Bolshoi Theater 6 entrance how to find. Excursion to the Bolshoi Theater: review

How many times have I run past Bolshoi Theater, honoring him with a fleeting glance: “In place? - On the spot" and ran on. And it didn't occur to me that Grand Theatre- this is a kind of "state within a state", that this is a special world with its own laws, traditions, its own hierarchy.
And then the door to this world suddenly opened… at entrance No. 12, where the box office of the theater is located, and our wonderful blogging group gathered, led by a guide from the Bolshoi Theater Museum.
It will be difficult for me to convey in words all the splendor that appeared before our eyes ... Undoubtedly, the Bolshoi Theater is one of the most beautiful theaters peace! A grandiose, recently completed renovation allowed us to see it in all its truly imperial splendor!
Just imagine that there are 6 more underground floors below the theater; that the Beethoven Hall, where musical concerts, built on the principle of a "folding cup", just press the magic button and the stage, along with the rows, begins to rise and fold to a flat floor, and then
the concert hall turns into a banquet hall; that under the very roof there is a brand new rehearsal room with a sloping and rectangle-lined stage and a luxurious hall made of dark wood, where artists rest in anticipation of their part and where no outsiders have access.
The Bolshoi Theater is magnificent without further ado!

I'm in and

The last thing I want to do is rewrite Wikipedia - let's just silently admire!
However, it is still very short. About the Bolshoi Theatre.

The first name of the theater - Moscow public theater (1776).
Second - Petrovsky Theater (1780).
Third - Imperial Theater (1805).

In 1824 it was rebuilt by the architect Osip Bove.
The theater acquires its approximate current appearance in 1856 and owes them to the architect Albert Cavos.
Peter Klodt installed on the pediment the famous quadriga (four) of horses with the god of arts Apollo.

In the 1920s, the Bolshoi Theater was named after V.I. Lenin "a piece of purely landowner culture" and was on the brink of closing.
In 1983 - the theater received several nearby buildings.
In 2002, the New Stage was opened.

Theatre square. Big theater

We were very lucky with the tour guide. Larisa - intelligent, graceful, with excellent presentation of information about the history of the theater

From the entrance lobby, we go down the stairs to the marble hall (a souvenir shop, a small wardrobe, toilet rooms), and from there we go down the escalator again and get into Beethoven Concert and Rehearsal Hall, the same "folding cup".
When there is a rehearsal of the orchestra, photography is strictly prohibited.
Therefore, there is only one photo, but it also gives a complete picture of the beauty of this technological and modern concert hall(soundproof moving walls, and yes, glass partitions, rows of seats, the stage itself, everything disappears, rises / falls / levels out).

Here is a diagram of the Bolshoi Theater in section.
Find the number 5 - this is the Beethoven Hall! That is, approximately it is located under the fountain on Theater Square!
(c) iCube studio illustration

And now, with bated breath, we enter the auditorium!

Are you blinded by the glitter of gold?
It turns out that there is one little trick, the so-called. optical illusion. In fact, not the entire surface is gilded, but only decorative protruding details.
This photo shows a white background.

And this is almost gone) The Tsar's box is magnificent!

And there's a trick here too. Atlas is not marble, as it may seem, but made of papier-mâché.

Now I would like to translate the admiringly emotional conversation into a practical channel, and discuss such important for theatergoers - convenient and uncomfortable places in auditorium. Thank God, at one time I was at the Bolshoi many times, at least ten, for sure. I watched both opera and ballet, sat in the stalls, on all the balconies and tiers, in the gallery, and once I even had a place “behind the column”.
So let's see what is stalls.
Chairs! The floor is sloping, so the rows are slightly higher than the other.

The color of the velvet upholstery is crimson-scarlet. Very beautiful

Under each chair is mounted something like a ventilation cover. Previously, in my opinion, this was not, it appeared after the repair. Very comfortably

But still we must admit that in the stalls is not the best best review scenes.
Look at those lovely scarlet upholstered chairs. Amphitheater! It is located next to the stalls, under the royal box. The review is excellent!

See what it looks like from here! The whole scene is in full view!

Now let's look at the boxes.
The first tier is the boxes of the benoir.

This is how it can be seen from the boxes of the benoir. Very good.
But, in lodges, the first row is the best. The second - and the head is already in front of you. In the Bolshoi now, instead of chairs in the third row, they began to put high chairs, similar to bar ones. They are much cheaper and look great.
*Anna atlanta_s corrected me (and she is a ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater!) - high chairs in boxes 10-14, indeed, give good review, but in boxes 1-3 less than 50% of the scene is visible! Knowing such significant nuances will help you choose really good tickets.

Look closely - see chairs with high legs? If they offer tickets for them - take it without hesitation!

mezzanine boxes are at the level of the Royal Lodge.
Therefore, the review from here is by far the best.
See the lower box near the stage on the right? It is intended for artists who celebrate their anniversaries in the theatre, from here welcoming the audience, accepting bouquets and basking in applause.
Above it is a guest box for very important people.

Wait, wait admire the chandelier! We will admire and consider it in detail below. And now - fix your gaze on the gallery. See the gilded metal railings? This is an innovation in the Bolshoi - standing room. These are quite inexpensive - 200-300r. Sold with a student card. This experience has long been practiced in European theaters Now, finally, it has reached us.
But! Yet ... I'm a snob dear comrades. And I don’t understand why you need to stand on your feet for two or three hours and see a piece of the stage ... If you just go in to admire the theater, look a little and ... leave.
View from the balcony of the 4th tier

Well, now vdo-o-x.
And a delighted breath!

The weight of the steel frame with brass elements is about 1860 kg. Together with crystal elements - about 2.3 tons. Diameter - 6.5 meters, height - 8.5 meters.
By the way, the top part of the curtain is called "portal harlequin", and it is decorated with Russian heraldic symbols.

If you raise your head on the theater ceiling you will see Apollo playing on the golden "kithara", and 9 muses: Calliope with flute(muse of poetry) Euterpe with book and flute(muse of lyrics) Erato with lyre(muse of love songs) Melpomene with a sword(muse of tragedy) Waist with a mask(muse of comedy) Terpsichore with a tambourine(muse of dancing) Clio with papyrus(muse of history) Urania with globe(muse of astronomy). And instead of the ninth muse of the sacred hymns of Polyhymnia, the artists portrayed the “self-proclaimed” muse of painting with a palette and a brush.

Now on the elevator we rise even higher!

And then on the steps we overcome several spans.
Just think, out of breath and knees hurt, but we are now in big rehearsal room(on the photo of the section of the Bolshoi Theater, find No. 4)!
And we are wildly lucky, the rehearsal has just ended, and we can shoot a little.

The rectangles on the stage show the location of the scenery.
The scene has a visually visible slope of three degrees - this is customary in the Russian ballet tradition.

But let's not interfere.
Love it and that's enough.
We go down again and go to white foyer, which is located above the entrance to the theater.
The interior of 1856 has been restored here - painting in the "grisaille" technique (performed in different shades of the same color, which creates the impression of convex stucco images), large mirrors that increase the visual volume of the room, three crystal chandeliers.

And the fact that while I am relatively free on weekdays, I went on an excursion to the Bolshoi Theater. A year later, everything goes exactly according to the same scenario: excursions for "mere mortals" take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 14:00. Tickets for them begin to sell at 12:00 at the box office of the 12th entrance of the main building of the theater. Since the number of people for each tour is limited (15 visitors and not a person more!), The queue at the box office is built in advance.
I went to the entrance at 10:30 and became the 6th in line. To be honest, there was no terrible excitement that day: the 14th and 15th visitors (nice French women) came up about fifteen minutes before the ticket office opened. But five minutes later, a bunch of people unexpectedly appeared, who, of course, did not get tickets. Conclusion: you need to come at least half an hour. Although, the guard, who graciously let us warm up in the lobby, said that usually about forty people crowded in the morning. We seem to be lucky.
So, the ticket is successfully bought. For an ordinary adult, it will cost 500 rubles, and for a war veteran or student - 250.
Exactly at 14:00 we started. First, we went into the white foyer, which is currently hosting an exhibition of works by the Volshted Porcelain Manufactory - these are the ballerinas:

This one is cute enough, but most of them are wrapped in dirty pink lace.
Then they went to the small imperial foyer, where, they say, the acoustics helped Nicholas II to eavesdrop on what was whispered about him in the corners of the hall. And here I was completely struck by her passion, this dancer:

Next - a large imperial foyer with super-valuable and difficult to restore woolen embroidery:

Then we descended from heaven to earth and went to the audience lobby. One of them is now hosting exhibitions of costumes from various productions of Don Juan at La Scala. Here, for example, are:

Then, finally, the actual hall where the performances take place. Unfortunately, my phone is not capable of taking normal photos in dimmed light, so I will show you strangers - but they somehow convey this chic and splendor:

From here

From here
I managed to capture only the curtain and, of course, crystal chandelier:

We visited the stalls, looked into the orchestra pit, climbed to the mezzanine and, leaning over, stared at the solemn imperial box (the chic one in the center), went up to the 7th floor (4th tier of balconies), and then went down to the Beethoven Hall ", which is in the basement. In all this, the elevator helped us, with a golden plate on which I could not help but take a picture:

And here, in fact, the "Beethoven Hall", because of the soundproofing of which in the spring the Teatralnaya metro station was closed for several days:

And finally, a few facts about the Bolshoi Theater that I discovered for myself on this trip.
1) Inside the building of the Bolshoi Theater, consider there are three theaters: a) a hall where performances take place, b) a rehearsal room of approximately the same size upstairs (above the ceiling, yes) - with a stage, orchestra pit and slightly reduced auditorium, c) the basement, which entirely includes the scenery from the stage, as well as a bunch of utility rooms.
2) If you go on an excursion in the summer, when there are no performances, you can also get to the rehearsal room. Dream dream!
3) Only in Russia the ballet stage is tilted by 3% so that the legs of the ballerinas can be seen. Oh, where is Pushkin!
4) More than 1,000 people work at the Bolshoi Theatre.
5) Glass "greenhouses" in front Bolshoi Theater- these are not greenhouses and not the entrance to the parking lot, this is the entrance to the Beethoven Hall.
6) There is a museum at the Bolshoi Theater. Gotta go there. I hope there are no such queues and restrictions.
7) On the 4th balcony there are standing places for 100 rubles, from which you can’t see anything (and you have to look at the monitor), but you can hear everything well.
8) The main hall of the theater is built according to the principle musical instrument: wooden floor and ceiling the best transmission sound.
9) Stalin at one time was sitting in the personal imperial box (to the left of the stage), which was isolated from the audience by a concrete wall.
10) It turns out that there are many excursions to the Bolshoi Theater, but most of them are for all kinds of organizations (embassies, etc.).
PS In general, now my task is to get tickets for some performance and see it all in action.

I foresee fair questions. And why exactly in the Bolshoi and what does "comfortable" mean? The answers to these questions lie on the surface.
Convenient - these are spectator seats, the viewing angle of the stage from which will be as complete as possible. At the same time, for comfortable viewing of the performance from such places, the viewer should not need to use additional optical means (binoculars).

And the Bolshoi Theatre, because, having become familiar with the peculiarities of its architecture, a potential spectator in any city and in any theater can easily make right choice when buying a ticket.
To begin with, we will need to conduct a small "educational program" on the main concepts in theater architecture. If the reader has known all this for so long, this section can be skipped.
So, parterre (fr) - the word is formed from two words par - by and terre - earth. In total, we get on the ground. In practice, these are rows of spectator seats facing the stage. Parterre seats, starting from orchestra pit or from the stage, go up to the amphitheatre.
Amphitheater - rows of seats located in a semicircle with constantly rising ledges and located directly behind the stalls.
Benoir lodges are balconies located just below or at the level of the stage, on the right and left sides of it. (in the photo one of these boxes can be seen at the stalls level, in the lower left corner)

We rise above the mezzanine. Belle - in French, however, as well as on some others European languages- beautiful, beautiful. (photo taken from mezzanine)

Tier - one of the middle or upper floors in the auditorium (everything above the mezzanine)
The balcony is an amphitheater of spectator seats on various tiers.
Lodge - a group of seats in the auditorium (around the stalls and on the tiers), separated by partitions or barriers.
The gallery is the topmost tier of the auditorium.
So, we got acquainted with some concepts of theatrical architecture and we can start looking for the best viewing places. Let's start in order, from the stalls.

Here, it would seem, everything is clear - the stalls are the best and most expensive places. But don't jump to conclusions. On one of the sites, I happened to encounter a post from a viewer who visited Mikhailovsky Theater. It reports that having bought tickets for the back rows of the stalls, people had to stand the whole performance in order to see anything. In fact, sitting in the stalls, we have the most complete view of the stage. But the farther away our seats are, the more difficult it is for us to see the actors, but the backs of the heads of the spectators with more expensive tickets are very clearly visible. In some theaters, this problem is already solved at the construction stage.

The parterre is built at a slight angle, which increases as it approaches the back rows.
The amphitheater - everything would be fine, but it's too far away. The only consolation is that the coat in the wardrobe for binoculars will be given without a queue.
The mezzanine and the boxes of the benoir are quite convenient places. But even here it is necessary Be careful. It is clear that when looking at the scene from the box, not located in the center relative to the stage, the viewer's eye cannot fully capture everything that happens on the stage. As a rule, the spectators sitting on the balconies of the right side have a very good view of the left side of the stage, but the right side of the stage is poorly visible and vice versa. At the same time, in some theaters, in addition, the back of the stage is also poorly visible. You should also pay attention to the fact that, as a rule, the seats in all theater boxes are located in two or three rows. Accordingly, the viewing angle of the scene in the first row is slightly larger than in the third. In 2011, an unpleasant incident occurred at the Bolshoi Theater on the new stage. Spectators who bought tickets for the extreme seats in the mezzanine were dissatisfied with the fact that they saw almost nothing from their seats. Having been refused a refund, they sued the theater.
Tier - there are four of them in the Bolshoi Theater! Certainly not worth buying. tickets for the fourth tier if you have a fear of heights. Face to face with the muses, you may begin to feel a little dizzy. Needless to say, rising from tier to tier higher and higher, prices fall lower and lower?
Now about the main thing, about buying tickets. Their price ranges from one and a half to forty or more thousand. What does it depend on? First, of course, from the performance. A lot is important here. For example, the audience goes to the ballet more willingly than to the opera. Many go "on names." Premiere performances always cost more. Secondly, of course, from the location of the places. To help the public select the right ticket, many theater box offices have charts showing "convenient" and "uncomfortable" seats. Thirdly, where, from whom and how long before the performance you purchase tickets.

The Bolshoi Theater starts pre-sale of tickets for all performances three months before they start. In order to order them, you must send an application to the address [email protected], which must be sent no later than the day preceding the one on which the pre-sale of tickets for the selected performance opens, but not earlier than fifteen days before the start of the pre-sale. The pre-sale schedule can be found here http://www.bolshoi.ru/visit/. The application must contain:
- Surname.
- Passport ID.
- The name of the show.
- Date and time when the performance will be shown.
- Number of seats, no more than TWO.
An accepted application must be answered by e-mail, confirming that the APPLICATION IS ACCEPTED (the application is not ordered reservation) and processed by the cashier in the presence of the applicant. When buying a ticket on request, you must name the date and time of the performance, last name and present your passport to the cashier. (The passport number and surname indicated in the application will also be indicated on the ticket.) Advance ticket sales are available from 11:00 to 15:00. From 4 p.m., the tickets remaining from the preliminary sale go on free sale (theater box offices, the Internet, city theater box offices and agencies). When visiting the theater, you will need to present a passport.
In the theatre there is a program "Big - for students", according to which
full-time students of universities can purchase tickets worth one hundred rubles for theater performances. The sale of such tickets opens at 17.30 at the second box office located in the directorate building. Sale and entrance to the theater - upon presentation of a student card. For performances on the Main (historical) stage, sixty tickets are allocated for students; for performances on New stage- thirty tickets.
Beneficiaries, upon presentation of documents confirming their benefits, can also purchase tickets worth one hundred rubles.
One hundred and sixty-one tickets are allocated for performances on the New Stage, and five hundred and eighteen tickets for the Main Stage.

But that's not all! Now, in order to visit the Bolshoi Theater, which opened after reconstruction, it is not necessary to buy a ticket for the performance!!!
At twelve o'clock in the afternoon there are one-hour tours of the theater (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Tickets are sold at the box office located in historical building theater (twelfth entrance) on the day of the tour. The ticket price is five hundred rubles. For schoolchildren, full-time students and beneficiaries, the price is two hundred and fifty rubles. No more than fifteen tickets are sold for the tour.
Group visits can be requested by email.
[email protected]

The article uses information from the official website of the Bolshoi Theater