Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre

From the artistic point of view, the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the most renowned theatres in Russia. Of a particular interest is the building of the theatre designed in the avant-gardism style. It is the largest building of theatre in Russia and one of the largest buildings in the world.

In the 20th of the past century in Novosibirsk there appeared an initiative group, which promoted the idea of the «Bolshoi Theatre of Siberia»; and its construction had begun already in 1931. It was based on the project of the architects Bart and Grinberg. At first, the architects planned to combine a theatre, a circus, a planetarium, water pantomime and cinema in a single building, however, those plans weren’t realized, and in 1936 significant changes were made to the project and it was decided to build only a theatre but a huge one. 

The theatre building was designed in the then popular constructivism (avant-gardism) style. Such long period of construction is due to the giant size of the theatre. It became the largest theatre in Russia, both by area (40 thousand square meters), and by volume (nearly 300 m3). It is believed that the whole Moscow Bolshoi Theatre can be housed under the dome. The dome diameter is 60 m. Now there are three 3 stages in the theatre: Big Hall, Small Hall (upper stage) and Concert Hall. 

As a whole, the construction was finished before the war by 1941, but the final state commissioning was postponed. During the war the collections of all main museums of Moscow and St. Petersburg were stored in the Novosibirsk theatre housed. As a result, the first night of the opera «Ivan Susanin» took place in the Novosibirsk theatre already after the war, on May 12th 1945.

Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the few provincial theatres, which were given the status of «academic» emphasizing its artistic level. It obtained this status in 1963. For 60 years there were staged over 280 new performances and ballets in the theatre.