How many fires has the Bolshoi Theater survived? Fire and restoration of the Bolshoi Theater building

04.03.2020

Publications in the Theaters section

Through fire and destruction

"Culture.RF" continues a series of joint materials with the portal "History.RF". Today read an interview with the director of the Bolshoi Theater Museum - Lydia Kharina. About when the Bolshoi was founded and where it was located, how many fires and other disasters the building survived, what was staged here and what rules existed for actors - in our publication.

Lidia Glebovna, tell us where the Bolshoi Theater traces its history back to? Is there any specific date that is generally considered to be his birthday?

We have a date on the poster - March 28 (17th - old style) 1776. This is the day Prince Pyotr Urusov received the “privilege” to maintain a theater in Moscow. But this is not the first “privilege” in the history of this theater. The assignment of the very first “privilege” and the creation of the troupe occurred in 1766. Documents about this date were found and published by professor and historian Lyudmila Mikhailovna Starikova, who studies the 18th century. The first troupe was created by Nikolai Titov ( retired military man, first director of the Moscow Theater. - Approx. ed.) and received government support. Titov lasted three years -
Running a theater is very expensive. He transferred his “privilege” to two Italians - Cinti and Belmonti. But then a plague attacked Moscow... One of the entrepreneurs, Chinti, became infected and died. To defeat the plague, Count Grigory Orlov was sent to Moscow. He placed the city under quarantine, and the spread of the disease was stopped. Catherine the Great then generously rewarded Orlov for saving the Fatherland.

- Whose hands did the theater then pass into?

-After the death of both entrepreneurs, the “privilege” was transferred to another foreigner, also an Italian, named Grotti. But Grotti couldn’t stand it for long either - he needed a lot of money ( for the maintenance of the theater. - Approx. ed.). Then the “privilege” was transferred to Urusov, but since its term was ending, he turned to the empress with a request to receive a new “privilege”. Catherine set him a condition: “You will have the main “privilege”, no one will interfere with you, but you must build a building for the theater”.

- Where was the theater located before?

Before this, the troupe performed in different buildings for ten years. The first was the Opera House on Yauza, which later burned down. Then the troupe performed in private houses: in Apraksin’s house on Znamenka, in Pashkov’s house, in Manege on Mokhovaya. The buildings were being altered endlessly, so, of course, it was very difficult: a special room was needed for the theater. Having received an order from the empress, Pyotr Urusov found a partner and bought the worst land in Moscow - junk ( waste soil - soil used for crops. - Approx. ed.), today this place is called Theater Square. The area there was swampy, as the Neglinka River flows nearby. But nevertheless, it was here that the construction of the first theater building began.

Ladies leafed through fashion magazines, merchants made deals

- How long did Urusov manage the theater?

At some point, he, too, could not stand it and transferred the “privilege” to his companion, the Englishman Michael Medox, who was finishing the construction of the theater. In 1780 on Petrovka Street ( hence the name Petrovsky. - Approx. ed.) the first building of the capital's theater opened. It was the largest theater building in Moscow. It was perfectly adapted, the creators thought everything through very well. By the way, this building was used not only to stage performances, but also to hold all kinds of public events.

- Which for example?

For example, eight years after its opening, a dance hall was built in the theater, and masquerades and balls began to be held. There were also special rooms where ladies could look through magazines about French fashion during the day, and merchants could drink tea and conclude some kind of agreement. That is, it was a house open to everyone around the clock. But if there was severe frost, the performances were canceled because the inside of the building was not heated, especially around the stage. As you understand, the artists mostly wear open, light suits, so they were very cold.

By the way, about the artists: who played in the theater then? Did the troupe consist of free people or were there serfs as well?

You know, unlike St. Petersburg, the artists of the Moscow Theater were civilian employees. At the same time, some of the artists were bought, but they did not become serf actors in the service of the state, they became free people! But at the same time, there were certain, very strict rules. For example, if you wanted to get married, then you had to write a paper so that you were allowed to marry such and such a citizen. Everyone was thinking about not losing the artist, so the control was quite tight. But all members of the troupe had a decent income, the artists were taken home by carriage. Therefore, of course, working in the theater was good.

- Do you have any information about the productions of that time? What did they play that was interesting to the audience?

Our museum is dedicated to the history of the Bolshoi Theater, so I can say that they staged Mozart, Rossini... And, of course, they tried to do something domestic, so all sorts of adaptations of Russian folk songs and so on often appeared. It must be said that, first of all, the theater, of course, was musical and operatic. Although the artist in the 18th century did everything: he sang, danced, and recited. It was as if he was out of character.

After the fire, they immediately remembered the mayor

- How long did the Petrovsky Theater exist?

Until 1805. Then, as the documents say, a fire broke out in it due to someone’s negligence: either they forgot a candle in the area of the stage, or did not turn off the lamp. But the theater is always made of wood inside! Here they immediately remembered the mayor, who constantly showed displeasure about the fact that the stairs were narrow and there were some warehouses underneath them. Because of this, he, of course, scolded the administrators of the Petrovsky Theater.

- But this, apparently, did not save me from trouble. Did the fire completely destroy the building?

The fire was very strong, it was visible even in the village of Vsesvyatsky - today this is the Sokol metro area.

- But the building, as I understand it, was quite tall?

Not that high. It was a three-story stone building with a plank roof; it was not even particularly decorated. But the dance hall was very beautiful: there were 24 columns, 48 crystal chandeliers, it was very elegant, but it all burned down.

- After that, the theater began to wander again?

– Yes, private houses have started again. In 1808, a new building was built for the theater, entirely made of wood. It stood on Arbat Square - where the monument to Gogol by the sculptor Andreev is now located. It was the only building in Moscow by Karl Ivanovich Rossi, the chief architect of St. Petersburg. But in 1812 the Patriotic War began. When our troops retreated, Rostopchin ( Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin - Moscow mayor and governor-general of Moscow during the Napoleonic invasion. - Approx. ed.) ordered Moscow to be burned, and the first thing that was set on fire was the Rossi Theater. So he burned down again.

One day during the performance there was a crash...

As far as I know, after this a new building was built, but it too was destroyed in a fire in 1853. The modern building of the Bolshoi Theater was built according to the design of Albert Kavos and was reconstructed several times, but there have been no more fires since then. Tell me, have some of the original elements of architecture and interior decoration that were still in the Petrovsky Theater survived to this day?

There was a fire in this very place, that is, on Teatralnaya Square, twice: in the Petrovsky Theater and in a building built according to the design of Osip Ivanovich Bove. All buildings always had the old foundation. The theater building was slightly enlarged, but at the same time everything that could be saved was used. There are a lot of things left after Beauvais: for example, we still have the same columns that were erected in 1825, made of white sandstone.

The Moscow Kremlin was built from the same stone by Dmitry Donskoy. Of course, we Muscovites are pleased with this. In addition to the columns, some walls have been partially preserved. The collapse, of course, was very strong - the entire back part of the rear stage was completely blown to smithereens. Well, as I already said, the foundations remain. But they became a new problem for the theater already in the 20th century. Due to the old foundations, the building began to sag. In addition, it was affected by dampness. Now there are no problems - the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation is helping, but before that there were problems with the building back in the 19th century.

- Were they also connected with the fire?

No, not with the fire, but with the foundations. Neglinka, although it flows through pipes, is still a low place, so the foundations were washed away. And one day, right during the performance, a strong crash was heard: the right wall of the theater cracked from top to bottom. Because of this, the doors to the boxes jammed, and the audience on the right side had to crawl to the left side to evacuate. This was in 1902, and the theater was then closed for six months.

The A. A. Bakhrushin Theater Museum has preserved photographs that show how repair work was carried out and new stone foundations were laid under the walls. In order to prevent the theater from collapsing, it was necessary to suffer some losses: for example, the stalls' wardrobe was covered with earth. But we managed to save the building!

On Lent on March 11, 1853, the Mother See was agitated by a rumor about the fire of the Imperial Bolshoi Theater. Crowds of people poured into the city center to Teatralnaya Square. There, the creation of the architect Beauvais, infinitely dear to Muscovites, perished in the abyss of fire.

Moscow was in full view
Visible from the fire tower.
Fire!
The horses flew headlong,
Like a flame, they themselves are hot.

And it all started early in the morning, when the streets, dusted with light snow, were still deserted, but the usual theatrical life had already begun at the Bolshoi: carpenters were installing scenery on the stage for the evening performance; the stokers, having finished firing the stoves, placed candles in large chandeliers; the elderly theater caretaker Talyzin completed his morning tour of the auditorium, stage and other premises, and then went to the hydrotherapy establishment. He returned to the theater at about nine o'clock and, heading to the box office, heard a loud cry: "Fire! Fire! The theater is on fire!" Talyzin rushed headlong onto the stage, but this path was closed: the entire right side was on fire, the backstage, the curtain, and the scenery were on fire. No one put out the fire. All the stage workers, assistant driver Timofeev, non-commissioned officer on duty Andreev fled in panic. Talyzin rushed to save the office and the theater box office - no one bothered to call the firefighters. The nearest team was located at the Tver police station, a few minutes' walk from the Bolshoi Theater. At its high-altitude tower, day and night, in heat and cold, there was always a fireman, vigilantly examining the surrounding houses and streets. At ten o'clock in the morning, the guard at the tower saw smoke appearing on the roof of the theater and raised the alarm. A few minutes later, a horse-drawn fire train flew out of the open gates of the fire station with a ringing and roar, turned around at the house of the Governor General and rushed towards Okhotny Ryad. A red flag hoisted on the tower - a signal to gather all the units for a big fire.

The firemen's departure on alarm was an impressive and beautiful, although unsafe for the townspeople, spectacle. Sparkling with dazzling copper, the horse-drawn convoys rushed towards the fire site like an unstoppable avalanche, sweeping away everything in its path. The streets and squares were filled with an alarming roar, the clatter of sparkling horseshoes, the ringing of bells, the snoring of lathered horses, the screams of furmans, the cries and groans of passers-by. In front of the fire convoy, a horseman galloped dashingly, with the piercing sound of a trumpet, instilling alarm in those oncoming and clearing the way for the sparkling copper horse convoy. Behind him flew the light sleigh of a mustachioed fireman, drawn by a pair of magnificent trotters, with a furman on high sawhorses. Following the fire chief, four furious horses galloped as if through the air, carrying a heavy line with a team of tall axemen. And then, biting the bit, dropping white flakes of foam, mighty horses in sparkling harnesses rushed a whole line of winter carts with heavy filler pipes, hooks, ladders, barrels of water. On the rapidly gliding carts, calmly, like fiery gods, stood, stretched out in front, fire soldiers in copper helmets, dressed in dark tight half-caftans, girded with glossy black belts and sword belts. The sun played victoriously on axes and helmets with crests, and a heavy embroidered banner floated overhead in the wind. Woe to the one who hesitated to get out of the way of the firefighters: injury or death awaited him under the hooves of wildly galloping horses. When the firefighters approached the theater, their brilliant appearance immediately dimmed - they found themselves completely powerless in front of the blazing colossus, so imperfect and primitive were their “fire extinguishing tools.”

The first report of the incident appeared in print on the pages of the 32nd issue of Moskovskie Vedomosti on March 14, 1853: “Upon the arrival of the firefighters, the inside of the theater was burning, masses of fire and smoke flew out of the windows and onto the roof of it, and, despite all the efforts of the firefighters the teams that gathered at the scene of the fire, there was no way to stop the fire and even weaken its strength; the entire interior of the theater building, except for the side halls, the mezzanine and the rooms on the lower floor, which housed the office, the box office and the buffet, was completely burned."

The eyewitness is the famous writer and inimitable master of oral stories from folk life I.O. Gorbunov recalled: “On March 11, the Bolshoi Moscow Theater burned down. The fire started in the morning. There was a small snowfall. I was at this fire. I did not see the brave and generous roofer Marin, who climbed up a drainpipe right under the roof to save the theater carpenter. The spectacle of the fire was It was impressive. It was strange to watch how firemen with their “syringes” were spinning around this giant, firemen, firemen frantically shouting in hoarse, bestial voices: “Meshchanskaya, swing!”

The fire pipes of the Meshchansky district begin to release from their hoses a stream of water as thick as an index finger. They pump for two or three minutes - there is no water.

Water! - the fire chief shouts. - Sidorenko! I'll nail it into the coffin!

Sidorenko, black as coal, his eyes wide, turns the barrel.

Sretenskaya! Beware!

Public, pull back!

Nobody moves, and there was nowhere to move: everyone is standing at the walls of the Maly Theater. The private bailiff ordered it this way for his own amusement. He stood and stood and thought: “Let me shout!” - and shouted... Everything is better...

Double-cylinder piston pumps have had a significant impact on firefighting tactics. With this type of pump, water could be thrown up to 10 meters away. Capacity 100-200 liters per minute. Despite their technical imperfections, filler pipes until the end of the 19th century were in service with Russian fire brigades as the main “fire extinguishing tool”.

Back, back! Siege back! - Count Zakrevsky’s elegantly dressed adjutant shouts in a politely contemptuous tone, taking on the role of a policeman. Everyone stands silently. The adjutant begins to get angry.

I will now order everyone to be filled with water! - the adjutant gets excited.

Water is now a hundred rubles a bucket! “You better order Kiyatra to fill it,” one can hear from the crowd. Laughter.

Feat Marina

Vasily Gavrilovich Marin, a peasant from the Yaroslavl province, was in Moscow on his way from St. Petersburg, where he was engaged in roofing work. He witnessed how three theater carpenters jumped onto the roof to escape the fire. Two of them rushed down and “beat themselves to death on the pavement,” and the third, carpenter Dmitry Petrov, remained on the roof, where he was threatened with imminent death. The fire brigades did not have the means to help him. Marin, emerging from the crowd, volunteered to save the dying man. Using the ladder immediately given to him by the firefighters, Marin climbed up to the capitals of the columns of the main entrance, then climbed onto a drainpipe and from it on a pole handed a rope to the dying man. Petrov, having secured the end of the rope to the roof, went down it to the drain, and then down the stairs to the ground.

There are two phantals nearby, you can’t get enough from them. They go to the Moscow River for water. How soon will you satisfy such a fire? Look look! Wow!

Capacity: 60 buckets (700 liters). Water from fire barrels was poured into special filling boxes (boxes) of filler pipes, which did not have devices for sucking water from natural water sources.

The roof collapsed, sending up myriads of sparks and a cloud of thick smoke.

And the giant burns and burns, putting out huge flames from the windows, as if teasing the Moscow fire brigade with its “syringes”. By eight o’clock in the evening, the authorities, the firefighters, and the horses were exhausted and standing.”

Limited technical means of fighting the fire forced them to combine extinguishing actions with the simultaneous dismantling of neighboring buildings and structures in order to limit the spread of the fire. Most often, after deafening commands and rollicking swearing of the brave fire chiefs - “Download, break, don’t reason!” - Ashes and smoking ruins of houses remained at the scene of the incident. Such work was usually performed by axemen who rode on open linear passages.

Another eyewitness to the fire testifies: “The strong fire lasted about two days, and the whole fire ended in at least a week and a half.

After the fire, the interior and the auditorium presented a sad and at the same time majestic picture of complete destruction. It was a burnt skeleton, but the skeleton of a giant, inspiring involuntary respect. These remains spoke loudly of the past glory, the former greatness of the Bolshoi Theater."

In Russia in the 19th century, according to far from complete data, more than 30 theaters and circuses burned down.

In his story, Gorbunov calls “syringes” the fire filler pipes (manual pumps), which formed the basis of the armament of the Moscow Fire Department, which consisted of 17 fire departments, with a total number of 1,560 personnel. Tentatively, we can assume that at least 50 fire pipes were concentrated on the fire, but there was not a sufficient amount of water in the area of the theater; it had to be transported from the Moscow River, the icy banks of which turned out to be difficult to overcome for horse-drawn barrel passages in order to fill the barrels from the ice holes.

Such devices were widely used in the last century to organize gas and smoke protection.

Later, in 1892, in Moscow, according to the project and under the supervision of engineer N.G. Zimin, a water supply system with a length of 108 miles was built, on which fire hydrants were installed, which immediately increased the efficiency of fire extinguishing.

Difficulties in firefighting were associated not only with the difficulty of delivering water, but also with poor roads. There was a smooth wooden end road only on a small section of Tverskaya Street, near the house of the Governor General. The remaining streets were paved with uneven cobblestones, and the outlying streets and alleys of Moscow were buried in mud in spring and autumn. The winter snow was not removed from the streets; deep depressions and potholes formed, along which the firemen's heavy sleds moved like boats on sea waves.

In the summer, the rapid running of horse-drawn fire engines on iron tires along the cobblestone street produced an unimaginable knock and roar, the glass in the windows shook, cabinets with dishes shook, and ordinary people rushed to the windows or ran out into the street to see the rushing firefighters. The beauty and power of the fire brigade were the horses. Each fire department was proud of its horses, which were carefully looked after. The horse-drawn fire brigade of the Moscow Fire Brigade reached aesthetic perfection and external splendor in the 60s of the nineteenth century.

The Moscow police chief at that time was N.I. Ogarev, an old cavalryman and a passionate lover of firefighting. He organized the supply of very good horses to the city fire departments. It was impossible not to admire them - they were so beautiful, playful and well-fed. Ogarev visited Voronezh and Tambov horse fairs and factories twice a year, selected the best horses, brought them to Moscow, where he personally distributed them to fire departments and constantly monitored their care. It was to him that the Moscow Fire Department owed the selection of horses by color: each unit had horses of a strictly defined color, and Muscovites learned from afar which fire department was rushing to the fire on alarm.

But let's go back to 1853. Soon after the Bolshoi Theater fire, on the orders of the Governor General of Moscow, Count Zakrevsky, the most rigorous investigation into its “root cause” was carried out. Most of the witnesses interviewed testified that the fire originated in a closet located on the right side of the stage, under the stairs leading to the women's restrooms. Various tools and things of theater carpenters and joiners were stored in the closet. Assistant stage engineer Dmitry Timofeev kept his warm clothes in the same closet. In the morning, on the day of the fire, preparing for the evening concert, he opened the closet door to put a sheepskin coat, and, seeing fire in it, shouted: “Fire! Fire!”, then rushed onto the stage. Several workers came running to his cry, but they were unable to put out the fire.

Such machines created water pressure 8-10 times greater than hand pumps, which allowed the water jet to hit a distance of up to 36 meters. They were able to draw water directly from reservoirs, making it unnecessary to transport water to the fire site. The productivity of the most advanced models reached 2000 liters per minute. Steam engines had a number of specific features that made their practical use difficult: they had to be transported on special heavy horse-drawn carts, which were not very suitable for the then off-road conditions; it took considerable time to warm up the steam pump, and it was ready to supply water to the hoses no earlier than after 15-20 minutes, i.e. when the necessary steam pressure was created in the boiler, so sometimes the steam pump began to be heated while en route to a fire, and besides, the introduction of steam pumps in Russia was hampered by their extremely high price.

The testimony of Talyzin and other workers indicates that the theater had a fairly reliable fire protection system for that time. It included: a metal curtain separating the stage from the auditorium, fire water supply and firemen on duty. But these fire safety measures, unfortunately, functioned only during performances, and the fire started in the morning, when relatively few people were in the theater.

Here are some interesting details: the internal fire hydrants were powered from a metal tank installed on the stage grate. During the fire, the tank burst, flooding the burning stage, causing heavy smoke production. Thick clouds of black smoke enveloped not only the burning theater, but also the surrounding houses “to the point that they began to light candles there. Near the fire, it was difficult to determine the color and hair of the horses.” And further: “The firefighters who began to act, at first got too excited and through the broken windows began to throw musical instruments, pianos, and furniture into the street that could have been preserved.”

Despite the fact that the first fire escape appeared in Moscow back in 1823 (it was made specifically for the Moscow fire brigade in the workshops of the St. Petersburg fire station), operations to rescue people from the upper floors and from the roofs of burning buildings due to their bulkiness and low maneuverability and insufficient height of stairs very often ended tragically.

But let's return to finding out the cause of the fire. Manager of the Moscow Imperial Theaters, famous composer and author of the opera “Askold’s Grave” A.N. Verstovsky wrote in a private letter: “The stoves were heated at five o’clock in the morning, and by eight o’clock all the chimneys were inspected and closed. After the chimneys were closed, the stove makers left for breakfast, which is why, probably, it should be assumed that the stoves were not the cause of the first fire, especially since that, examining them at the scene of the fire, and as far as it was possible to see the stoves, pipes, and hogs were not cracked.”

Turning to the surviving documents of the investigative case, we see that, despite the most rigorous investigation, it was not possible to establish the root cause. The fire was regarded as a natural disaster, “for which there were no culprits, and the case, at the direction of Count Zakrevsky, was consigned to oblivion.”

The loss caused to the treasury by the fire was estimated at 8 million rubles. Along with the beautiful theater building, a precious wardrobe burned down, including a rich collection of expensive French suits. Few people remembered the seven artisans who died in the fire.

For more than three years, Moscow residents were deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the art of the Bolshoi Theater troupe. Only on August 20, 1856, revived by architect A.K. Kavos, the theater opened its doors hospitably, revealing its dazzling splendor to the audience. To this day, the State Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater towers majestically on Theater Square.

During the six years of reconstruction, the Bolshoi managed to preserve the main thing - its troupe. And also to expand the circle of directors - today Kirill Serebrennikov, Yuri Lyubimov, Dmitry Chernyakov, Vasily Barkhatov work for the main theater of the country.

What's "new"?

The main stage of the Bolshoi has finally opened to the audience, the first premiere took place - the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. What else will the country’s main theater please us with next season? What productions will be transferred from the New stage to the Old, historical stage?

E. Vratova

In opera, the next high-profile premieres will be productions of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss and The Enchantress by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Musical director of the Bolshoi Theater Vasily Sinaisky says that all new productions are absolutely diverse and even unexpected for the Bolshoi Theater stage. “The viewer needs to look not only at the new interiors,” jokes the theater’s chief conductor. “Boris Godunov” by M. Mussorgsky, “Turandot” by G. Puccini and “Fiery Angel” by S. Prokofiev will return to the main stage.

On November 18, 2011, the premiere of the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” by the famous choreographer Yuri Grigorovich will take place. This is already his third edition of “Sleeping” at the Bolshoi. The choreographer worked with the world famous Italian stage designer Ezio Frigerio. The main roles of “Sleeping” are prima, State Duma deputy and young mother Svetlana Zakharova and the new Bolshoi premier, American dancer David Hallberg. The performance is bright, ceremonial, a real “reference book” on the architecture and history of costume of the 17th and 18th centuries. “The backdrops were painted in Italy,” says set designer Ezio Frigerio. “A special technique of theatrical painting was used, which only Italians master—two Italians, to be precise.” The costume designer for The Sleeping Beauty is Franca Squarciapino, an Oscar winner for her work in the film Cyrano de Bergerac. Also, the public will soon be presented with “Jewels,” a ballet by George Balanchine in three parts.

The performances “The Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake”, “Corsair”, “Pharaoh’s Daughter”, “Giselle” will be transferred to the historical stage. There will be evenings in memory of choreographer Roland Petit and ballerina Marina Semyonova. It will celebrate the big anniversaries of its two masters on a large scale - choreographer Yuri Grigorovich and director Boris Pokrovsky. And in total, in the 236th season, the Bolshoi plans to show 356 performances to its beloved audience.

Next - Mariinsky Theater?

The reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater took six years. In my opinion, the new Mariinsky building is taking longer to build. Why can't St. Petersburg modernize its theater?

V. Osinsky, Tver

It is assumed that the “Second Stage” - this is the name of the new building - will open at the end of 2012. But already in May, during the Stars of the White Nights festival, acoustic tests will be carried out here. “We need to make sure that this building will be a pleasant sensation in terms of sound,” says artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev. Let us recall that the international competition for the construction of the Mariinsky 2 was won by the French architect Domenic Perrault back in 2003. However, the project did not pass the technical examination, and the contract was terminated.

The soil also brought a “surprise” - at the bottom of the pit there was a swamp. We had to drive more than 22 thousand piles into the ground. Mariinsky 2 is being built according to the design of Canadian architects. The cost of the new building will cost the federal budget more than 19 billion rubles. For comparison: 21 billion rubles were spent on the Bolshoi.

Petr SAVELIEV