Bashkir Theater of Opera and Ballet

musical theater of the Bashkir ASSR. Founded in 1938 in Ufa.

The company and orchestra of the Bashkir Theater of Opera and Ballet are made up of graduates of the Bashkir division of the Moscow Conservatory and Russian artists and musicians. In 1941 the company was completed with graduates of the Bashkir division of the Leningrad Choreographic Institute. (The theater was called the Bashkir Theater of Opera and Ballet.) The first artistic director of the theater was P. M. Slavinskii. The theater’s repertoire includes Bashkir national operas (Valeev’s Khakmar, Chemberdzhi’s Karlugas [The Swallow], Murtazin’s Azat, Ismagilov’s Salavat lulaev and Shaura, and others) and ballets (Stepanov’s Crane’s Song, Mountain Eagle, by Sabitov and Akhmetov, and others), as well as Russian, Soviet, and foreign operas and ballets.