City Theater is the first theater in Yekaterinburg . It existed from 1843 to 1912 . Currently, the Coliseum Cinema is located in the building of the first City Theater.
| City Theater | |
|---|---|
 The building of the cinema "Coliseum", which previously housed the City Theater. 1917 shot | |
| Based | 1843 |
| Location | |
Content
Theater History
Initially, the City Theater existed in a wooden building. Since 1843, the troupe of Kazan entrepreneur P.A.Sokolov has been playing here. The date of the founding of the theater and the beginning of the theatrical history of Yekaterinburg is considered November 5 (17), 1843 , when the first productions of Sokolov's premiere took place: the opera The Woman Sleepwalker and the Vaudeville Leg. The plays were played in the premises of the Zeichhaus at the Alexander Mountain Hospital (now there is the Museum of Fine Arts ).
The stone building of the theater at the intersection of the Main Avenue (now Lenin Avenue ) and Voznesensky Avenue (now Karl Liebknecht Street ) was erected in 1845 according to the project of architect K. G. Tursky on the initiative of the mountain chief General V. A. Glinka. Funds for the construction of the theater were provided by the Yekaterinburg merchants of the Ryazanovs and Co., as well as the city manager Anika Ryazanov, provided that the premises would be transferred to a trading institution if necessary.
The auditorium of the theater was designed for 625 people.
The city theater in the new building opened in 1847 with the comedy Priyumysh and the vaudeville Deserter. V. N. Davydov , N. A. Samoilov-Michurin , and E. A. Lepkovsky played on its stage.
On November 7 (19), 1896, one of the first cinema sessions in Yekaterinburg took place at the City Theater. The projection apparatus was installed on the stage, the screen was hung on the site of the theater curtain. The cinema did not make much impression on the audience, but a year later, cinema agents of the Lumiere brothers arrived in Yekaterinburg, gave 9 sessions and conquered the audience. So, when the new theater building appeared in Yekaterinburg in 1912 (now the Opera and Ballet Theater ), the first city theater was rented by the tradesman I.N. Volkov for a cinema session.
In 1914, the City Theater was renamed the "Coliseum" and until now has been used as a cinema - see the Colosseum article (cinema, Yekaterinburg) .
Building
The building was built in the style of classicism . A south (main) facade with an ionic portico two stories high comes out on Lenin Ave. The eight-columned portico consists of half-columns, between which there are exits from the theater. On the street Karl Liebknecht overlooks the eastern (side) facade, also with an ionic portico with protruding four columns.
At the level of the second floor, above the doors, there are high semicircular windows, the same windows, only wider, in the corners of the building.
The decorative decoration of the facades also corresponds to the style of classicism: these are floral ornaments, wreaths.
In 1885, the City Theater was the first in the city to receive electric lighting from a car installed in the courtyard. The newspaper Yekaterinburg Week wrote about this:
“Yes, you can say the opera is going well. Of course, the situation is somewhat lame, but on the other hand, the electric light that pours abundantly through the theater rewards the audience, suddenly dying out in pathetic places to give effect to some scenes, forcing nervous ladies to scream and jump up. ” [one]
Theater Troupe
The director of the theater is P. A. Sokolov .
Most of the actors were taken for rent from serfs. Many of them had studied at the theater school on the Turgenev Spassky-Lutovinov estate, including the famous artist Evdokia Ivanova in the Urals. Sokolov kept the troupe until 1857.
Later, funds were raised in Yekaterinburg for the redemption of actresses from the serf theater from serfdom.
Repertoire
Most of the repertoire, according to the traditions of that time, was composed by melodramas, vaudeville and comedies, often of very poor quality. At the same time, serious plays were staged on the stage of the City Theater.
- 1843 :
- Verstovsky opera " Askold's Grave ";
- Bellini 's opera The Woman Sleepwalker (The Bride Sleepwalker, Somnabula );
- Gogol 's comedy The Examiner ;
- vaudeville "Leg".
- 1847 :
- vaudeville performance “Ketley, or Return to Switzerland”;
- comedy "Priyumysh";
- vaudeville "Deserter".
- 1850 - dramatic performance in five acts in poetry and prose “Ugolino” by N. Polevoy (based on Dante 's “Hell”).
- 1887 - “Gold Producers" by D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak .