. But there are no completely bad-sounding places in the hall.

- Is it possible to compare the acoustics of the Mariinsky 2 and the Bolshoi?

Yu. Reinhold: “No. There were other tasks at the Bolshoi. All historical theaters have a short reverberation because they have a lot of draperies. Remove the curtains - and it will be echoing here, like in a temple. But at the Mariinsky Theater, from the very beginning, everything was built according to modern concepts, there is a longer reverberation.

- Before reconstruction, the Bolshoi was ranked 55th in the world in terms of acoustics. And now?

Y. Reinhold: “It’s definitely in the top twenty. What I know for sure is that the acoustic conditions here are better than in La Scala. Chief conductor Daniel Barenboim and his director Stefan Lissner, having brought the theater here on tour, checked the acoustics in the hall and both said: “Great!” I am very sorry that the acoustics of the Bolshoi are most often judged by non-professionals.

- Where do you think is the best place to listen to opera at the Bolshoi?

Yu. Reinhold: Upstairs. Plus, instead of one ticket, buy five and bring your friends with you!

Restoration of the Bolshoi Theater

In recent years, the theater has been going through hard times and there was a time when the very existence of the building in its current form was in question. It was very interesting to find out how things are going with the reconstruction and restoration of the theater premises, so I tried to get there several times. Finally, I succeeded - the VTB press service invited me on a tour.

The structures of the Bolshoi Theater (walls, foundations, ceilings) at all stages of its construction and expansion always contained elements of old buildings. The first Old Petrovsky Theater (1780) has large fragments of the previous building on Petrovka. The Bolshoi Petrovsky Theater of Osip Bove (1825) in the stage part and other places included the structures of the walls of the Old Petrovsky Theater.

From the press release:

Over the entire design period, 9 options for the restoration and reconstruction project of the Bolshoi Theater were considered: from trivial major repairs to complete reconstruction of the existing building. As a result, a project was chosen that was approved by the theater troupe, cultural figures, architects, etc.
The project included: carrying out a scientific restoration of the spectator part of the theater and a radical reconstruction of the stage part with deepening of the underground space. At the same time, the historical appearance of the building as an architectural monument is preserved.
In accordance with the design assignment and the decision of the Methodological Council of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation dated 02/05/2004, the main building of the Bolshoi Theater must retain its island position and familiar historical appearance. Serious volumetric superstructures and extensions to the building are excluded. Only reconstruction of the northern facade is allowed. The passage along Kopyevsky Lane between the northern facade of the main building and the S.A. House is being restored. Khomyakova. The main entrance to the building is preserved through the front colonnade from the Teatralnaya Square side. The service entrance is located in the Auxiliary building.
Before reconstruction, the area of the main building was 30,366 sq.m. After reconstruction it will be increased by 42,454 sq. m. m and will be 72.830 sq.m. During the reconstruction process, the area of the service building was increased from 3992 sq.m. up to 6705 sq.m. The theater buildings will be connected by four underground corridors, the area of which will be 380 sq.m., for this purpose 100 sq.m. of auxiliary and 100 sq.m. m of engineering buildings.
The main theater building has the following dimensions:
- ground part 117.45x62.30 m, including portico, floor height - 2.91 - 3.02 m;
- underground part 151.72x77.72 m, floor height 2.80; 3.30 and 3.60 m.
Now about 3,000 people work on the construction site every day, 950 of them are restorers. Monitoring the progress of work is carried out on the basis of daily reports submitted by the general contractor on the implementation of monthly and daily work schedules.

This is not a factory floor, this is the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. A wall in front separates the stage and the auditorium. A new fire curtain will then be installed at this location, which will be lowered after the end of the performance.

I photographed this place near the stage on purpose - the assembly teams were divided into two sides: left and right. This is the place for our side, here we stood before the change of scenery during the performance. Now everything is different here - even the walls are new.

Stage space from above. The stage surface is approximately the middle of the total height of the room - 20.5 meters above the stage, 24 meters below it. Previously, I remember, six floors with different structures fit under the stage.

The stage part of the theater will be equipped with modern technical equipment. Covent Garden in London, the Grand Opera and Opera Bastille in Paris, Carlo Felice in Genoa, La Scala in Milan, San Carlo in Naples, and the theater center were taken as analogues of the organization of stage technology in Tokyo.

The bells, which previously stood at the bottom, were raised to the very top. The ringing of bells in “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina” made me shiver. The largest bell weighs 6.4 tons, the smallest - 8.7 kg.

Over the years of the theater's existence, this plaster stucco in the side lobbies and circular corridors was redone many times - the compositions often consist of pieces from very different times.

Instead of the old creaky parquet floors laid in Soviet times, the original stone floor, made using the Venetian mosaic technique of the 19th century, has been restored. They managed to recreate her drawing based on a single fragment found in the director’s box. Eleven types of marble of different shades of the color palette were used to recreate the pattern.

The underground rehearsal and concert hall is one of the theater's new premises. It goes beyond the main building and ends where there is a square with a fountain at the top.

White foyer above the entrance to the theater (16 in the diagram above). An air bomb hit here in 1941 during an air raid. The foyer interior has been restored as it was in 1856. On the walls and ceiling there is painting using the grisaille technique: it is done in different shades of the same color and creates the impression of convex stucco images. Large mirrors appeared again - with their help, Kavos increased the visual volume of the room. Instead of one chandelier with glass balls, three crystal ones appeared.

Those parts that could be restored and preserved are left in their places - like this lock on the door.

The Great Hall of the Imperial Foyer. Now it is called Beethoven's. In Soviet times, party meetings of the theater staff were held here, and Galina Vishnevskaya was expelled from the party here. At the far end of the hall, on the right, is the door to the box that Stalin used. As a big lover of opera, he could come to the theater to listen to only one, his favorite, aria. A semicircular concrete wall was built in the box, which reliably sheltered the leader from the spectators in the hall. In the theater they talked about a special chair on which the short Stalin sat - at the bottom there was a step for his legs so that they would not hang in the air.

Before the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II in 1895, unique silk fabrics were ordered from France in order to decorate the halls of the Imperial Foyer for the celebrations. French craftsmen wove satin fabric the color of “hot cast iron” for the upholstery of the hall and 12 silk panels embroidered with multi-colored wool. The pattern on the walls is a composition of floral patterns combined with architectural details and elements, in which the craftsmen also included the coats of arms of the Russian Empire and the monogram of the last Emperor of Russia.

The unique panels suffered greatly during this time - monograms and coats of arms were cut out with scissors in Soviet times, the fabric constantly suffered during repairs and painting, and in the 70s it was decided to dry clean the panels, which caused irreparable damage to the structure of the canvas.

The panel was restored literally thread by thread over the course of three years. To do this, we had to create special tools and brushes to then manually clean every millimeter of the fabric from dirt. As a result, every thread of the artistic canvas was renewed, and specialists recreated the lost threads from materials identical to those used in 1895.

From archival materials it is known that the stucco work in the interiors of the Great Imperial Foyer was carried out by the sculpture workshop of M.D. Kutyrina. The surviving contract contains a detailed description of these works:

“... in 2 lunettes of the Imperial Grand Royal Foyer, place a laurel festoon on the transverse walls along the oval of the vault, separate the middle of the lunettes with the same festoon and place moldings in the middle of the lunettes in the form of a cartouche with the initial of their Imperial Majesties, a crown and ornaments.”

The choir hall has also been recreated as it was in 1856.

The fact that you are in the auditorium of the Bolshoi becomes clear only when you raise your head and see familiar figures on the ceiling. Here everything is in scaffolding, work is underway on gilding the stucco of the tiers, and in the center they are preparing to assemble the beauty and pride - a large crystal chandelier.

For the first time I saw these Atlanteans without covering. They, it turns out, are made of papier-mâché - this is required by the acoustics of the hall, which before perestroika in Soviet times was famous for it throughout the world.

Since its opening in 1856, the acoustics of the Bolshoi Theater have been directly related to the wooden structures and the decoration of the hall with resonant spruce panels. According to the plan of the architect Albert Kavos, who erected the theater building after the fire of 1853, the auditorium was built according to the principle of a musical instrument: wooden floors, wooden wall panels, wooden ceilings.

To improve the resonance, the architect even made adjustments to the instructions, according to which all work on the creation of theaters was to be carried out. Instead of making an iron ceiling according to these instructions, Kavos chose wood to avoid the excessive resonance inherent in metal. The original design of the ceiling-deck, made of rectangular wooden panels, and the cladding of stone walls with wood contributed to a significant improvement in the acoustics of the Auditorium. The room began to resemble a huge instrument, made according to all the rules of musical science.

In order to hold large official events in the Bolshoi hall, it was rebuilt in the 1920s to increase the number of seats for spectators. Along with this, a large amount of the resonant spruce lining was lost, which led to a deterioration in sound quality. Now everything is being restored according to the previous scheme developed by Kavos.

On the scaffolding installed along the balconies of the tiers, painstaking work is underway to gild the papier-mâché decor. Over the next 150 years, up to 5-6 layers of gilding, made using other techniques, were applied to the gold layer that covered the decor. This was largely due to the fact that previous restoration work was often carried out without following the technological cycle. In some places, gilding was even imitated with powder based on a copper alloy diluted with varnish. Restoration work carried out during Soviet times was carried out without clearing the previous layers of gilding over the newly applied layers of gesso. All this spoiled the original gilding layer and led to distortion of the decorative relief.

During one of my walks around Rome a couple of years ago, I watched a master gilding antiques at work. In the Bolshoi, everything happens in a similar way - only craftsmen apply the decor using the “gold for polyment” method (polyment is a special handmade primer made from fine red clay and protein). This type of gilding, also called “Russian,” was practically lost during Soviet times. Masters proficient in this unique ancient technology had to be gathered literally throughout the country.

Gilding uses very thin and light gold. When gilding large smooth surfaces, gold is applied from a booklet in whole sheets. When gilding a relief surface, the gold is “blown” out of the book onto a special suede cushion and cut into separate pieces with a special gold knife.

When you first touch it, the gold sticks to your fingers. Therefore, a special tool is used - a lampemsel (a fan-shaped brush made from a squirrel tail). Before taking the gold onto the lampemsel, fan it over the oil plate two or three times so that a slight greasy coating appears on it. After this, the fan is applied to a sheet of gold and transferred to the place where the gilding should be.

From the fan, the gold sticks to the polyment soaked in vodka. Vodka slightly dissolves the glue contained in the polyment, draws in the leaf, and then evaporates. The gold sheet becomes one with the polyment, and the unevenness can no longer be corrected. Therefore, the sheets should lie without wrinkles, one on top of the other with an overlap of a few millimeters. The gold leaves are carefully “stuck” with a short squirrel brush, especially in the recessed areas.

Gold polishing is carried out 2-3 hours after gilding. Places of gilding are smoothed to a shine with agate or carnelian - a well-polished stone in the shape of a spatula from one to three centimeters wide. This is done in order to give the gold a bright shine.

Previously, gold was polished with bear, boar or wolf fangs, so the classic form of the chisel (a tool made of agate or carnelian in the shape of hooks) resembles a fang. The agates are inserted into metal tubes and placed on cuttings about a finger thick, somewhat longer than a pencil. When polishing, gently pressing on an agate spatula smoothes out small defects on gold leaf.

This is what the auditorium looks like from the top tier now.

While I was being taken around the theater, specialists were preparing to test the recently restored and reassembled Main Chandelier that illuminates the auditorium.

The diameter of this three-tier structure is 6.5 meters and the height is 8.5 meters. The weight of the steel frame with brass elements is about 1860 kg. Together with the crystal elements, the chandelier weighs about 2.3 tons.

To decorate the chandelier in 1863, 15 thousand crystal pendants were made, weighing more than 260 kg. However, during operation, a significant part of the crystal decoration was damaged and lost. When the restoration of the chandelier began in 2006, out of 24 thousand crystal elements, restorers had to restore more than 13.5 thousand parts.

During the restoration of the frame, the remaining gilding had to be completely cleared and reapplied.

In the 19th century, the chandelier was gas - the design still retains the tubes and valves.

Specialists were preparing for dynamic and weight tests of various elements of the chandelier.

The decoration of the theater's façade, the quadriga of Apollo, was also damaged by a bomb in 1941. During an examination in 2007, numerous cracks, dents, and copper patches were discovered on the surfaces of the sculptures. Restoration of the sculptural group began in the fall of 2009 immediately after the theater building was installed on a new foundation.

First of all, the podium structures were restored, the brickwork was reconstructed in the places where the beams support, and work was done to protect the surfaces of the sculptural compositions from corrosion. In February 2010, restorers began work on restoring the sculptural group. Two months later, the lost details were returned to the figure of the ancient god (including that same fig leaf).

After restoring the sculpture of Apollo, the craftsmen carried out the restoration of the chariot, horse figures and supporting attachment points for the sculptures. The updated quadriga is covered with several layers of a special protective composition.

Things were also very sad with the famous columns of the theater façade. They are made of limestone and, to protect the stone from moisture, they were placed on birch bark pads. The birch bark decayed over time and moisture from the ground began to penetrate into the stone of the columns.

Large black spots began to appear from the salt protruding to the surface (they are clearly visible in old photographs of the theater building). Restorers had to try to restore the stone to its original state by desalting it.

Restorers began cleaning the white stone at the end of March 2010. To reduce salts, special compositions of cellulose and clay were applied to the surface of the columns, wrapped in film for one and a half to two weeks - they made such unique compresses. The condition of the limestone will now be constantly monitored.

The floor lamps were also remade and were also badly damaged. The study, by the way, showed that most of them were inaccurate copies of the original Kavos lanterns.

8/4/11 , 17:55

From the press release:

Over the entire design period, 9 options for the restoration and reconstruction project of the Bolshoi Theater were considered: from trivial major repairs to complete reconstruction of the existing building. As a result, a project was chosen that was approved by the theater troupe, cultural figures, architects, etc.
The project included: carrying out a scientific restoration of the spectator part of the theater and a radical reconstruction of the stage part with deepening of the underground space. At the same time, the historical appearance of the building as an architectural monument is preserved.
In accordance with the design assignment and the decision of the Methodological Council of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation dated 02/05/2004, the main building of the Bolshoi Theater must retain its island position and familiar historical appearance. Serious volumetric superstructures and extensions to the building are excluded. Only reconstruction of the northern facade is allowed. The passage along Kopyevsky Lane between the northern facade of the main building and the S.A. House is being restored. Khomyakova. The main entrance to the building is preserved through the front colonnade from the Teatralnaya Square side. The service entrance is located in the Auxiliary building.
Before reconstruction, the area of the main building was 30,366 sq.m. After reconstruction it will be increased by 42,454 sq. m. m and will be 72.830 sq.m. During the reconstruction process, the area of the service building was increased from 3992 sq.m. up to 6705 sq.m. The theater buildings will be connected by four underground corridors, the area of which will be 380 sq.m., for this purpose 100 sq.m. of auxiliary and 100 sq.m. m of engineering buildings.
The main theater building has the following dimensions:
- ground part 117.45x62.30 m, including portico, floor height - 2.91 - 3.02 m;
- underground part 151.72x77.72 m, floor height 2.80; 3.30 and 3.60 m.
Now about 3,000 people work on the construction site every day, 950 of them are restorers. Monitoring the progress of work is carried out on the basis of daily reports submitted by the general contractor on the implementation of monthly and daily work schedules.

Over the years of the theater's existence, this plaster stucco in the side lobbies and circular corridors was redone many times - the compositions often consist of pieces from very different times.

The underground rehearsal and concert hall is one of the theater's new premises. It goes beyond the main building and ends where there is a square with a fountain at the top.

Those parts that could be restored and preserved are left in their places - like this lock on the door.

The choir hall has also been recreated as it was in 1856.

During one of my walks around Rome a couple of years ago, I observed that at the Bolshoi, everything happens in a similar way - only the craftsmen create the decor using the “gold on polyment” method (polyment is a special handmade primer made from fine red clay and protein). This type of gilding, also called “Russian,” was practically lost during Soviet times. Masters proficient in this unique ancient technology had to be gathered literally throughout the country.

This is what the auditorium looks like from the top tier now.

While I was being taken around the theater, specialists were preparing to test the recently restored and reassembled Main Chandelier that illuminates the auditorium.

During the restoration of the frame, the remaining gilding had to be completely cleared and reapplied.

In the 19th century, the chandelier was gas - the design still retains the tubes and valves.

Specialists were preparing for dynamic and weight tests of various elements of the chandelier.

The floor lamps were also remade and were also badly damaged. The study, by the way, showed that most of them were inaccurate copies of the original Kavos lanterns.

I will try to keep you updated on what is happening in the theater, which is scheduled to open in late fall of this year.

Many thanks to the Summa-Capital investment group and the press service of VTB Bank for their assistance in preparing the report.

Restored from a miraculously preserved example found in the director's box. Previously, the entire floor of the theater was covered with such a mosaic - very difficult to repair, made in the 19th century from limestone, in the middle of the 20th century it fell into disrepair, so they decided to get rid of it. The current one consists of twelve types of granite.

Metlakh tiles

Thanks to the fact that signature Villeroy & Boch tiles were preserved in the stairwells of the foyer, the restorers only had to order the missing tiles from the same factory in the German city of Mettlach where they were manufactured in the 19th century.

Muses

The sculptures on the façade of the theater roughly replicate those that decorated it at the end of the 19th century. In Soviet times, there were plaster muses here made by sculptors Rukavishnikov and Koltsov.

1. Hall

The acoustics, which were almost completely destroyed in the 20th century, have been restored. The sound is now provided by: an air cushion under the auditorium (it was filled with cement during the construction of the metro), panels made of resonant spruce, which in Soviet times were almost completely replaced with plywood, furniture upholstery and papier-mâché stucco. Papier-mâché was brewed according to an archival recipe in old vats discovered in one of the Altai factories.

2. Furniture

There are fewer chairs in the auditorium - instead of 2185 there are now 1740, as there were at the end of the 19th century. The design of the chairs is identical to the previous ones; the upholstery is impregnated with a special composition necessary for proper acoustics. Each individual chair underwent acoustic testing. In addition, several mobile rows appeared in the hall, transforming into places for the disabled.

3. Orchestra pit

Instead of 100 musicians, it now accommodates 137. Depending on the needs of the orchestra, the size of the pit can increase or decrease, and it is now possible to seat the musicians level with the auditorium.

4. Curtain

The main curtain, created according to the sketches of the main artist of the Bolshoi Theater until the 50s, Fedorovsky, has been restored. The main curtain, also known as the Golden Curtain, is woven in Italy from a tapestry imitating silk using gold threads. Instead of Soviet symbols, the word “Russia” is now embroidered on it. Opens up, sideways and diagonally. The second curtain, “The Entry of Minin and Pozharsky into Moscow,” is a copy of the one that appeared in the Bolshoi Theater after the fire in 1856. The fabric for it was woven in the Penza region by craftswomen of the Sursky technical cloth factory.

5. Imperial Foyer

The Great Hall of the Imperial Foyer is the former Beethoven foyer, famous for its silk wall panels made for the coronation of Nicholas II. Starting from the 1920s, the panels gradually fell into disrepair: first, the coats of arms of the Russian Empire woven with wool were cut out of them with scissors, and in the 70s, the fabrics were dry-cleaned, after which they finally deteriorated. The panels were restored for several years on jacquard hand looms, made according to the model of the last century in the Moscow scientific and restoration workshop “Antique Fabrics”.

6. Main foyer

The bright paintings on the ceiling and walls have been restored, and the vases that disappeared from the balustrades of the hall in Soviet times have been recreated. The foyer was opened for the coronation of Nicholas II, and initially this hall was one of the most elegant in the theater. Everything changed after the capital moved from Petrograd to Moscow - the Bolshoi Theater became the main platform for political congresses and performances. The constant congestion of the hall prevented the restorers from making a full renovation, and it all ended with the mirrors framed in gold leaf being removed, and the pink marble paintings and colored ceiling being painted over with white paint. After this, the foyer was called White for many years.

7. Underground hall

The new space for 300 people, consisting of three mobile platforms, can be lowered or raised, and the platforms can be formed into an amphitheater or concert hall. It will be used for performances, concerts, receptions and rehearsals. The beautiful glass houses that appeared on the square between the fountain and the theater are the exits from this hall.

8. Buffet

The buffets are now located on the minus first level, where a new transformable hall for 300 people has appeared, and on the 4th tier - in a huge space from window to window. Previously, there was a small square foyer, flanked by ballet halls. They say that ballerinas in tutus sometimes ran into the buffet. The buffets have wheelchair ramps. It is not yet clear what they will be fed.

The broadcast of the opening ceremony can be seen on October 28 at 19.00 on the Rossiya channel on TV or ontheater channel on YouTube There are no tickets for performances taking place on the Main Stage until the end of the year.