Cheliabinsk Theater of Opera and Ballet

(full name, M. I. Glinka Cheliabinsk Theater of Opera and Ballet), a theater founded in 1956. Construction of the theater building, which seats 1,205, was completed in 1955 (architect N. P. Kurennoi). In 1956 the theater was named in honor of M. I. Glinka. The principal members of the opera company are students in their final year at musical educational institutions; last-year students at the Leningrad and Moscow schools of choreography make up the nucleus of the ballet troupe.

The theater’s repertoire includes works by Russian and Western European composers, with the works of Soviet composers occupying an important place. The theater has staged such Soviet operas as Shantyr’s City of Youth (1957), Spadavecchia’s The Gadfly (1959), Magidenko’s The Path of Thunder (1961), and Meitus’ Stolen Happiness (1962). Ballets staged at the theater include Asafev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1956), Morozov’s Doctor Ouch-It-Hurts (1957), Iarullin’s Shurale (1959), The Flower of Happiness by Mushel’ (1959), Prokofiev’s The Stone Flower (1960) and Romeo and Juliet (1963), Biriukov’s The Last Ball (1961), and Laptunin’s Masquerade (1962). The Cheliabinsk Theater of Opera and Ballet was the first in the USSR to produce B. Smetana’s opera The Brandenburgers in Bohemia (1963).

Numerous artists, who have been associated with the theater at various times, have contributed to the development of the Cheliabinsk Theater of Opera and Ballet; these include the conductor I. A. Zak (1955–68), the stage directors D. N. Smolich and N. K. Dautov, the singer V. A. Dikopol’skaia, and the principal dancers V. M. Postnikov, L. S. Ratenko, and M. Ia. Shchukin.

The theater’s finest opera productions since the mid-1960’s have been Meyerbeer’s The Huguenots (1964), Shantyr’s The Two Captains (1965), Moussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (1965), Dargomyzhskii’s The Stone Guest (1966), Verdi’s Don Carlos (1966), Katsman’s Liubava (1967), Tchaikovsky’s Mazepa (1969), Dzerzhinskii’s The Quiet Don (1970), Glinka’s Ivan Susanin (1970), Bizet’s Carmen (1973), Verdi’s Un Bailo in maschera (1974), Molchanov’s The Dawns Here Are Quiet (1975), Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri (1975), and Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (1976).

Outstanding ballets from this period are Peer Gynt (1964; music by Grieg), Prokofiev’s Cinderella (1965), Melikov’s The Legend of Love (1968), Vlasov’s Asel’ (1969), Pugni’s La Esmeralda (1972), Khachaturian’s Spartacus (1974), and Adam’s Giselle (1976).

In 1976 the theater’s company included the following singers: Honored Artist of the RSFSR V. Ia. Agafonov, Iu. M. Gorbunov, V. I. Drozdova, V. Ia. Kurochkin, N. I. Shaidarova; and actors V. D. Grichenko, Iu. P. Morozov, and K. I. Sidorova. Dancers included People’s Artist of the RSFSR G. M. Boreiko, V. A. Dmitriev, E. M. Popov, and I. D. Sarametova. The principal conductor is V. M. Vasil’ev, the principal stage director is G. S. Miller, the principal choreographer is V. N. Butrimovich, the principal chorus master is V. M. Tolstov, and the principal stage designer is Ia. Z. Korsunskii.