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Bolshoi Theatre reopens after ten-year rebuild

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Neil McGowan
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« on: November 04, 2011, 11:34:46 am »

A five-year rebuild that has in fact lasted twice as long, and gone so far over budget that it's been declared a State Secret, has ended - the Bolshoi Theatre has finally reopened.

Last week there was a Gala Concert - staged by Dmitry Cherniakov - to open the theatre formally.

And on Wednesday evening this week, the theatre staged its first opera on the newly-rebuilt stage - a new production of Glinka's RUSLAN & LUDMILA, again staged by Dmitry Cherniakov, and conducted by Vladimir Jurowsky.  The production appears to be classical, but includes Cherniakov's usual obsessions with prostitutes and bathhouses in later scenes (staged in a C21st setting) which don't appear in the clip below.

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autoharp
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« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2011, 01:51:05 pm »

A five-year rebuild that has in fact lasted twice as long, and gone so far over budget that it's been declared a State Secret,

That sort of thing happens in UK doesn't it?
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ahinton
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« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2011, 02:33:12 pm »

A five-year rebuild that has in fact lasted twice as long, and gone so far over budget that it's been declared a State Secret,

That sort of thing happens in UK doesn't it?
Er, yes - Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, anyone? (which, as you of all people know, Monsieur l'Harpe, does not mean "Albanian Parliament Building"!). OK, it wasn't much more than three years overdue but it did cost more than 10 times even the most outrageously high of the widely differing original estimates (and they used Chinese, not Scottish, granite). What the refurbished Bolshoi must have cost is almost too frightening to contemplate, so it's probably as well that FOI requests don't cut much ice in Moskva.

That said, I have no doubt that there are ample similar examples from across the world.
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2011, 03:34:01 pm »

That sort of thing happens in UK doesn't it?

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« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2011, 10:23:55 pm »

The production appears to be classical, but includes Cherniakov's usual obsessions with prostitutes and bathhouses in later scenes (staged in a C21st setting) which don't appear in the clip below.


I think the whole country is obsessed. This brings such a far remove fairytale easier to sell. Many of the new stage renovations are trying to attract young audience or something.
They are in the period costumes so to say (and are not moved into our time), but there is piano there on stage that is a little strange perhaps. Also there is harp there as well as Russian folk instrument gusli that bards of the past used to accompany themselves .Maybe this is not very authentic.
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2011, 11:25:52 pm »


They are in the period costumes so to say (and are not moved into our time), but there is piano there on stage that is a little strange perhaps. Also there is harp there as well as Russian folk instrument gusli that bards of the past used to accompany themselves .Maybe this is not very authentic.

Ah, but later on everyone is in a contemporary night-club, complete with striptease :( All of Cherniakov's productions are exactly the same. Computer screens (Macbeth). Banquet tables (Aida, Macbeth, Evgeny Onegin).  Striptease (all operas).  Ho-hum and an elephant's bum.  But he's the "most highly paid opera director working in Europe".
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t-p
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« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2011, 11:42:44 am »

We lived through time of New Economic politic (NEP). It is something similar to what it was after 1917 revolution.
My granmother used to tell me how ugly it was. Then repressions that started in 1936 etc.

In my time it was fashionable to say that there is spiral development in history.





The girl says - I am for President Putin because he is for his country, he loves his country. (Brain-washing again).
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #7 on: November 08, 2011, 12:21:33 pm »


The girl says - I am for President Putin because he is for his country

Well, I suppose at least she is not proposing to take off her t-shirt for him. But probably only because of the cold weather :(
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2011, 01:02:05 pm »

The Head of Scala (in Moscow for a concert performance of Verdi's REQUIEM by the Scala orchestra & chorus, under Barenboim) has said that both La Scala and the Bolshoi need to modernise their work for a new age.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/us-russia-bolshoi-lascala-idUSTRE7AE0WH20111115
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2012, 05:46:43 pm »

The Bolshoi Theatre have sacked their head Ballet teacher, after he made criticisms about the way the building has been rebuilt during the recent six-year closure.
[Russia Today]

[After the revelry of 31st December evening, we spent a more sedate evening on 1st Jan with several performers who sing in the Bolshoi chorus.  They all confirmed the allegations about the slipshod renovation work which are made by Tsiskaridze.]

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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2012, 06:49:46 pm »

A disgruntled opera-lover has failed in her bid to sue the Bolshoi Theatre for 1M over Dmitry Chernyakhov's production of RUSLAN & LUDMILA
[The Moscow News]

The woman also demanded that the production be struck from the theatre's repertoire.

The woman has not yet indicated if she plans to appeal against the court's rejection of her case.
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t-p
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« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2012, 07:50:06 am »

There is always tradeoffs in such staging of opera. They can gain a few new people attracted by sexuality and lose others who stop coming to opera.

I personally think that they will lose more people than they will gain.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkuddKcn--M&feature=related


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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2012, 09:36:59 am »

I personally think that they will lose more people than they will gain.


But for the Bolshoi Theatre this question isn't important. They know that simply because it's the Bolshoi Theatre, all the tickets will always be sold-out at the full price - or above the full price.

It's a depressing aspect of our times - that audiences simply accept that whatever is on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre 'is the benchmark of what is good' :(
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t-p
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« Reply #13 on: April 18, 2012, 09:10:18 am »

Maybe there are following the crowd people that go to Bolshoi and other bog opera houses, but there are many people I know that love opera (really love it) and they don't go to productions like that, avoid it or travel somewhere else.


Now days they stage opera in airports and other public places to attract audience. It is another gimmick in my view. It wouldn't attract me and I would think it is silly if I was there on the day.
Trends come and go anyway.

In my experience it is like that - people that love opera will love opera and people who don't will not like opera and nothing can change it around (unless opera will become a fad).
Maybe I am too pessimistic, I don't know.
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