A Tour of the Bolshoi Theatre

Recently, I went on a tour that went through the Bolshoi theatre.  Wow.  I’m was stunned by the grandeur of the space, the architecture and the history.

Coat Tag.

Originally built for the Tsar of Russia, the seating center has a huge box for royalty and prestige.  When you stand on the floor and look back to the seats, it is the only thing you notice: a massive box, with lavish seats, in the most prime viewing location you could imagine.  Of course, the Bolshoi (which just means “big” in Russian) did burn down a few times and had to be rebuilt, but the most recent rebuild was designed by an acoustics expert who brought in special woods and fabrics that reverberated the sounds just right.  Every detail was handcrafted by this designer, the expert of his time.  That’s neat.

Chamber space with highly customizable floor.

There is a massive chandelier in the middle of the space as well.  Before the electricity, it had the ability to be lowered down onto the floor for the lighting of the candles, and only men were seated beneath it, so no ladies would be harmed by the wax. 

View from the top. 

The Bolshoi does have a few stages, as well.  There was the main historical stage, a smaller chamber music type of space, a modern stage that was built after one of the burn downs, and practice stages in the back.  It’s a massive space, which feels much more compact when you are inside of it.  It is a flexible space, especially the chamber music section, which can be cordoned off or opened up as necessary, with special floors that transform as they are needed.

Gold.... everywhere. Balcony sign. 

Interestingly, the costume shop with the sewing machines is on one of the top floors, with a fantastic view and windows.  I must confess, in my years of theatre, I never saw such a thing. 

Peek into the sunny costume shop.

There’s also a room that was created especially for the last Tsar, in his favorite color: deep red.  It has a few pieces of furniture and has a special acoustic feature.  Two, really.  According to our tour guide, he was a soft-spoken person, so standing in the middle of the room amplifies the speaker’s voice above what is normal.  You can speak in a normal voice and it echoes through the room.  Apparently, you can also stand in one corner and hear a person in the opposite corner as if they were standing right next to you.

Red.

Now, I’m still learning about the history of Russia and how it all worked, but what I understand is that the Bolsheviks were completely against the royals and the oligarchy that existed when they came into power.  Their influence brought the communism into Russia, swiftly and with great force.  They destroyed churches in addition to anything that was indicated the old ways of the Tsar.  Hence our surprise that the Bolshoi even exists.  Nearly every piece of the architecture and décor has a piece of Tsarist Russia in it.  Well, our tour guide says that when they first migrated to Moscow and gained power, the communist party couldn’t find many spaces to meet all together.  So, the size of the Bolshoi allowed for meetings of the group and thus was spared.  Eventually, they moved closer to Red Square, to the Kremlin, but for that time, this was all they could do. 

Imperial Russian decor.

The Bolshoi, I believe, is most famous for the ballerinas, and there is a fun fact of the space that makes this even more impressive than it already is.  They tell us that the Bolshoi stage is graded to make the action more visible to the audience.  So, the stage, where dancers stand on their toes and twirl around, is actually raked.  I honestly cannot fathom this, particularly since I am dancing on a regular basis and can barely keep my balance with a flat floor and a bar.  It is a bragging right of a Bolshoi ballerina, because the stage has a special floor to level it when a traveling troupe comes into the country.  The Bolshoi ballerinas are tough enough to manage a hill as they gracefully move about the stage.

The small chandelier.

We were fortunate to get to go into a practice space and see the prima ballerina and her partner practicing one of the duets, possibly of Sleeping Beauty.  They danced over and over again, and we saw the same piece three or four times before we quietly exited the room.  It looked so incredible from the beginning, and as we watched, the turns got a little sharper, and the chemistry a tiny bit better.  It took every single view to see the improvements that were made.  But… the mastery and the skill level… it was unfathomable.

A fun little gift we got when we left was a tiny little pointe shoe.  I even got a red one, which I was told was good luck. J