Moscow Guide
The Beliy Gorod
The Bolshoy Theatre
Website: www.bolshoi.ru
Bolshoy means "big" or "great", and the Bolshoy Theatre (Bolshoy teatr), dominating Teatralnaya ploshchad, is both – with a massive eight-columned portico, surmounted by Apollo's chariot. Alas, its problems are also on a grand scale, from subsidence due to the theatre's position above the underground Neglina River, to the inferiority of dancers' wages and the quality of performances compared to St Petersburg's Mariinskiy Theatre. Since Putin appointed Anatoly Iksanov to rescue the theatre from its decline in 2002, there are signs that the Bolshoy has turned a corner, including three awards at the Golden Mask festival.
The Bolshoy's auditorium seats 2000, with five tiers of balconies rising towards a chandelier weighing 1.5 tonnes (a gift from Napoleon III) and a circular mural of Apollo and nine Muses that was going to be replaced with the hammer and sickle, had not the Nazi invasion occurred. Cherry-red upholstery and hangings highlight the gilded mouldings on the boxes and balconies; the Imperial Box is dead centre, while heads of state and the artistic director occupy the ones to the left and right of the stage.