The Bolshoi Theatre celebrated its 250th anniversary with the premiere of Verdi's opera Othello

The Bolshoi Theatre, which celebrates its 250th anniversary on March 28, has returned to the audience Giuseppe Verdi's opera Othello, which was performed on the legendary stage more than 40 years ago. In just two and a half centuries, more than 800 performances have been staged in the country's main theater.

The stage of the Bolshoi Theatre itself is an unshakable symbol of perfection. The theater celebrates its 250th anniversary with the premiere of Othello. The best artists, impeccable set design — everything is exactly as the public has become accustomed to over the past two and a half centuries.

"For everyone who, leaving behind the hustle and bustle of Moscow streets, gets into this hall, time seems to freeze. It's not even that the boxes remember the grand dukes and emperors, the conductor's stand — Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, and the stage — Chaliapin and Plisetskaya. Rather, because classical art itself is eternal, the home of which has been here for the last quarter of a millennium," said Maxim Prikhodov, a correspondent for Izvestia.

However, earlier the building itself was different, its facade faced Petrovka Street, and the theater was called Petrovsky. Also, because the provincial prince Peter Urusov built it according to the "privilege" signed by Catherine II.

The famous building with eight columns appeared half a century later, not with a quadriga, but with a triple. The Bolshoi Theatre burned to the ground, was rebuilt from scratch, bombs exploded at its facade, but it always remained the main stage of the country, and not only culturally.

"The Soviet Union was proclaimed from the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The conductor's baton of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the costume of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin are here," Lidia Kharina, director of the Bolshoi Theater Museum, showed.

Everyone who works at the Bolshoi Theatre feels that they stand on the shoulders of the great. Going on stage, even famous artists worry like students at an exam.

"My first appearance at the Bolshoi Theatre: I felt such incredible awe and such responsibility. It was a new step, a big, important step in my life, my career," admitted Honored Artist of Russia Aida Garifullina.

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The work of machinery is also a kind of choreography. Multi-ton decorations obey the conductor's baton.

"We can set the time. Someone goes longer, someone goes less, and in terms of time they still come to the stage at the same time," said Soslan Margiev, senior master of the Bolshoi Theater.

The costume shop makes 3,000 costumes a year. There are some things the artists are asking to add on their own.

"I wanted a velvet liv, the artist went ahead and slightly modified the original sketch," said Irina Vyazeva, head of the artistic and costume department of the Bolshoi Theater.

Ballet dancers start every morning with a class. Boris Akimov, People's Artist of the USSR, choreographer, teacher, flutters like a butterfly from student to student at the age of 80.

"Class shouldn't be dry, it should be creative. You know, it's lucky that when you find something and some combination suddenly, unexpectedly, and you're glad! So you're still alive, you're still throbbing," he explained.

This continuity is the whole strength of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Russian Ballet school, as well as in a deep and sensitive soul.

"A flight filled with the soul, it's just about the Russian school. We really need to dance, so let's dance completely with our soul, with the mood, with the right presentation, and then all the techniques will work out by themselves," said Svetlana Zakharova, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Prima Ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, acting rector of MGAKH.

Zakharova runs the Bolshoi's forge of personnel, the Moscow Academy of Choreography. For those young artists who get into the Bolshoi, the theater will become the most demanding teacher and will reward them handsomely.

"I've had a lot of roles, I've worked with the greatest people. I realized how lucky it is that the genius of the theater himself chose you to be the leader of the generation," admitted People's Artist of the Russian Federation, premier of the Bolshoi Theater in 1992-2013, rector of the Academy of Russian Ballet. Vaganova Nikolai Tsiskaridze.

Today, the Bolshoi presents an average of a dozen premieres per year. Valery Gergiev, People's Artist of Russia, General Director of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, is bringing back classical operas and ballets, and preparing the theater for expansion.

"There is a lot of work, we will not spare ourselves, and the Bolshoi Theater will not be represented at one or two venues, but will take an even more decisive position in the life of Moscow," he said.

The Bolshoi Theatre is not a Russian or international phenomenon, but a civilizational one, because it was here that classical music was played for the first time.

"The Big One has a special aura, its own energy — the spirit of history is in the air"

Gergiev, Tsiskaridze, Zakharova and other star artists spoke about the role of the country's main theater in their lives and careers.

Gergiev, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, said that the power of Russian theaters lies in their ability to perform not only Russian, but also foreign classics. Speaking about the anniversary year of the Bolshoi Theatre, the director announced plans to perform all the symphonies, operas and ballets by the composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich.

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