The neoclassical temple of culture - the Winter Theater in Sochi
The winter theater is known to many residents of the country who have never even been to Sochi, which is rare for a non-capital theater. This is a merit of television - the Kinotavr festival and the KVN Summer Cup are held in the Winter Theater. But for Sochi itself, this is not just a platform for a show, even an all-Russian scale, but a symbol, a truly significant place.
First, the Winter Theater has become a monument to a key event in the history of Sochi - the transformation of an ordinary town on the Black Sea into an all-union elite health resort. It happened in the 1930s by the decision, as you might guess, of Joseph Stalin. He also approved a new general plan of the city, in which, in addition to new roads, sanatorium-palaces and classical city parks, there was also a grand theater, the first in the city. Since Sochi was supposed to be a worthy alternative to exquisite bourgeois resorts, and not just a place where a Soviet worker could sunbathe on the beach, the city needed a temple of culture.
Now it is difficult to imagine, but the Winter Theater was built on the outskirts. It happened from 1934 to 1937. Today, the Svetlana district, where the theater is located, is the center, the main tourist quarter of the resort. And the Winter Theater is an architectural symbol and geographical landmark not only of this district, but of the whole city.
True, you need to understand what city. Today, Sochi is completely different, it already has little resemblance to the former relaxed resort. High-rise residential buildings, offices, megamolls, road junctions are no longer associated with the image of the “Caucasian Riviera”. For the sake of justice, let us clarify that not only the Olympic construction has deprived Sochi of its former atmosphere. Just look at the buildings surrounding the Winter Theater, for example, the legendary hotels "Pearl" and "Svetlana". The popularity of the resort in the second half of the XX century led to the fact that in architectural terms, the scale won beauty. And the Winter Theater, along with its peers - the Art Museum, the Summer Theater, several historical boarding houses and sanatoriums (such as the Ordzhonikidze sanatorium) - remain a sort of architectural mammoth. He recalls that once the comparison of Sochi with the cities of the Riviera was not a mocking joke.
Of all the Sochi "mammoths", the Winter Theater is the most ambitious and magnificent project. Although Academician Alexei Shchusev himself contributed to the construction of the “new” Sochi in the 1930s, the author of the Winter Theater was not he, but the young and little-known at that time architect Konstantin Chernopyatov. There is little information about Chernopyatov, even Sochi local history amateurs probably only know that he built this theater. Neither before nor after he appears as the chief architect of large projects. Judging by the documents, Konstantin Chernopyatov, after the construction of the Winter Theater, remained to work in Sochi. Why Stalin chose Chernopyatov for sure is also unknown, only legends remained.
The winter theater stands on a hill near the sea, you can go down to the embankment in two minutes. Behind the theater passes the main thoroughfare of Sochi - Kurortny Avenue. The facade of the theater is not facing the avenue, but to the sea. This was part of the concept of Sochi as an ideal resort, the City of the Sun: people leaving the theater after the performance immediately see the sea, and from the sea the building appears in all its glory, evoking associations with the Parthenon and other monuments of antiquity.
Ninety Corinthian columns around the perimeter, impressive portico, Terpsichore, Melpomene and Talia (sculptures of muses were made by the famous Vera Mukhina) on a huge pediment - the Winter Theater was destined to become a monument of neoclassicism. The status of a monument of republican significance was assigned to him almost immediately after construction was completed.
The Colonnade of the Winter Theater, by the way, solved the problem with the fact that the building was “back” to the city. When you first get close, it is difficult to understand where, in fact, the “face”, the service entrance can be confused with the main one. Orient, as already mentioned above, you need by sea. A large staircase leads to the main entrance leading to something like a terrace - here during the “Kinotavr” social events of cinemas take place. The ladder on the sides is bounded by two huge parallelepiped stone protrusions. It was assumed that a small square in front of the theater would become an arena for festive demonstrations, and stone protrusions would serve as stands. Now most of the year the area is used as parking.
During television broadcasts, it seems that inside the Winter Theater is as huge as the outside. In fact this is not true. There are almost a thousand seats in the hall, but it gives the impression of a chamber. And this is good - the scene is perfectly visible from anywhere, even from the gallery.
The pre-Olympic transformations of Sochi did not touch the Winter Theater - it was already thoroughly restored several years ago. During the restoration, the stage was also updated, which is even more important for the theater than roof repair and facade repainting. Now the Winter Theater can receive large symphony orchestras - earlier for all musicians there simply was not enough space either on the stage or in the orchestra pit.
LOCAL FEATURES
The theater opened on May 5, 1938 with the opera “Tsar's Bride” by N. Rimsky-Korsakov staged by the Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky.
The theater has no theater troupe, but it has its own philharmonic orchestra, since for a long time the theater was essentially a city philharmonic. Today the permanent repertoire of the theater includes orchestra performances, but most of the time is still given to concerts and performances of guest performers. Winter is the main concert and theater venue of the entire Black Sea coast. All the stars who come to the Krasnodar Territory on concert tour usually perform either in the administrative center - Krasnodar, or in the Sochi Winter Theater.
In addition, every year in February, the theater for two weeks becomes the site of an art festival, the artistic director of which is Yuri Bashmet. At this time, famous musicians from all over the world come to Sochi.
Of course, there are also indestructible Russian humorists, and dubious pop singers. So while the Winter Theater is still more like a concert venue than a solid theater with a predictable program. But if you arrive in Sochi for a few days, at least one decent cultural evening in the Winter Theater will most likely be provided for you.
There is no organ in the Winter Theater, but in Sochi it is still available - in the Hall of Organ and Chamber Music on Kurortny Prospect (Building 32).
It is natural to assume that since the Winter Theater is in the city, then there should be the Summer Theater. It is a ten-minute walk from the Winter, on the Black Sea street (Building 11), in the same tourist neighborhood Svetlana. The summer theater was built in 1937 by the architect Krolevets in the Park. Frunze, also in neoclassical or pseudo-Greek style. Summer is named because the playground in it is open (without a roof), and concerts are held only in the warm season (from March to the end of October). The Summer Theater looks quite pompous and majestic, but the repertoire here is much simpler than in the Winter one. Basically this pop concerts. In addition, the Summer Theater was closed for a long time and remained in disrepair until it was renovated at the end of the 2000s with the money of a local patron.
Not far from the Winter Theater there are many hotels, the closest is the Pearl. As mentioned above, the stairs from the theater lead to the embankment, and it is in this very place of the embankment that the most expensive cafes in Sochi are based - the prices are fabulous even by the standards of Sochi. Not only prices, but also menus are extraordinary. For example, if you want to have breakfast and ask for scrambled eggs, then there will be no ordinary chicken eggs. But there will be ostrich. Issue price - more than 3000 rubles.
In the Winter Theater itself, there is also a restaurant - “Five Candles”, to which many go and separately from any cultural program. Entrance from the end of the building.
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