MOSCOW THEATRES

     For decades Moscow  has  had  a  reputation  as  a  city  of

theatres.  The birth plays of the historic "Bolshoy",  "Maly" and

"Moscow Art" theatres the city has been and steel is a centre for

the  development exploretary modern ideas in the dramatic art and

is famous for it's  great  number  of  highlygifted,  interesting

directors, actors, playwrigts and artists.

     Every evening the doors of Moscow theatres open  to  streams

of theatre-gowers. The best Moscow theatres devoded themselves to

developing the principals of directing and acting  laid  down  by

Stanislavsky,   Meerhold,  Nemerovich-Danchenko,  Vachtangov  and

others.  The discoveries and successes of Moscow  theatres  today

exists due to experience and triumphs of preceding generations.

     I'd like to tell you about the Bolshoy Theatre. The magestic

building of  the  Bolshoy  Theatre  stands  in  Theatre Square in

Moscow's central quater,  not  far  from  Kremlin.  This  is  the

leading   Russian   opera  house  with  the  best  vocalists  and

choreographers in it's company.

     The Bolshoi  traces  it's  history  to  1776 when a standing

opera company was organized in Moscow.  The first opera shown  in

Bolshoi  theatre was opera "life of tsar" (now "Ivan Susanin").At

later times operas by Dargomyzhsky,  Serov,  Tcaikovsky, Borodin,

Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rubinstein were produced here.

     At the same time the Bolshoi company staged the best  operas

and  ballets by West European composers-Mozart,  Rossini,  Weber,

Verdi and others.

     The bolshoi  ballet company enjoys well-deserved fame as the

world's finest.  This is equally true of it's brilliant realistic

style of perfomance and repertoire.