The Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience named after Natalia Sats

A word about this company

The Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience named after Natalia Sats is the world’s first and so far the only professional state music theatre, which carries out two great missions simultaneously – to be a full-scale Opera and Ballet theatre and to have large and serious repertoire for children, young people and family audience. Our theatre creates and presents classic, as well as contemporary opera and ballet performances, symphony concerts, education and other special programs for spectators of different ages. The training level of such an interesting audience is different and we try to represent music styles in all the diversity. The theatre has its own symphony orchestra (over 100 musicians), opera (75 singers) and ballet (60 dancers) companies, as well as own professional chorus, working together under the General management of the theatre. All the soloists and musicians have higher musical education – they graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire and other higher musical establishments of Russia. “Voices of great strength and rare beauty of the singers of the Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Natalia Sats combined with perky recreation of dancing images came out as a surprise for audience”, – wrote the German newspaper “Nachrichten” about the theatre’s performance when it was on tours in Germany. The theatre was founded in 1965 by the world’s first female opera director, worldwide famous Natalia Sats – women of legendary fate and incredible deeds, “the mother of children’s Theatres throughout the world”. During her long life she organized 6 theatres for children. Daughter of Iliya Sats, composer for Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theatre, she raised in the circle of some of the most distinguished Russian artists. After Natalia Sats death theatre went through a difficult time. But theatre survived, kept its audience and stayed in the perfect creative shape. A new chapter in theatre life began in 2010 when new artistic director, the State Prize of the Russian Federation Laureate and the Golden Mask Prize Laureate Georgiy Isaakyan started in this position. The main idea of the artistic renovation was to present to the audience the greatest opera and ballet music of different periods, to speak to the new generation of the audience on the language of contemporary art. The theatre is carrying out an important and necessary mission – to bring true art to all kinds of the audience, to help them not just to listen to the music, but also to feel in it beauty and kindness captivating their imagination and enriching the growing and developing characters of a personality with staunchness, love for beauty, ability to listen attentively to the images of musical art, to acquaint people with the musical culture. Every day our house is opened for young and adult audiences. Our theatre repertoire is prepared in such a way that it suits the demands of the audience of different age groups ranging from boys and girls of 3-10 years to teenagers and the whole family. We try to represent the musical styles in all the diversity, in the words of Natalia Sats “to bring great musical art to little ears, to talk seriously with them in the language of music culture”. Today theatre has absolutely unique repertoire based on works of the greatest composers of all times, from Cavaglieri and Mozart to Stravinsky and Prokofiev, and includes more than 20 operas, 9 ballets, few musicals for kids and family audience, as well as symphony concerts and special programs. A number of titles of the repertoire were commissioned and have been created by the best contemporary Russian composers especially for our theatre. Also theatre’s activity includes different social programs and programs for physically challenged children. The building of the theatre is situated in the historical district of Moscow and is one of the most outstanding theatre complexes of the city. Everything in the theatre was created with children’s audience in mind and helps to bring theatre closer to children, make it more open, clear and interesting for them. There are a lot of interactive corners in our theatre which are very interesting both for young and adult audience. Everything tells about music and helps to learn how to love it. Everything is submitted to one aim – to achieve an atmosphere of veneration and joy in perception of music. The unique outside and inner architecture is one of the peculiarities of our theatre. Blue bird sculpture is seated at the very top of the theatre building. This symbol of happiness together with a harp became a trade mark of the Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience named after Natalia Sats. There are the golden medallions with the heroes of Pushkin’s fairy tales on the facade of the theatre. Over the lower foyer the suspension bridges are built. Before each performance the actors come out dressed up in costumes of famous fairytales characters, greet and talk with the children from those bridges. In the upper foyer there are the sculptures of Lel, Boyan and Orheus. There is the winter-garden in the theatre, real birds sing in the aviary. The theatre also has a unique Palekh Room, decorated by the giant Palekh panels painted with characters and scenes from the famous Russian and European novels and fairytales, a hall for music lectures, large foyers, and even special room for parents and the infant “spectators”. The Main Stage with the beautiful theatre curtain featuring the images of the Rimski-Korsakov’s opera “Sadko” has 1100 seats and three stages, so the action can take place simultaneously in three spaces. The Small Auditorium that has just been reconstructed and turned out into very contemporary, technically modernized convertible site, which could shape and seat from 120 to 300 spectators. The theatre has grown to become a real centre of music and cultural education for children and young people. The main goal of its Education Department – the first of its kind in the opera world – is to give young audiences access to musical culture. There are several different programmes and projects which have been initiated by the department with this aim in mind including: - “The Backstage World”. In the frame of this programme children have tours of theatre and get an acquaintance with the theatre professions. - “Friends Club” – In the frame of this project the theatre collaborates with various schools and artistic groups. - “Theatres-Sputniks”. This project is over 30 years old and during these years theatre has been collaborating with children’s amateur non-professional music and drama groups from Russia and the near abroad. -Festival of School Theatres, Blue Bird Festival. The theatre also runs a number of social programmes and programmes for the physically challenged. The Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience named after Natalia Sats enjoys huge success both at home and abroad, and has delighted audiences all across Europe as well as in the USA, Canada and Japan. Since a management change in 2010, the theatre has been working to accommodate the best of past and of what is being created in the contemporary field of music theatre, while aiming to take an active part in international theatre life. In July of 2013, the theatre staged a reconstructed version
of Fokine’s Golden Cockerel by Rimsky-Korsakov. It was the closing production of the centennial jubilee season
for Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Before that, and for first time, The Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience named after Natalia Sats staged its production, Carmen, in Dublin. Not only is it based on Bizet’s masterpiece, but the set is also inspired by Picasso’s masterworks. In July 2014 the theatre staged the Golden Cockerel production together with other Fokine’s ballets to great acclaim at The London Coliseum as the highlight of The Russian Cultural Festival. April, 2015 – tour to Dublin with the Madama Butterfly production (The Bord Gais Energy Theatre). August, 2015 – the theatre took part at the Birgitta International Festival in Tallinn (Estonia) with the Scheherazade and Polovtsian Dances ballets and the interactive performance The Orchestra Rehearsal. February, 2016 – Dyaghilev-Gala in Venice March, 2016 – tour to Dublin with the Carmen production (The Bord Gais Energy Theatre). September, 2017 – Theatre took part at the Annual International Festival in Aspendos (Turkey) with the productions of Scheherazade, Chopiniana and Polovtsian Dances. November, 2017 – tour in UAE, Dubai with Chopiniana and The Fire-Bird productions. August, 2018 – tour to Cannes, Palace of Festivals and Congress, with the productions of Scheherazade, Chopiniana and Polovtsian Dances and Petipa – Gala. Our theatre has been with Opera Europa (the all-European Opera Houses Association) and RESEO (European network for education, participation and creative learning in opera and dance) since 2011. In 2012 the theatre hosted Opera Europa annual conference in conjunction with the Bolshoi and Stanislavsky Theatres. In 2014 theatre has been chosen as a national coordinator of RESEO and Opera Europa in Russia. At the last General Assembly of the Opera Europa Georgiy Isaakyan has been elected a member of the Opera Europa Board – the governing body of the association that seeks to represent its members in all their diversity as best possible.