BOLCHOÏ

Right in the centre of Moscow, the Bolshoi is more than a theatre or an opera house, it has been a temple of art since 1776. Even during the harsh Soviet years, when art was confined to the limits of socialist realism, the Bolshoi enjoyed a space of creative freedom. Among the Bolshoi's earliest landmarks, all remember Mussorgsky's smashing Boris Godunov (1888), and Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth (1935). But the Bolshoi does not indulge in academicism, and there are more contemporary creations.