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28 October 2011 Last updated at 11:00 GMT
By Daniel Sandford
BBC News, Moscow
Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre is being reopened on Friday evening after a renovation that took six years to complete, and at a cost officially estimated at half a billion pounds.
On a new rehearsal stage high up in the Bolshoi Theatre, sweat is pouring off some of the world's greatest dancers as they prepare for one of the ballet company's most important seasons.
For six years the main stage of the historic theatre has been dark, but now its glittering chandeliers are shining again.
The theatre closed in 2005 for restoration work, but the job proved much bigger than anyone expected.
Huge sums have been spent on structural work and intricate detailing.
The frescoes and vast quantities of gold leaf have all been replaced. The material was washed with vodka and polished with squirrel tails.
Symbolically, the curtain has lost its hammer and sickle from the Soviet era, while the old insignia on the building's facade has been replaced with the Russian eagle.
Other improvements include a bigger orchestra pit and improved dressing rooms. The rehearsal stage mirrors the main stage directly below, so the dancers know the exact size of the space.
Back in possession of the main stage at last, principal dancer Maria Aleksandrova is moved to tears.
"We all know that we have to keep the history and traditions of this place," she said. "So this is a very happy moment for us. I've even got tears in my eyes, I am so happy."
There has been a theatre on the site since the 1700s, while the current building dates back to the 1856.
"When the curtain opens you see all the magnificence of this hall," Ms Aleksandrova said.
"When we are doing classical performances they are about another time. The theatre helps us to imagine that era - the greatness, and the royalty - what Tsarinas and princesses were like.
"Because we live in a much more simple time, it is difficult to imagine it without the theatre," she adds.
An earlier building was burnt down during Napoleon's occupation of Moscow in 1812, but there is history everywhere.
There is a picture of Tsar Alexander II at the theatre after his coronation. Much later, Stalin addressed the Bolshevik faithful at the Bolshi and Britain's Field Marshal Montgomery even attended a performance there in 1947.
It seems unlikely that the Bolsheviks would have approved of the hundreds of millions of pounds spent returning the theatre to its Tsarist glory.
But this is modern Russia, so the greater concern is how much of the money was obtained in a country where corruption is king.
These days it is the theatre's very knowledgeable clientele that makes it special.
The new artistic director is Sergey Filin, one of their best male dancers of recent years, and he says they still fear the Bolshoi audience.
"The Bolshoi stage is our home. We love the other theatres that we have danced in all over the world. But the most critical audience is here at the Bolshoi. So this is the place the dancers, singers and musicians find the most challenging.
"Some of our dancers have never performed on this stage, and they don't know what it is like. So there is a very special feeling of anticipation," he says.
The first performance is an invitation-only gala concert which will be attended by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
But the evening's entertainment will be shown on a giant screen outside the theatre and broadcast on Russian TV.
The opera company's season opens on 2 November, with their ballet counterparts taking to the stage on 18 November.
Tickets for the first three months have sold out.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15480945
4. Tsar quality: Bolshoi theatre reopens after six-year overhaul
reddit this
Miriam Elder in Moscow
Thursday 27 October 2011 16.02 BST
Medvedev and Putin to preside at gala opening of historic Russian theatre after work to restore pre-Soviet opulence.
It has been a renovation marred by endless delays and allegations of corruption, but on Friday the Bolshoi theatre finally opens its doors after a six-year overhaul to restore it to its pre-Soviet glory.
The grand theatre in Moscow, stripped of much of its opulence in Soviet times, now stands bathed in red Italian fabric and newly gilded mouldings, harking back to its tsarist-era splendour. But the most important changes are those unseen – namely, an overhaul of the theatre's acoustics, which were severely damaged during ill-planned Soviet-era changes.
"This pushed the theatre below the 50th position in the world opera house rankings. Now we've returned to the theatre its original 19th-century acoustics," said Mikhail Sidorov, a spokesperson for Summa, the company in charge of the renovation since 2009.
Russia's ruling duo, President Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin, will preside over a grand invitation-only gala at the theatre on Friday. Details of everything from guests to the performance have been kept secret. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is among the rumoured guests, while foreign opera stars from Placido Domingo to Natalie Dessay and Violeta Urmana are expected to perform.
"This will be a truly national celebration," the Bolshoi's general director, Anatoly Iksanov, said.
The opening performance will be aired in cinemas around the world, and live on Russian state-run television and YouTube. The theatre will set up screens outside its renovated facade for those Russians unable to snag a Kremlin invite to the exclusive event.
The Bolshoi's history encapsulates Russia's troubled past.
The theatre was founded by Catherine the Great in 1776, and its current home was built in 1825 after fire gutted a previous site. Two more fires would damage the building later in the 19th century. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Modest Mussorgsky held premieres there, creating its reputation as one of the world's leading cultural jewels.
Then came the Soviet era. With culture given the mission of promoting national glory, the Bolshoi's ballet troupe flourished, producing stars like Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya. The building was hit by a bomb during the second world war, but quickly repaired.
More damaging were the changes implemented by the Bolshoi's Soviet overlords, who also used the theatre to officially confirm the creation of the Soviet Union, host party congresses and announce important events like the death of Vladimir Lenin.
Like so many opulent tsarist-era buildings, the Bolshoi was stripped of its gold in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution. The loss of the sound-reflecting decoration harmed the theatre's acoustics, which were further degraded by a decision to fill the hollow underneath the orchestra with cement, as it was seen as "impractical".
Decades of neglect followed and when the theatre was shut in July 2005 for its biggest renovation in 150 years, it was on the verge of collapse.
"By the time we closed the theatre for renovation, there was a 70% chance of the building collapsing," said Iksanov. "We had reached a critical point."
More than 3,600 engineers, designers, construction workers and artists were called in to work on the renovation. The theatre now boasts a modern stage and changeable floor – with a sound-absorbing coating for ballet performances, and a sound-reflecting one for opera. The Soviets, in a populist move, had expanded the number of seats from 1,720 to 2,200. The new theatre boasts the original design, with larger chairs outfitted in Italian fabric designed to enhance the acoustics.
"When I walked in, I stopped and couldn't believe what was happening," Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi's ballet troupe, told Russian television this week. "I felt nothing but admiration."
The theatre was initially due to reopen in 2008, but the date was pushed back several times amid spiralling costs and allegations of poor work.
The budget eventually soared to 21bn roubles (£435m) and in September 2009 prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into alleged misuse of funds.
No charges were brought and the Bolshoi denied any wrongdoing, but the main contractor on the project was replaced later that year.
Russians are already struggling to get tickets for the theatre's public premiere, a performance of Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila to be held on 2 November. The top price for tickets is set at 3,000 roubles (£62) but there have been reports of online retailers offering them for as much as 2m roubles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/oct/27/bolshoi-theatre-reopens-overhaul-russia
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