As a matter of fact, the Hermitage Garden was not always the way we are used to seeing it. It was even located in a different place: from 1830 almost to the very late XIX century it was located on Bozhedomka and was the first pleasure garden in Moscow, with gazebos, flower beds, a theater, a stage, coffee houses and pavilions. greatest flourishing reached in an era when it belonged to a famous entrepreneur, former actor Maly Theater M. V. Lentovsky. K. S. Stanislavsky recalled the Hermitage garden at that time: “There was nothing in this garden: boating on the pond and water fireworks of incredible richness and variety with the battle of armadillos and drowning them, walking on a tightrope across the pond, water holidays with gondolas, illuminated boats, bathing nymphs in the pond, ballet on the shore and in the water. Processions of a military band, gypsy choirs, Russian songwriters. All of Moscow and foreigners visiting it visited the famous garden.”
However, Lentovsky went bankrupt, and the garden fell into disrepair, and later it was completely built up with houses, and nothing reminded of the times when all this bygone splendor was located on the site of Samotechny lanes.
And so begins the history of the Hermitage Garden in Karetny Ryad, which was born on the spot former estate merchant V.I. Olontsov. After several attempts to form a theater and a garden here, undertaken by the Moscow Artistic Circle, the merchant M.A. Lipsky, mechanical engineer K.V. Moshnin, the entire site passed into the possession of the Moscow merchant Ya.V. Shchukin on July 16, 1894. This date is celebrated as the birthday of the Hermitage Garden.
In just a year, a boring wasteland turned into a flowering garden, flowerbeds, paths were laid out, trees and shrubs were planted, the theater building was reconstructed, and on June 18, 1895, the Hermitage officially opened. The Moscow public showed considerable interest in him - Shchukin's perseverance and enthusiasm aroused involuntary respect even among those who reproached him for insufficient subtlety of taste.
In the same year, electric lighting appeared in the Hermitage, plumbing was installed, and a swimming pool was equipped. A year later, one of the first film screenings in Russia took place here.
F.I. Chaliapin, A.V. Sobinov, A.V. Nezhdanova, S.V. Rachmaninov made his debut as a conductor, played by Sarah Brenard, Maria Yermolova, Vera Komissarzhevskaya. In 1898, the opening of the Moscow Art Theater took place in the building of the Hermitage Theater, the first performance was Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, it was here that the premieres were held. Chekhov plays. L. N. Tolstoy, V. I. Lenin visited the garden.
Shchukin constantly undertook the construction of new theater venues, in 1909 the summer "Mirror" Theater was built, he planned the opening of a unique winter theater for 4 thousand seats, but this plan was destined to take place only in part: the box, now called the Shchukin Stage, is all that managed to build. The unfavorable circumstances generated by the First World War and the revolution led Shchukin to ruin.
After the revolution, the garden was first nationalized, then, during the NEP period, it was transferred to private lease. In the building of the Hermitage Theater in 1924, the theater of the MGSPS (Moscow City Council of Trade Unions) was located, then it was renamed the Mossovet Theater, Yu. A. Zavadsky was appointed the main director. The Hermitage Garden continued to be a favorite vacation spot for Muscovites. And even global cataclysms could not change this.
During the war years, the garden was closed for a very short time - from the autumn of 1941 to April 1942. In 1943, the performances resumed, the artists who returned from the evacuation rehearsed and played in an unheated building, but the Hermitage lived on.
In the summer of 1945, the garden was reconstructed, in 1948 a summer garden was built. concert hall, where A. I. Raikin later performed, there were performances puppet theater, sang K. I. Shulzhenko, L. I. Ruslanova, an orchestra played under the direction of L. O. Utesov.
In the 50-60s. in the Hermitage Garden they played chess, walked, read, listened famous artists, watched movies (in 1953 a screen for a summer cinema was installed), during the Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, one and a half million visitors visited the garden. V. S. Vysotsky, duet R. Kartsev - V. Ilchenko, foreign musical and theater groups. The first game “What? Where? When?".
On November 20, 1980, the building of the Hermitage cinema was transferred to the Miniature Theater, under the direction of A.I. Raikin.
In 1991, the New Opera Theater was opened, today it is one of the three theaters operating on the territory of the garden (The Hermitage, The Sphere).
By the 850th anniversary of Moscow, the garden was transformed, many historical buildings were restored.
In 2000, the Hermitage Garden received two sculptures: busts of Dante Alighieri and Victor Hugo. The bust of Dante, made by the sculptor Rinaldo Piras, was donated to Moscow by the Italian government with the participation of the Dante Alighieri Society. The bust of Victor Hugo by Laurent Marquest was donated to the Hermitage Garden by the Paris City Hall. In 2006, a large Silver Heart "Monument to All Lovers" was installed in the Hermitage Garden. The monument is a composition of pipes 70 meters long, which are bent in the shape of a heart. Inside this monument are bells that ring from the wind. There is a legend that lovers who kissed for the first time under a metal heart will be happy, and their feelings will be strong and bright all their lives.
In 2014, the Hermitage Garden celebrated its 120th anniversary. And although the garden is beautiful and just by itself, every year it enters new page in his glorious history. It is nice here. This is the most Moscow vacation spot.
Photo of the beginning of the 20th century
December 16, 1894 in cultural life Moscow, a significant event took place: in Karetny Ryad, a fully equipped last word the then "show industry" a new pleasure garden "Hermitage" with a theater. He instantly gained popularity with the Moscow public. Suffice it to say that in the first season the garden was visited by more than seventy thousand people.
Photo from the 1900s
The history of the Hermitage dates back to the 1830s, when the former Catherine's nobleman and favorite of the loving Empress, I.N. Rimsky-Korsakov, acquired the estate on Bozhedomka from General A.P. Tormasov.
In the huge garden of his estate on Bozhedomka new owner allowed every decently dressed person to enter on Sundays, and Korsakov Garden became a popular festivity among Muscovites. The best Moscow guide of the early 19th century, written by I.G. Guryanov, spoke of him as follows: "The pleasantness of the evening, the darkness of the alleys, the cleanliness of the avenues, the illumination, the sounds of music, the melodic tones of song books and the variety of faces and outfits make this walk excellent."
From about the middle of the 19th century. the garden turned into an open entertainment establishment and became known as the "Hermitage" - at the entrance to it (opposite the current house No. 20) there was a hut in which there was a statue of a seated hermit elder ("Hermitage" in French - a hermit's dwelling, "ermite" - hermit; in a figurative sense, the word "Hermitage" meant a secluded, deserted place, although the Moscow Hermitage could not be imagined in such a way). At that time, the garden was probably the most popular in Moscow, which was greatly facilitated by the ingenuity and invention of its owners, Beauregard, Pedotti, Morel, who showed the public the famous Yulia Pastrana - the “monkey woman”, Paradise. Several years - from 1848 to 1851. - the famous restaurant "Yar" was located in the garden.
But, the garden gained the greatest popularity under the well-known entrepreneur Lentovsky, who acquired this garden in 1878. Lentovsky redeveloped the garden and changed the program. "There was nothing in this garden! - K.S. Stanislavsky recalled. - Boating on the pond and incredible richness and variety of water fireworks with battles of battleships and their sinking, walking on a tightrope across the pond, water holidays with illuminated gondolas boats, bathing nymphs in the pond, ballet on the shore and in the water ... Two theaters - one huge, for several thousand people, for operetta (designed by M. Chichagov - d1), the other - for outdoors for melodrama and extravaganzas, called "Antey", arranged in the form of Greek ruins according to the project of F.O. Shekhtel. In both theaters there were magnificent productions for that time, with several orchestras, ballet, choirs and excellent artistic forces. And along with theaters - a stage, a huge circus amphitheater under open sky..." The popular orchestra of maestro Gungl was playing on the new large stage. "Family audience, common people, aristocrats, cocottes, reveling youth, business people - everyone fled to the Hermitage in the evenings ... all of Moscow and foreigners who came to visit it famous garden," continued Stanislavsky.
Lentovsky M.V.
The new idea was a success, the Hermitage was well visited by the public. However, fourteen years later, Lentovsky went bankrupt.
In the spring of 1894, the Hermitage garden was closed, and the owners decided to divide its huge plot into many smaller ones and give it away for development. At the turn of the century, new residential quarters sprang up here, in four Samotechny lanes, and nothing here now reminds of the noisy glory of the Moscow Hermitage.
The large estate of the Streshnevs, which later passed to the Moscow seminary, also bordered the Korsakov garden, also with a large garden. Its remains are still preserved behind the main building - now there is a children's park.
Near this garden, at one time, T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik rented an apartment. She later wrote about this apartment of hers as follows: “A purely Moscow address:“ Bozhedomka, Polyubimov’s house, which is against a large willow.<...>An apartment with four rooms, and the first "own furnishings", bought with earned money<...>In the dining room there was a "Nekrasov chair", which belonged to the late poet, in which he spent last years own life<...>"
Photo il_duces
. Former seminary garden.
Nevertheless, the idea of the "Hermitage" has not died. The merchant and entrepreneur Yakov Vasilievich Shchukin decided to open a new pleasure garden, but closer to the city center, inside the Garden Ring. For a lot of money, he rented a wasteland in Karetny Ryad for twelve years, which for a long time actually was a city dump. Shchukin had to go heavily into debt. They say that in order to print the first poster, he had to pawn his winter coat. In addition, I had to "buy" the name from Lentovsky.
Photo 1910
Shchukin understood that there would be fierce competition with the Aquarium garden, which was then very popular, located nearby, on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, but this only gave him strength. The newest rides were ordered from abroad. Thousands of carts were used to remove the garbage accumulated over the years and the top layer of soil. Instead, they laid a layer of black soil. According to the project ordered by the architect A. Bolevich, paths and lawns were carefully laid out. Shchukin personally selected species of trees and shrubs, planting was carried out under his supervision. The park was provided with water supply and electricity for the construction of a fountain, the jets of which were illuminated by special lanterns.
In just a year, a boring wasteland turned into a blooming garden, flowerbeds, paths were laid out, trees and shrubs were planted, the theater building was reconstructed. The theater was opened on December 16, 1894. And on June 18, 1895, the Hermitage Garden officially opened. The Moscow public showed considerable interest in him - Shchukin's perseverance and enthusiasm aroused involuntary respect even among those who reproached him for insufficient subtlety of taste.
Under the theater, Shchukin rebuilt and equipped the premises of the former carriage workshops. The result is a comfortable, well-equipped room. As for the repertoire, today it would seem strange: for example, Sarah Bernhardt was replaced by circus clowns here. Shchukin understood that in order to attract the public, it was necessary to please people with different tastes - from the philistines to sophisticated aesthetes. Bearing in mind the addictions of the latter, Yakov Vasilievich personally traveled around Europe, concluding contracts with stars of the first magnitude. The singer Salvini and Italian opera with Jules Deval. They even managed to get the famous tightrope walker Blondin. In the summer of 1896, the Hermitage first showed the Lumiere brothers' "moving photography-cinematograph". What exactly was shown is unknown; perhaps the same "Arrival of the train" and "Sprinkler".
Shchukin Ya.V.
Entrance to the garden cost 50 kopecks. Spectators came long before the start of the performances and walked with pleasure along the picturesque paths to the sounds of a military band - not some firemen, but musicians of the 1st Life Guards of His Majesty's Yekaterinoslav Grenadier Regiment. The orchestra usually played from 18:00 to 1:00 in the morning. By the twentieth anniversary of the Hermitage, a restaurant was opened on a special veranda, and a skating rink was flooded for the winter. The garden celebrated the centenary of the war with Napoleon with the program "1812 in Songs" performed by brass band, choir and soloists. A typical poster of the time: "Representation of a sensational farce from intimate life figures of current political events in the Middle East and Paris.
In 1909, the construction of the "Mirror Theater" was completed according to the project of the architect A. Novikov, where operettas were given in the summer, and dramatic performances were given in the winter. Three years later, they raise and reconstruct the open stage and make a stalls and an orchestra pit with it. When the building of the new Winter Theater began to be rented by the Moscow Public Art Theater, it was in a deplorable state. Here is what Stanislavsky wrote: “The Hermitage in Karetny Ryad was in a terrible state at that time: dirty, dusty, uncomfortable, cold, unheated, with the smell of beer and some kind of acid, left over from summer drinking. (...) The walls turned out to be so dilapidated and thin (latrines were converted from a simple shed) that bricks jumped out into the street from hammer blows. The room was repaired, covers were put on the spectator seats. It was here, in the "Hermitage", on October 14, 1898, that the premiere of the play "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" took place, from which the Moscow Art Theater began, and on December 17 - the premiere of Chekhov's "The Seagull".
Shchukin did not tolerate any disorder. In his book of memoirs, N. F. Monakhov describes such a case. Shchukin, walking around the garden and watching the work of gardeners, suddenly saw a young lady. She sat on a bench and carelessly drew something with the end of an umbrella on the path. It was the ballerina Tamara Karsavina, waiting for the start of the rehearsal. In response to this remark, Karsavina, whom Shchukin did not know by sight, said that she did not want to talk to him, and defiantly picked a flower. Enraged, Shchukin ordered the manager to take "this woman" out of the garden and never let her in here again. When Shchukin was told that he had kicked out the ballerina invited to perform, and she would still have to pay under the contract, he exclaimed: “Damn her, pay! But that she never again appears in my garden, since she does not know how to behave. Karsavina was paid by canceling the concerts.
Photo veraklo
. Monogram "Ya.Shch." - Yakov Schukin.
A couple more hatches with the same monogram have been preserved in the garden.
Shchukin's affairs went uphill, the institution prospered, nothing foreshadowed trouble. Meanwhile, the twelve-year lease was coming to an end. The owner of the site, mechanical engineer K. V. Moshnin, under pressure from relatives, demanded to buy the garden from him. The first proposal was made to Shchukin himself. Yakov Vasilievich did not have the requested 500 thousand rubles. The owner of the Yar restaurant, A.A. Sudakov, acted as his competitor, offering Moshnin 50,000 more. A miracle saved the Hermitage from being sold: due to some misunderstanding, the deal fell through, and Shchukin, who gained time, got the required amount and left the Hermitage behind him.
Photo from the 1900s
In 1908, the construction of a new theater began in the garden with the intention of surpassing the Bolshoi in terms of capacity. The hall for three thousand seats is still considered very solid today, but then it was almost a fantasy. Work began on a site near Uspensky Lane. They managed to build a huge stage box, which can still be seen in the depths of the garden (many mistakenly take it for the remains of a burned-out theater). But for a variety of reasons things were moving slowly. The building was mothballed. burst out World War led to a drop in attendance at the Hermitage - people were not up to amusements. A financial collapse was imminent.
Photo 1970/2008 Author contemporary photography and collage by A. Sorokin (c).
Thus, the new Shchukin theater is the largest long-term construction of our city - more than a hundred years. Already in our time, the Diaghilev Club was opened in it. In the winter of 2008, the entire Internet was filled with pictures of the fire of this institution.
Photo 1965/2008 The author of modern photography and collage is A. Sorokin (c).
In January 1917, apparently anticipating trouble, Shchukin sold the Hermitage joint-stock company von Meck, and he went to Evpatoria, where he died in 1925.
In 1918, the garden was nationalized and transferred to the jurisdiction of Proletkult. On the site of the Hermitage, Eisenstein staged his first independent performance, The Wise Man, based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky, Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man.
With the advent of the NEP, a group of entrepreneurs rented the garden and opened the European and Mauritanian ballrooms there. At the same time, the Variety Theater began to operate, where Leonid Utyosov and other famous artists performed. A restaurant, a chess club, a shooting gallery, and a lecture hall have been opened. Before the war, the troupe of the Mossovet Theater toured in the Hermitage, in the building of which there was a fire.
Photo 1966/2008 The author of modern photography and collage is A. Sorokin (c).
During the years of the Great Patriotic War and immediately after its completion, the garden was not closed. Regular summer guest performers were the Sergei Obraztsov Theater and the Leningrad Theater of Miniatures under the direction of the young Arkady Raikin. The performances were sold out. On the paths and alleys, the lamps are heavy structures made of plaster and painted plywood with stucco molding in the form of bunches of grapes. They gave little light, but they made a monumental impression. Then these lamps disappeared somewhere.
Photo 1967 Stage at the entrance.
Photo taken in 1972. The Mirror Theatre.
Theater New Opera (c)
Photo from the mid-1980s. D.Borko
. Hermitage Garden.
I remember this reading room well. There was also a chess club nearby. It is with this chess club that I associate the Hermitage in many respects. I myself am not so hot a chess player, but my classmate played very well, he was a master of chess. And we often went with him to the garden - he drove the "blitz" on the "chervonets", and I acted as a fan and support. He almost always won. Ice cream and lemonade were at his expense.
Hermitage Garden. "I can see everything from above - you know it!" Played by MM Tamara Minogina and GM Natalia Konopleva.
On the net I found curious reminiscences of an old-timer of Hermitage chess."
Old Simon. PEOPLE OF THE HERMITAGE GARDEN
It used to be a problem to play blitz in Moscow. In the TsSHK, for example, watches were issued only to a select few. And in other clubs it was difficult to get inventory. Parks were saved in the summer. The two most popular places were Sokolniki and Hermitage. In Sokolniki, in my opinion, the pavilion still exists, and the Hermitage - what can you do, a piece of expensive land in the center of Moscow - a wooden pavilion burned down in the era of market relations. And that's it. No means it wasn't. But he was!
This was in the seventies. A wooden wreck where inventory was kept - tables, chairs, chess, watches. Next to it is a covered veranda where you could play if it rained. If the weather was good, then the tables were simply taken out into the street next to the pavilion. Right there, in the Hermitage garden - concert halls, a restaurant, numerous pavilions with beer - at that time a rarity. They said that even earlier, in the sixties, there were also wine machines. In any case, I was told by an amateur, Tolya I., that he once suggested that grandmaster Vasyukov (whom he did not know by sight), who dropped in with his wife into the pavilion, play a glass a game. Vasyukov politely refused and left. After that, Tolya was told to whom he made an offer that seemed impossible to refuse. "And I saw in the eyes that I wanted to play!" Tolya said. "The wife was shy!"
YULIA SERGEEVNA
Julia Sergeevna Balyasnaya was in charge of all the household. She was about seventy years old. Or maybe more. Until her retirement, she taught mathematics at school. She was treated with sympathy, but bypassed. Otherwise, Yulia Sergeevna began to speak, and the unfortunate man, instead of cutting into a blitz, had to listen to her endless monologues. By the way, once she told me: "Baby, I'm knocking on all of you. They force me."
I remember one incident that, in my youth, struck me unpleasantly. I went to the Hermitage to play Volodya B. - a handsome tall blond. Like everyone else, he tried not to get close to Yulia Sergeevna. I sat down and played chess. But one day he appeared with a girl by the arm - apparently, he had to kill time. And now he comes up to Yulia Sergeevna, bends down, and kisses her hand. She, of course, is happy. But when Volodya came to play next time, not only to kiss his hand, he didn’t come close to Yulia Sergeevna.
Hermitage Garden. Under the supervision of men both outside and inside, master Nadezhda Kiseleva and GM Natalia Konoplev.
SNAKE
What his name was, no one knew. They called him the Serpent. A young, always unshaven, weird guy. He came every day, in his hands - "Speedola". He sat down to play and turned on the "Voice of America" at full volume. They said that he had a certificate from a psychiatric clinic. In any case, no police touched him.
SLAVIK
He appeared somehow suddenly. Walked every day. I didn’t know how to play absolutely, but I played with everyone - for money. For some reason, he paid with Kharkiv electric shavers. Then they began to say that he was a professional thief, and he simply stole a box of razors. He had the ability to play, in any case, very soon he was already playing on an equal footing with the candidates. And so, I remember, Slavik played for money with one kmc - now he is a prominent children's coach. And, having won the next game. Slavik says: "I want to get it!" But he did not want to pay - or maybe there was no money. And he, looking past Slavik, shouted into the void: "Comrade Captain! Come here! Urgently!" A second later Slavik was not in the garden. What happened to him later - God knows.
CATALYS
There were several people who cruised from the hippodrome to the katran (for young people: gambling then they were banned, in those years a katran was called an apartment rented for this dangerous occupation, simply speaking, an underground gambling house), from a katran to the Hermitage, from the Hermitage to a billiard room. They didn’t care what to play, if only for money "They also played chess, some of them very decently. There were also masters (chess players) among them. All the leading Moscow skaters were registered with the police. But they were rarely imprisoned. However, they were asked to report on their movements around the country. They had their own a special language, its own ethics.In general, little has been written about this world.
LYOSHA GUBIN
Legendary personality. I went to all Moscow parks. Little, humpbacked man. He offered everyone a five-minute head start on the dial. He played very well, but his main strength was in the fact that during the game he let the clock down. Everyone knew this, but it was difficult to catch him - the skill was high. If he still lost, he never gave back the money. Even slapping didn't help.
BOB AVARY
Surprisingly, I even remember his name. He was a young American, a chess lover who had come to Moscow on a business trip from Hewlett Packard to the Likhachev plant. In those years, communicating with a foreigner was unusual, and unsafe. However, we became friends. I remember the amount of his daily allowance that shocked me - ten rubles! I also remember his story about how he played with Fischer in the same Swiss shirt, and after a sleepless night, a boy was assigned to Fischer, who was supposed to wake him up if the future world champion fell asleep. I also remember his question to my friend about me: "I read that Jews do not live well in the USSR, why is he smiling all the time?"
Hermitage Garden. Behind the game are grandmasters Elena Fatalibekova and Tatiana Zatulovskaya. Behind the glass are male spectators.
VYSOTSKY AND CHESS
For several years in a row, the final of the Moscow Women's Blitz Championship was held in the garden. Everything was organized well and festively. Dressy women play, all around fans, fans, journalists. One day, however, the tournament almost fell apart. Vysotsky entered the garden. All the girls stopped playing and ran to look at the idol.
THE PATH TO TRUTH
(VLADIMIR MIKHAILOVICH AND KOLYA)
In the old days in Moscow there was another place where they played chess - the Bauman Garden.
And there was, among others, such Vladimir Mikhailovich I., a heavy drinking intellectual. He was known primarily for his artistic "ringing". And there was another character - Kolya S. He earned money in the winter - he played bandy as a goalkeeper. And in the summer he lost part of what he earned in chess.
Then the pavilion was demolished, people dispersed in all directions. And after many years, Vladimir Mikhailovich and Kolya met by chance. And we decided to play blitz - according to old memory. The problem was what to play. The fact is that over the years, Colin's fate has changed. He became a deeply religious Baptist. And he couldn't play for money.
And they decided so - Vladimir Mikhailovich wins - gets a glass. Kolya wins - Vladimir Mikhailovich reads a chapter from the Gospel aloud. And the sober Kolya over and over again beat the drunken Vladimir Mikhailovich. And Vladimir Mikhailovich opened the book and read aloud.
And then he complained: "It was hard for me. The text is difficult, you have to think all the time, but I have already lost the habit!".
The theater building once housed the Hermitage Garden; in 1894, an open-air theater settled here. The popularity of this theater was simply incredible - it was visited by tens of thousands of spectators. Performed on the theater stage opera singers, orchestras and circus performers from all over Europe. In 1910, the modernist theater "Zerkalo" settled on the site.
After the collapse of the USSR, the central government gave the Novaya Opera building; with the help of the Austrian firm "Lennex" and the architect Vladimir Kotelnikov (Vladimir Kotelnikov) managed to create new theater- in which, however, there was a place for some elements of the "mirror" times.
The theater was opened on December 27, 1997; celebrated the opening with an impressive gala performance featuring stars like Dmitry Khvorostovsky and Paata Burchuladze. The concert was attended by the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov (Yuri Luzhkov), the wife of the President of Russia Naina Yeltsin (Naina Yeltsin) and a number of very, very important people.
The theater building is made in the Art Nouveau style; Acoustics, lighting and devices for recording both audio and video are the latest. The theater is designed for more than 700 visitors.
On this moment the opera has three divisions at once - an orchestra, a group of soloists and a choir. Best Representatives all three directions periodically go on tour around the world - thereby raising the prestige of the Novaya Opera at the international level.
"Soloists" of the Novaya Opera is a group of opera singers working in the theatre. For the most part, they have already managed to make a name for themselves not only in Russia, but also abroad; soloists regularly perform on stage Bolshoi Theater, New York Metropolitan Opera, Arena di Verona and many others famous theaters peace.
The Novaya Opera Orchestra actively participates in all opera performances taking place within its walls; it is led by well-known theater conductors. Often the orchestra performs on its own, arranging symphony concerts.
Of course, the musicians work not only on the "native" stage, but also on the road - they can be heard in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory), the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Tchaikovsky Concert Hall) and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic).
The Novaya Opera Choir is an excellent team of professional singers with wonderful voices and outstanding acting skills. Like other theater stars, they often have to go on tour - residents of a number of Russian cities and music lovers from Greece (Greece), Cyprus (Cyprus), Italy (Italy), USA (USA), France (France) admired their voices. Israel (Israel), Finland (Finland), Estonia (Estonia), Spain (Spain), Portugal (Portugal), Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia) and Thailand (Thailand).
Opera productions within the walls of the Novaya Opera are mostly classical - like La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Snow Maiden (" Snow Maiden") Rimsky-Korsakov (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov). Every year the theater hosts the Epiphany Week festival.
For your activities New Opera received a number of prestigious awards; among the most important are the "Sony BMG Greece" prize and the "Week Star" theater award.
Creation of theater and garden
TO in the summer of 1894, a well-known Moscow entrepreneur Yakov Vasilievich Schukin, realizes its idea of creating a theater garden with a first-class theater program at the level of the best European samples.
A year before, he organizes large-scale work to clear an abandoned area that served as a city dump.
Ownership in Karetny Ryad at that time was in a very deplorable state: most of it had previously served as a dump, everything was littered with the skeletons of carriages, carriages and other most unimaginable rubbish. In winter, snow was brought here from all the nearby streets and squares of Moscow.
In order to make this area a blooming garden, Ya.V. Shchukin decides to remove the top layer of soil to a depth of about 1 meter and replace it with black soil. Only in the implementation of this plan, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, more than 50,000 wagons were involved!
Eyewitnesses of these events were amazed by the energy and business qualities Yakov Vasilyevich, who managed to create a beautiful garden on this site, a magnificent place for the most demanding public to relax.
Everything in this garden was created under the direct supervision of Yakov Vasilyevich. He personally planted many of the exotic flowers he had specially selected to decorate his garden.
In the same 1894 I'M IN. Schukin opens the summer season of his theatre. The building of the winter theater, opened on his initiative back in 1892, his
dissatisfied, and he invests in updating it. This required a significant amount of money, but the conceived business was worth it.
And Shchukin's theater troupe, through quite a short time, is already working on the stage of the rebuilt theater.
Opening summer garden theater "Hermitage"
In 1895, the anniversary of the official opening of the garden was celebrated.
Before the opening of the garden, Orthodox clergy performed a solemn prayer service and the rite of consecration.
Traditionally, the garden opened to the public at six o'clock in the evening. The program included well-known string orchestras, famous vocal performers, scenes from operettas, as well as many other interesting artists of a wide variety of genres performed until late in the evening.
An excellent restaurant operated in the garden, which also had its own high-quality art program.
December 16, 1894. entitled « New Hermitage»
The Shchukin Winter Theater opens. And already on January 2 of the same year, Shchukin arranges a charity daytime performance for pupils educational institutions Moscow. During intermissions, children were offered free meals and gifts.
Winter Seasons 1896 and 1897. opened with performances by the outstanding Italian artist Gustavo Salvini.
Shchukin's Hermitage Garden quickly gained popularity among the discerning Moscow public. during the summer season of 1895. visited the garden total more than 70 thousand visitors.
Working tirelessly to improve his offspring, Schukin regularly travels abroad to study world experience in the field of pleasure gardens. great attention Yakov Vasilyevich gives technical equipment his theater garden. In Europe, he concludes a contract for the installation of an autonomous diesel power plant (for the first time in Moscow), for lighting theater buildings and creating illumination in the garden. Abroad, he was also ordered latest model automated irrigation system. After installation, which, watering plants anywhere in the garden was carried out exactly at the specified time.
Top Artists and world celebrities
Yakov Vasilyevich was personally involved in recruiting to work in the theater the best teams and opera singers, orchestra members, circus masters: the theater toured Sarah Bernard, Ernesto Rossi, Gustavo Salvini, Italian opera Jules Devile, well-known string and brass bands.
Here, for the first time in Moscow, a screening of the invention of the Lumiere brothers - cinematography took place. The prince's opera troupe was a huge success. Tsereteli with E. Tsvetkova And I. Tartakova, romances performed M.I. Vavicha, A.D. Vyaltseva, opera productions of the troupe S.I. Mamontova, benefits F.I. Chaliapin.
On the stages of the Hermitage in Karetny Ryad, operettas by recognized classics of this genre, such famous composers as, Jacques Offenbach, Florimond Herve, Franz Lehár.
On the stage of the Shchukin Theater, the famous Anna Pavlova.
Last Tour legendary ballerina took place in Russia at the "Mirror" Theater of the Hermitage Garden in 1914
year.
A bunch of the most talented artists of that time was attracted to work in the theater - Vrubel, Roerich, Levitan, Vasnetsov, Balmont, Serov, Korovin, Bauer and others.
built in 1909 year in the Art Nouveau style, the summer "Mirror Theater" (architect A.N. Novikov), intended exclusively for summer performances, by 1910 takes on its final form.
Realizing the owner's intention, the park space with a regular layout was combined by the architect with the space open theater, turning into a surprisingly cozy foyer of living foliage.
The plans of Yakov Vasilyevich included the construction of a grandiose theater building for that time, designed for 4000 seats. IN short time The building known now as the Shchukin Stage was erected.
IN 1912
year to the date of the 100th anniversary of the Napoleonic invasion by the composer V.N. Harteveld was prepared special program
"1812 in Songs", in which brass and symphony orchestras, choir and soloists.
IN 1914
year, the 20th anniversary of the garden is solemnly celebrated.
Under the leadership of Shchukin, the Hermitage winter theater, the Mirror Theater, an open stage, as well as two restaurants with a variety show program operate.
In the summer season 1915
year in the Mirror Theater is a cycle symphony concerts(conductor S.A. Koussevitzky) .
According to eyewitnesses, there are always a lot of people in the garden.
Before events 1917 year theater garden successfully worked under the guidance of Ya.V. Schukin.
At the beginning of 1917 I'M IN. Schukin, leaves with his family in the Crimea.
And soon after Bolshevik coup 1917,
Hermitage garden was nationalized.
But the history of the Shchukin garden does not end there.
In the summer of 1918, as well as in 1919 and 1920. performed at the Mirror Theater F.I. Chaliapin However, in 1922 he leaves Russia with his family.
Despite the historical vicissitudes, during the revolution, and in the subsequent Soviet time, the Hermitage Garden as a whole has been preserved and retained its theatrical function, defined by its creator, as the main one.
27th of June 1987 year on the stage of the Mirror Theater took place last performance on the Moscow stage of a wonderful actor Andrey Mironov(1941-1987) in the play "The Marriage of Figaro".
IN 1979
Moscow Hermitage Garden receives the status of a monument of landscape art.
A real positive contribution to modern history garden "Hermitage" was the activity of an outstanding Russian conductor Evgenia Kolobova
(1946-2003)
, on whose initiative the reconstruction of the building of the Mirror Theater was carried out, while maintaining the original style of the building, using motifs of its decor, and respecting history. The opening, in the year of the 850th anniversary of Moscow, of the "New Opera" by Kolobov in the reconstructed "Mirror Theater" actually revived the historical theatrical significance of the garden in cultural space cities.
In 2004, the 110th anniversary of the Hermitage Garden was celebrated.
A bit of history
July 16, 1894 is considered the birthday of the Hermitage Garden. On this day, the site passed into the possession of the Moscow merchant Ya. V. Shchukin. In just a year, Shchukin managed to turn a boring wasteland into a blooming garden with flower beds, paths, trees and shrubs. The old building, which previously housed the theater, was reconstructed.
The official opening of the Hermitage Garden took place on June 18, 1895. The Moscow public showed considerable interest in him - Shchukin's perseverance and enthusiasm aroused involuntary respect even among those who reproached him for insufficient subtlety of taste. In the same year, electric lighting appeared in the Hermitage, plumbing was installed, and a swimming pool was equipped.
A year later, one of the first film screenings in Russia took place here. Such famous opera singers as Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov, Antonina Vasilievna Nezhdanova sang on the stage of the Hermitage. Sergei Vasilyevich Rahmaninov debuted as a conductor, played by Sarah Brenard, Maria Yermolova, Vera Komissarzhevskaya.
Shchukin constantly undertook the construction of new theater venues, in 1909 the summer "Mirror" Theater was built. It was planned to open a unique winter theater with 4 thousand seats, but the unfavorable circumstances generated by the First World War and the revolution led Shchukin to ruin. The box, now called the Shchukin Stage, is all that has been built.
After the revolution, the garden was first nationalized, then transferred to private lease. But despite the global cataclysms, the Hermitage Garden continued to be a favorite vacation spot for Muscovites.
During the war years, the garden was closed for a very short time - from the autumn of 1941 to April 1942. In 1943, the performances resumed, the artists who returned from the evacuation rehearsed and played in an unheated building, but the Hermitage lived on.
IN post-war years the garden was reconstructed, in 1948 a summer concert hall was built. In the 1950s and 1960s, people played chess in the Hermitage Garden, walked, read, listened to famous artists, watched movies on the screen for the summer cinema. During the Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, one and a half million visitors visited the garden.
By the 850th anniversary of Moscow, the garden was transformed, many historical buildings were restored. In 2004, the Hermitage Garden celebrated its 110th anniversary
Interesting sights in the Hermage Garden
In 2000, the Hermitage Garden received two sculptures: bust of Dante Alighieri (sculptor Rinaldo Piras) and bust of Victor Hugo (sculptor Laurent Marquest). The bust of Dante was donated to Moscow by the Italian government. The bust of Victor Hugo was donated to the Hermitage Garden by the Paris City Hall.
In 2006, a large Silver Heart "Monument to All Lovers" . The monument is a composition of pipes 70 meters long, which are bent in the shape of a heart. Inside this monument are bells that ring from the wind. There is a giving that lovers who kissed for the first time under a metal heart will be happy, and their feelings will be strong and bright all their lives.
The first Moscow electric lantern cast at the Ekaterininsky factory , was installed in the Hermitage Garden in 1880, and after restoration it was lit again in honor of the 110th anniversary of the Garden on June 16, 2004.
Walks in the Hermitage Garden
The territory of the Hermitage Garden, although not very large, surprisingly and without any cramping fits so many interesting things!
On the territory of the garden there are three theaters: "Hermitage", "Sphere" and "New Opera" . In addition, various kinds of theater events, tours, entreprises.
Summer stage - a legendary place . In the 60-70s of the twentieth century, such artists as Gennady Khazanov, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Vladimir Vysotsky, Lyudmila Zykina and many others performed there. This site hosts the famous regular jazz festival, performances by stars, concerts on the Day of the City and other holidays, large presentations, sometimes an orchestra just plays here.
Fountain it will give coolness and set you in a meditative mood: watching the streams of water, you will rest, and your thoughts will gain clarity and liveliness.
Playground will give joy to the little visitors of the Hermitage Garden.
Wonderful flower beds, trees blooming in spring : lindens, maples, oaks, poplars, beautiful bushes along the paths : lilac, honeysuckle, hawthorn, roses.
Two pavilions "garden cottage" in the English style with cast metal patterns create a special cosiness and an atmosphere of sophistication. A great place for a romantic date and a beautiful photo shoot.
They live in the garden cute fluffy squirrels and thoroughbred pigeons .
In winter, the Hermitage Garden opens the most romantic skating rink in Moscow . Visitors can change clothes and rent skates in heated pavilions. On the skating rink in the Hermitage Garden, classes are held with professional trainers in figure skating. And for the youngest visitors, there are special support installations in the form of funny animal figures (penguins and cubs) at the box office - they help to maintain balance.
Also in the Hermitage Garden there are many different circles and studios for the children of their parents:
- children's clubs, which host exciting educational, educational, creative pursuits;
- lessons foreign languages(English, Italian, French);
- studios of painting, music, ballet;
- dance clubs;
- yoga, fitness programs for all ages
- there are tables for playing ping pong and rental of sports equipment necessary for playing.
In the Hermitage Garden often various interesting events , the poster of which you can study on the official website of the Hermitage Garden.
During exciting walks in the garden, you will definitely want to refresh yourself and have a bite to eat with something tasty. The Hermitage Garden took care of that as well. There is a bar, a restaurant, a summer cafe with food and drinks for every taste.
In the Hermitage Garden people walk with their lovers, friends, children and parents. It is good for everyone here at any time of the year. And, having got here once, you will definitely want to come back more than once!
