St. Petersburg Music Hall

The St. Petersburg Music Hall is a Russian state theater in the city of Saint Petersburg. It was founded in 1928.

The front facade of the St. Petersburg Music Hall

History

On December 5, 1928 Leningrad music hall opened with the premiere of “The Wonders of XX century or The Last Carrier” (directed by David Gutman) in the Opera Hall of the People’s House. The theater became very popular thanks to cooperation between O.Dunaevsky and ‘Thea-jazz’ of Leonid Utyosov. Starting from 1929 Dunaevsky became music director and principal conductor of the music hall. The troupe of the theater created several vocal-instrumental programs where L.Utesov and K.Shulzhenko were singing the leading parts.[1] Stage director Nikolay Petrov, theatre designer Nikolay Akimov and composer Dmitry Shostakovich took part in the process of their creation. In 1937, Leningrad music hall was closed as a carrier of market-based bourgeois art.

In 1966 the second version of Leningrad music hall was born in Leningrad. It was founded and started its work under artistic supervision of Ilya Yakovlevich Rakhlin. During the period from 1966 till 1988 music hall was operating in the Palace of Culture of local administration. Here music hall staged all its premieres. At the end of 1970s the building of the Opera Hall of the People’s House was given to the revived music hall. However, the theater was able to open its doors for new spectators only in 1988. In April 1987 I. Y. Rakhlin opened special classes for kids, which operates in the theater even today.[2]

From 2002 till 2004 the theatre was led by the son of I. Y. Rakhlin, Lev Rakhlin (worked as the stage director from 1996). Between 2004 and 2010 it was led by A. Platunov. Starting from 2010 the theatre is operated under Evgeny Kulikov. In April 2011 Music Hall staged the premiere of “Gagarin”. The theater creates performances based on both traditional (“Cinderella”, “Morozko”, “Mowgli” and “Bremen Town Musicians”) and modern fairy tales. In 2007 Music Hall presented “Jack Sparrow in the North Pole”, which was their own take based on the famous “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. From the beginning of 2011 the second stage of the theater performs “Cabaret Voyage” show and in October 2011 it staged the premiere of “Colorful dreams of the white night” performance show.

Building

Music Hall is located in the building of the Lecture Hall of the People’s House that was built upon an initiative of Prince A. P. Ol’denburgsky by architect from the Royal Court, G. I. Lyucedarsky in 1910-1912.[3]

See also

References
  1. Gleb Scorohodov. «Leonid Utesov. Friends and enemies». — АСТ, 2007. ISBN 978-5-17-043064-2
  2. Kids studio Official website Archived 2012-05-30 at the Wayback Machine
  3. B.Kirikov "Architecture of the St. Petersburg Art Nouveau. Public Buildings: Book One"(2012) p. 75—105. ISBN 978-5-901841-80-8

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