The Bolshoi Theatre / Большой Театр

The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow opened on January 18, 1825. On July 2, 2005, the historic building of the Bolshoi Theatre was closed for renovation. For 6 long years, strenuous work was carried out to rebuild, improve the technical capabilities of the stage, restore the historical details of the building. The Bolshoi Theatre opened on October 28, 2011. The complexity of the work was driven by 85% manual labour requirement: because construction had to be carried out in the underground part of the theatre there is practically no mechanisation of labour. Repairs were initially estimated at $610 million but engineers found that more than 75% of the structure was unstable, and as a result, the cost estimate jumped to approximately $850 million. After the work, however, it was announced that only $688 mil had been spent. According to The Moscow Times, the true cost may have been double that, and Der Spiegel quotes a figure of $1.1 billion. The rebuilding and renovation were funded entirely by the federal government. After reconstruction, the theatre has 13 floors - 7 aboveground and 6 underground. The area of the Bolshoi Theatre has doubled and amounted to 80 thousand square meters. The Bolshoi&Orchestra pit is the largest in Europe suitable for 130 orchestras. Historically, the building was designed for only 200 artists, but now its main troupe consists of 2,000 people. The renovation included an improvement in acoustics, to attempt to replicate the sound believed to have...