Moscow Theaters and Festivals
During your tour to Moscow our guides will book tickets to any of Moscow world famous Theaters, Circus or Festivals. We'll full your evenings by poetry, drama and joy.
Moscow's central theater district lies a short distance to the northeast of the Kremlin and Red Square. Both the Bolshoy and the Maly theaters sit directly on Theater Square, while the Moscow Arts Theater lies just around the corner.
Bolshoy
Theater
The
imposing home of the internationally-famed Bolshoy ballet was constructed in
1824 by Osip Bove, though the company itself was begun in 1773 as a dancing
school for the Moscow Orphanage. For much of its history the Bolshoy was
overshadowed by the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, but with Moscow's
restoration as the capital in 1918 it gained preeminence. For most of the last
three decades the Bolshoy was led by Yuri Grigorovich, an artistic director
known as much for his autocratic control as for his accomplished, classical
choreography. Under Grigorovich's tenure, and graced by the presence of a series
of remarkably gifted dancers, the Bolshoy's became known as one of the world's
great companies. Despite Grigorovich's departure in 1995, its performances
continue to elicit international acclaim, and an evening at the Bolshoy remains
one of Moscow's sublime pleasures.
Maly
Theater
Though
much less well-known today than either the Bolshoi or the MKhAT, the Maly gained
renown during the nineteenth-century as a venue for social and political
satires. The plays of Alexander Griboyedov (1795-1829), Nikolai Gogol (1809-52),
and Alexander Ostrovskiy (1823-86) gained their first performances here, making
the Maly an early center for a culture of intellectual opposition to the Tsarist
state.
Moscow
Arts Theatre (MKhAT)
The
foundation of the Moscow Arts Theater in 1898 marked the birth of modern drama.
By bringing together the radically new plays of Anton Chekhov and the
method-acting techniques of Konstantin Stanislavsky, the MKhAT broke radically
with the classical tradition of European drama and invented a fresh, realistic
theater that continues to influence theatrical production all over the world.
Although the advent of the Soviet state rapidly constrained the artistic
inventiveness of the MKhAT, it maintained its commitment to the finely-modulated
dramatic style first developed by Stanislavsky and his co-founder Vladimir
Nemirovich-Danchenko. A century later, the MKhAT is no longer on the cutting
edge of Russian theater, but it maintains its position as the premier
method-acting company in the world.
Moscow's
festivals have shaken off their joyous-workers'-march past image and are now
shaking booty with the best of them. A great many festivals are derived from
Orthodox church tradition. Orthodox Christmas begins with midnight mass on 7
January. Orthodox Easter, known as Paskha falls some time in March or April - it
begins with a midnight church service, after which people eat special dome-shape
cakes and curd cakes and swap painted wooden eggs. In odd-numbered years, the
Moscow Film Festival hits the city's screens in Autumn. The Russian Winter
Festival is pretty much a tourist affair, with troyka rides, folklore shows,
games and vodka, and is celebrated between 25 December and 5 January. Sylvester
is the Russian new year celebration, and is the main gift-giving festival of the
year, with presents placed under the traditional fir tree. Muscovites see out
the old year with vodka and welcome the new one with champagne.
With help of our Moscow agents you'll try to understand Russian soul through history, art and holidays of Russian.
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