A historic facility that holds opera and ballet performances, the Bolshoi Theater is found on the Theatre Square at Saint Petersburg in Moscow, Russia. Tourists can enter the country through the Pulkovo Airport, which is just several kilometers away from the city center. Some of the major international airlines that offer services to Saint Petersburg include the Norwegian Air Shuttle, Czech Airlines and Air France. For those coming from the U.S., they can avail the international flights offered by American Airlines. Upon arriving at the airport, the theater is just a taxi ride away.
The Bolshoi Theater in Saint Petersburg – Russia’s World Famous Performing Arts Center and Major Tourist Attraction
The Bolshoi Theater is the right place for people who love performing arts. It is also a good place to visit in order to understand the richness of Russia’s culture and its colorful history. Inside this building, people can watch Russian opera classics like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Mikhail Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar and Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. It also features outstanding actors and famous foreign theater companies including Paris Opera, Vienna Opera and La Scala. Its very own Bolshoi Ballet regularly performs grand productions such as Sergei Prokofiev’s Cinderella, Adolphe Adam’s Le Corsaire and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.
The theater was co-founded by Prince Peter Urusov and English entrepreneur Michael Maddox on March 17, 1776, which started producing operas and plays after acquiring the Petrovka Theatre. Originally called the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, it was inaugurated with the Cendrillon ballet show which featured Fernando Sor on January 18, 1825. A team led by Russian-Italian architect Alberto Cavos led the building’s reconstruction after a fire caused significant damage to the facility in 1853. The main building closed for restoration in 2005, which is set to reopen on October 2, 2011.
A single ticket for the first balcony section of the Bolshoi Theater typically costs around 2,000 to 2,800 Russian rubles, the dress circle section around 2,400 to 3,000 Russian rubles, while the costs of amphitheatre seats range from 2,600 to 3,000 Russian rubles. The most expensive seats are found at the stalls, the prices of which range from 2,200 to 3,500 Russian rubles.
Other Interesting Things about the Bolshoi Theater in Saint Petersburg – Russia’s Top Performing Arts Facility
The Bolshoi Theater employs around 2,500 people including Anatoly Ixanov as general director, Alexander Vedernikov as chief conductor and Boris Akimov as Boshoi ballet troupe art director. It has a creative team of around 900 actors of orchestra, ballet and opera. Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov premiered on December 16, 1888, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov theatrical production showed on October 10, 1901, while Dmitri Shostakovich’s masterpiece titled Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was featured in 1935.
