Moscow Theatres

Moscow has a reputation as a city of theatres. The birthplace of the historic "Bolshoy", "Maly" and "Moscow Art" theatres the city has been and steel is a centre for the development exploratory modern ideas in the dramatic art and is famous for its great number of highly gifted, interesting directors, actors, playwrights and artists.

Every evening the doors of Moscow theatres open to streams of theatre-goers. The best Moscow theatres devoted themselves to developing the principals of directing and acting laid down by Stanislavsky, Meerhold, Nemerovich-Danchenko, Vachtangov and others. The discoveries and successes of Moscow theatres today exist due to experience and triumphs of preceding generations.

I'd like to tell you about the Bolshoy Theatre. The majestic building of the Bolshoy Theatre stands in Theatre Square in Moscow's centre, not far from Kremlin. This is the leading Russian opera house with the best vocalists and choreographers in its company.

The Bolshoi traces its history to 1776 when a standing opera company was organized in Moscow. The first opera shown in Bolshoi theatre was opera "life of tsar" (now "Ivan Susanin"). At later times operas by Dargomyzhsky, Serov, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rubinstein were produced here.

At the same time the Bolshoi Company staged the best operas and ballets by West European composers-Mozart, Rossini, Weber, Verdi and others. The Bolshoi ballet company enjoys well-deserved fame as the worlds finest. This is equally true of its brilliant realistic style of performance and repertoire.