Odessa Opera Theater

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Coordinates: 46°29′08″N, 30°44′30″E

The Odessa Opera Theater.
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The Odessa Opera Theater.

The Odessa Opera Theatre (Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater, Russian: Одесский Государственный Академический театр Оперы и Балета) - is located in Odessa, Ukraine. After the Potemkin Stairs, it is the most famous edifice in Odessa.[1]

Odessa residents boast that the Odessa Opera Theater is the second best opera theater in the world, next to the Vienna State Opera in Vienna.

Contents

[edit] History

The St. Petersburg architect Thomas de Thomon designed the first opera theater, opened on February 10, 1810. This first theater is in almost exactly the same spot as today's theater. The main entrance with its colonnade faced the sea. There was no foyer.[2][3]

Theater after the 1873 fire.
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Theater after the 1873 fire.

In 1831, Michael Vorontsov, governor-general of New Russia, decided to assign the newly instituted quarantine fees to the Odessa Theater.[4] Historian Charles King explains that one of the medical inspectors in Odessa was also the owner of the Odessa Theater. When ticket sales were low, he would announce the discovery of an infeciton among newly arrived passengers and ordered them quarantined at their own cost. The expenses of the lazaretto, were the passengers stayed, would be used to hire a major performer for the theater.[5]

On the night of January 2, 1873, the building was gutted with fire.[6]

Immediately a fund raising campaign began. The city announced an international contest for the best theater design. Forty designs were submitted, but none were chosen.[2][7] In 1875 the Grand Opera Theater was completed, and it was decided that the new Odessa theater should be built in the same style.

Two Viennese architects, Ferdinand Fellner and Herman Helmer began to construct the larger replacement in 1883. These two architects had built seventy theaters throughout Europe, including the La Scala in Milan and the Vienna Opera Theater.[2][1]

The foudation stone was laid on September 16th, 1884. On October 1, 1887 the theater was completed, costing 1,300,000 rubles to build and weighed 52,000 tons. It was named the Odessa City Theater. [2][8][9][10]

The theater was the first building in Odessa to employ the Edison Company with electric illumination.[11]

To keep theater patrons comfortable in the summers, workers would lower wagonloads of ice and straw down a 35-foot shaft, then would carry it through a tunnel to a basement beneath the hall, where cool air rose up from vents beneath the seats.[10]

In 1925 the building was burnt again in a fire.[11]

There is a story that when the Odessa people learned that the construction cost 1.3 million gold rubles they gasped, but when they saw the new theater they gasped again, this time in admiration.[2]

During World War 2 Nikita Khrushchev, concerned about the condition of the city, visited Odessa right after it was liberated. Khrushchev reported that only one corner of the building had been damaged by an enemy shell.[12]

The theater was remodeled in the 1960's.[11]

The theater sits upon shifting ground and is in danger of collapse. The first cracks in the foundation appeared almost as soon as the theater opened. The theater's eastern half sagged almost seven inches in its first three years, and the six walls began to tilt. Gleb Dranov, a former opera singer who sang at the theater for 25 years, and who worked five years as a geologist, is helping repair the building.[11][10]

[edit] Construction

The facade is Italian baroque. In the niches are the busts of Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandr Griboyedov, and Aleksandr Pushkin. The large hall was modeled after the style of Louis LXI, it is richly decorated with gilded stucco figures and designs. The architects provided the foyer with twenty-four exits, to avoid tragedy in the case of a fire. On the side of the theater is a lawn with fresh flowers and shrubs.[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Kaufman, Bel, Oleg Gubar (Contributor), Alexander Rozenboim (Contributor), Nicholas V. Iljine (Editor), Patricia Herlihy (Editor). (2004). Odessa Memories. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98345-0, hardcover. p. 13.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kononova, G. (1984). Odessa: A Guide. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. p. 67
  3. ^ Karakina, p. 68 Lists the architect's name as Toma de Tomana.
  4. ^ (1990) Prince Michael Vorontsov: Viceroy to the Tsar. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 0-7735-0747-7. p. 110
  5. ^ King, Charles (2004). The Black Sea: A History. ISBN 0-19-924161-9. p. 171
  6. ^ Karakina, Yelena, Tatyana Samoilova, Anna Ishchenko (2004). Touring Odessa. BDRUK. ISBN 966-8137-01-9. p. 67
  7. ^ Karakina, p. 67 States: There were forty three entrants, and...Felner and Gelmer were selected.
  8. ^ a b Herlihy, Patricia (1987, 1991). Odessa: A History, 1794-1914. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-916458-15-6, hardcover; ISBN 0-916458-43-1, paperback reprint. p. 266-7
  9. ^ Karakina, p. 70 States: The Opera and Ballet Theater acquired its name in the early 20th century. When first created, it was simply called the City Theater.
  10. ^ a b c Wines, Michael (November 1 1999). "An Aged Beauty Gets a Facelift From a Geologist". The New York Times: 4.
  11. ^ a b c d Kaufman, p. 14.
  12. ^ Khrushchev, Nikita, Sergei Khrushchev (editor) (2004). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev: The Commissar, 1918-1945. ISBN 0-271-02332-5. p. 597

[edit] External links

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Attractions in Odessa, Ukraine Coat of arms of Odessa
Arcadia Beach • Childrens Palace  • Botanical Gardens  • Catacombs  • City council building • Deribasovskaya Street • Film Studio • Londonskaya Hotel • Monument to Potemkin sailors • Mother-in-Law's Bridge • Opera Theater  • Odessa Passazh • Pushkin Museum • Sea Port •Train Station • Park Pobedeh  • Philharmonic theater  • Potemkin Stairs  • Primorsky Boulevard  • Privoz Market  • Seventh-Kilometer Market  • Shevchenko Park  • Tsentralnyi-Chornomorets Stadium • Vorontsov Lighthouse
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