Internet and culture: The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia invites to virtual tours

The Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow) invites Internet users to virtual tours through the historic building and the New stage. They started working on February 10, 2015 as the website of the Academy of Culture Google.

‘For us it is a very important event, - said Director of the Museum of the Bolshoi Theatre Lidia Kharina. – We keep a unique and enormous collection, including real treasures”. According to her, the museum does not have sufficient exposition displays to show this to the general public. “Now thanks to digital version our exhibits will be available to more people”, - she said.

The earliest picture presented at the virtual exhibition “Old Photographs”, dates back 1851. In addition to theatre chronicle which features scenes from the ballet, operas, famous directors, choreographers and artists, in the Web you can see moments of coronation on Nicholas II.

The basis of the digital exposition “Costumes of the Bolshoi Theatre” is the collection of costumes. It has more than three thousand copies.

The exhibition “Feodor Feodorovsky. Legend of the Bolshoi Theatre” features painting and graphic of the artist, sketches of decorations, costumes and the clothing of artists like Boris Godunov, Prince Igor.

The creation of a virtual tour and three exhibitions became possible thanks to the cooperation of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Google Company. The work over the projects started in summer 2014 and has lasted for several months. Virtual tours and digital exhibitions of the Bolshoi Theatre are available in Russian and English.