Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater
The Odessa Opera House (Ukrainian: Одеський національний академічний театр опери та балету / Odesskyj nazionalnyj akademitschnyj teatr opery ta balety - about " Academic National Theater of Opera and Ballet Odessa" ) is one of the landmarks of the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa.
History
First theater
The first theater in Odessa, work of an architect from St. Petersburg, was opened in 1809. It stood approximately at the site of the present opera house and was a built in neoclassical style building, whose front was a pediment supported by six columns, and so imitating a Greek temple. This theater was his gas lighting undoing: Due to a defect in the lighting system, the house burned down on January 2, 1873.
Today's Opera House
To build up of today's Opera House, an international competition was held, to the Vienna office Fellner & Helmer won. Beginning in 1883, was built on it. It was opened in the fall of 1887. The design of the building is arrested historicism. Urban planning is the Opera House, the city of Odessa crown dar.
External design
The exterior of the theater was designed in neo-baroque style and adorned with numerous sculptures. Thus, for example, shown:
- On the main portico is a group with the Muse Melpomene on a chariot drawn by four leopards. In her left hand she carries a torch, while the right is raised in greeting for visitors to the theater. She is accompanied by two genii holding laurel wreaths in their hands.
- On the pedestal above the columns, the right of the main entrance, there is a group of figures representing Terpsichore, who teaches a young dancing.
- Is on the pedestal above the columns, the left of the main entrance, a group of figures, the Orpheus charmed a centaur with the game of his lyre.
- On the entrance level of the main entrance is on the right and left two groups of figures that represent the comedy and the tragedy.
Interior design
The interior of the Opera House is committed to the Rococo. The great room is luxuriously decorated and richly gilded. It outweigh floral elements, complemented by decorative figures. The ceiling of the hall bears in the middle a large chandelier weighing more than two tons and paintings on themes from the works of William Shakespeare are taken from: Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It and The Winter's Tale. The great room is famous for its excellent acoustics. After the accident with the gas lighting of the first building, the opera was the first electrically illuminated buildings of the city.
The architects gave up a large, centrally located staircase and an advanced foyer. Main entrances are rather two magnificently furnished, but laterally located stairwells, their decoration can be compared with that of the main hall. This is also structurally expressed that this is not the representative building of a monarchical residence, but about an upper middle class urban society.
More Architectural History
In 1925, a fire broke out, the damage but were immediately corrected. In the 1960s, the opera has been partially remodeled. End of the last century showed static problems: The building is located at the top of the slope edge of the steep escarpment of the city to the port of Odessa. The directed to the port part of the building began to slip and it had to be closed first. It was then backed up for more than seven years, renovated and reopened in 2007.
Artistic program
The Odessa Opera House is a two- segment house is listed in the opera and ballet. The performance practice is - very traditional, directed theater is unknown - suitable for architectural ambience. Well-known, active artists here were:
- Franz Liszt
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin
- Salome Krushelnytska
- Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff
- Sviatoslav Richter Teofilowitsch began his career here as a ballet and concert master
- Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya