The Odessa National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet

 

The Odessa National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet is the oldest theatre in Odessa, Ukraine. The first opera house was opened in 1810 and destroyed by fire in 1873. The modern building was constructed by Fellner & Helmer in neo-baroque, Vienna Baroque, style and opened in 1887. The architecture of the luxurious audience hall follows the late French rococo style. The unique acoustics of the horseshoe-designed hall allows performers to deliver even a whisper-low tone of voice from the stage to any part of the hall.

The Saint Petersburg architect Thomas de Thomon designed the first opera theatre, it opened on 10 February 1810. This last theatre is in almost exactly the same spot as the first theatre 200 years ago. The main entrance with its colonnade faced the sea. There was no foyer. Two Viennese architects, Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer began to construct the larger replacement in 1883. The foundation stone was laid on 16 September 1884. On 1 October 1887 the theatre was completed. It was named the Odessa City Theatre.

The theatre was the first building in Odessa to employ the Edison Company with electric illumination. To keep theatre patrons comfortable in the summers, workers would lower waggonloads 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.

In August 1941, when the Romanian army was dangerously close to Odessa, the command of the Odessa defensive area appointed a special anti-aircraft unit, which was given the task of protecting the theatre building from bombing. On the roofs of the houses adjacent to the theatre, guns were installed that shot all 73 days of the city defending. During World War II, Nikita Khrushchev, concerned about the condition of the city, visited Odessa immediately after the German army was ousted from the city. Khrushchev reported that only one corner of the building had been damaged by an enemy shell.

The theatre sits upon shifting ground and is in danger of collapse. The first cracks in the foundation appeared almost as soon as the theatre opened. The theatre'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 theatre for 25 years, and who worked five years as a geologist, is helping repair the building.

The building's façade is decorated in the Italian baroque style. In the niches are the busts of Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandr Griboyedov and Alexander Pushkin. The large hall was modelled after the style of Louis XVI, and 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 theatre is a lawn with fresh flowers and shrubs.

The famous Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin gave many concerts at the Odessa Opera. Soprano Lyudmila Shirina was a leading singer from 1975, and later head of the company.

 

1/1000 sec.

F/5

4 mm

ISO 160

Canon Powershot SX60 HS

 

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