The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow is touted as Russia’s premiere stage.
This country’s oldest musical  theater,
the Bolshoi once proudly called Imperial members of royal families from
around Europe that regularly came to. During the Soviet years it was equally
regularly visited by Communist big shots who also considered it their own
and sometimes even handpicked the theater’s choreographers and chief conductors
some of whom were internationally acclaimed masters of their trade.
Even though the Bolshoi’s history goes back to the 18th century, we’ll
be starting from the year 1936 because that’s the earliest recording we
have of the music played there in the past seven decades...
1936 was also the year when the theater’s main conductorship was entrusted
to Samuil Samosud, an exceptionally talented conductor, driven, witty,
the ultimate theater man. In 1936 he was at the very height
of his career boasting stints with the great Fyodor Chaliapin at the Mariinsky
Theater in St.Petersburg and high-profile productions of Shostakovich’s
operas at the Maly Opera Theater there. He now had a rare chance
to try his hand in the venerable Bolshoi Theater Josef Stalin liked to
come to so much... The production of “A Life for the Czar” opera by Mikhail
Glinka became his first major baptism by fire on the country’s premier
stage...
Samosud’s version was a completely new rendition of Russia’s first
classical opera. The original idea of a royal housekeeper sacrificing his
life for the Czar was gone replaced by a bigger sacrifice made for the
whole country by an ordinary Russian peasant Ivan Susanin whose name was
now given to Glinka’s all time masterpiece.
The timing of this new patriotic angle was right and with Stalin’s birthday
coming up, the new-look opera appeared a perfect gift to the “father of
all peoples”. Samuil Samosud’s correct guess won him the much-coveted Stalin
prize, the biggest award one could hope for in the Soviet Union...
Stalin’s penchant for Russian classics was not lost on Samosud who, though
rather impartial towards big-time epics, was now busily building the Bolshoi’s
entire repertoire around the genre he never really went for.
In the summer of 1941 Nazi Germany staged a surprise attack against the
Soviet Union and in the fall the enemy was already within long-range artillery
shot of Moscow. The Bolshoi Theater joined the wealth of government ministries
and agencies moving to Kuibyshev, now Samara. It was there, on the bank
of the Volga River that Samuil Samosud and his Bolshoi orchestra came up
with the nationally-broadcast March 5, 1942 premiere of Dmitry Shostakovich’s
newly-written Seventh, “Leningrad” Symphony.
That groundbreaking performance alone could have guaranteed Samosud a lifelong
stint at the head of the Bolshoi’s orchestra, but with Josef Stalin in
the Kremlin, no one could be sure about his future. The following year
Samuil Samosud was fired…
A list of short-lived replacements followed until Nikolai Golovanov came
in to stay. Golovanov was  certainly
no stranger to the Bolshoi joining the company in 1919 and rising through
the ranks from a choirmaster to the theater’s chef conductor and artistic
director.
A great fan of the grand style of the Stalin era, loved all things majestic
and over-the-top. He staged more than a dozen Russian classics, including
operas by Alexander Borodin and Modest Mussorgsky.
Golovanov rarely toed the author’s line in his work often changing the
tempo and sound but always to astounding effect…
Unlike the refined and witty Samosud, Golovanov sometimes looked too straightforward
always demanding a bit more than the company could deliver. And even so,
people still loved him for his sincerity, passion and workability that
was absolutely phenomenal. He could rehearse with the orchestra and singers
hours on end and stay awake nights leaning new scores. And always
driving his audiences to ecstasy…
His uncompromising devotion to music didn’t save him from the all-destructive
wrath of the big shots from on high, though. One day, in 1953, Golovanov
came as usual to the Bolshoi but they never let him in. They asked
him to show his pass. Golovanov was incredulous… He was the Bolshoi’s artistic
director and they were asking him to produce his pass? When they
repeated the request, the Maestro exploded and the next moment they told
him he’d been fired…
How come talented people could be so easily sacked, by the way?
It usually resulted from the intrigues spun by the company’s principals.
Stalin and the leaders that came after him had their favorite singers and
dancers who, buoyed by the attentions of their powerful patrons, felt free
to sack conductors, producers and artistic directors they didn’t like and
appoint the ones they liked more. All you had to get fired was to
say you didn’t like something or someone. Happily, Samosud and Golovanov
were renowned enough professionals to continue successfully as symphony
conductors.
Coming to replace Golovanov in 1953 was Alexander Melik-Pashayev, a winner
of the 1st National Competition of Conductors, intelligent, tasteful and
a great expert on classical European opera. His
production of Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio” was a real coup de force for
the Bolshoi’s newly appointed chief…
During one of his visits to Moscow, the famous German conductor Herman
Abendroth conducted “Fidelio” at the Bolshoi and was stunned by the exceptional
quality of Melik-Pashayev’s production.
Just like any other chief conductor, Melik-Pashayev was also supposed to
take up Russian classics, but operas by Verdi, Bizet, Massenet, Puccini,
Leoncavallo and other great Europeans had always been his biggest forte…
And gracing the Bolshoi’s billboard…
Then, like it had happened so many times before him, Alexander Melik-Pashayev
too experienced the pain of unwarranted official obstruction. One
day, stopping by the Bolshoi’s billboard for next month, he didn’t see
his name there and knew that was it…
After the iconoclastic Alexander Melik-Pashayev was forced out in 1963,
the 35-year-old Yevgeny  Svetlanov
moved in to fill the void. The son of one of the Bolshoi's lead singers,
Yevgeny had literally been permeated with the theater's one-of-a-kind atmosphere.
Joining the company at the age of 27, Svetlanov started off as a pianist,
later moving on to become an ordinary conductor and eventually taking up
the prestigious slot of the Bolshoi's chief conductor.
With Svetlanov at the pulpit, it looked as if Alexander Golovanov himself
was back again... Like Golovanov before him, Svetlanov had a strong penchant
for Russian classical epics with their thunder-like sonic power. Here he
was in his element and was absolutely inimitable too. Svetlanov made his
mark right from the start offering a stirring version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s
opera “Pskovityanka”.
Even though his stint as the Bolshoi's chief conductor lasted only two
seasons, he still managed to move many things, all thanks to his phenomenal
talent and workaholic attitude. It was during Svetlanov's watch that the
Bolshoi Opera made its first tour abroad. Invited to take their act to
Milan's venerable La Scala Theater, the Bolshoi presented several Russian
classics there winning big kudos from the very knowledgeable Italian public...
In recognition of that phenomenal success, Yevgeny Svetlanov was appointed
to head the country's showcase State Symphony Orchestra which he led for
more than three decades. While still attached to the Bolshoi, he would
often conduct some of their operas each being a real celebration for all...
Taking over at the Bolshoi following Svetlanov's departure in 1965 was
the 34-year-old Gennady Rozhdestvensky. An excellent musician, a walking
encyclopedia and a refined intellectual, Rozhdestvensky was by no means
a new face at the Bolshoi where, a graduation year student at the Moscow
Conservatory, he made a sensational debut in 1951 conducting Tchaikovsky's
ballet “The Sleeping Beauty”. The Bolshoi had never seen a 20-year-old
man conducting there before…
His larger-than-life talent was easily visible in everything he did. Rozhdestvensky
brought in a wealth of new productions, among them operas by Sergei Prokofiev,
Benjamen Britten and the ballet “Spartacus” by Aram Khachaturian, which
won Rozhdestvensky the much-touted Lenin Prize...
In 1970 Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who also conducted the Radio Symphony Orchestra
and a raft of European outfits, quit as the chief conductor of the Bolshoi
Theater. Probably the first time their musical director was leaving
of his own free will...
Rozhdestvensky wasn't gone forever, though, and occasionally showed up
again conducting some of  their
operas and ballets. In 2000, already a world-renowned conductor, he surprised
many by agreeing to retake the post he gave up a longtime ago...
The maestro immediately took on the theater's daily routine only to face
fierce resistance on the part of the Bolshoi's principals who eventually
prevailed forcing Rozhdestvensky out. Wrapping
up his yearlong second
stint, Rozhdestvensky unveiled the original, unknown version of Sergei
Prokofiev's opera “The Gambler” he had always yearned for…
But, let's move three decades
back... In 1970, when Gennady
Rozhdestvensky left the Bolshoi for the first time, he was replaced by
the 29-year-old Yuri Simonov, a winner, of a National conductors' contest
and the darling of the then Culture Minister Yekaterina Furtseva.
Dead serious about his new job, Simonov started off with a critically-acclaimed
production of Glinka's opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.
What Yuri Simonov lacked in talent, however, he studiously made up for
by his exactingness and bubbling energy hammering together a top-flight
company that wowed audiences wherever they went.
Each premiere was a celebration and even though they were mostly produced
by others, Yuri Simonov still takes credit for his clever guidance and
organizational talent...
The never-ending in-house intrigues didn't spare him either, and in 1985
Simonov was forced to quit...
The Bolshoi spent the next two years trying desperately to stay afloat
under collective leadership but the members of the artistic council failed
to draw up a single policy and in 1987 they reinstated the job of artistic
director and chief conductor. Alexander Lazarev, 42, was invited to take
it up.
The appointment of Lazarev who had already worked there for 14 years, split
the company with some crying bloody murder and others rejoicing and extolling
Lazarev's previous work in the Bolshoi,  including
his excellent production of “The Snow Maiden” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Operas by Rimsky-Korsakov Lazarev loved so much were now all over the Bolshoi's
billboard, among them the extremely rarely played “Mlada”.
Reflected in the Bolshoi's life and work, like in a mirror, were the many
problems this country was grappling with in the
mid-1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev's Peterstroika gave the singers
and dancers the long-awaited chance to freely travel abroad, perform at
the world's best venues and sign contracts all by themselves. The newfound
freedom came as a painful blow to the country's premiere theater. The best
singers now preferred to perform elsewhere earning immeasurably higher
salaries.
Alexander Lazarev, too, was now spending most of his time working abroad
making just cursory appearances back home. The rest of the company was
not particularly happy about it and members of the orchestra and choir
were now openly complaining about Lazarev and eventually had their chief
conductor fired...
In 1995 the Bolshoi entered an agonizing period of chief conductors coming
and going all the time... New appointments, which had previously been decided
directly in the Kremlin, were now made by the Bolshoi's managing director.
Alexander Vedernikov took up the theater's artistic reins in 2001.
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