Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre Company Is Founded

On 28 March 1776, Catherine II granted Prince Peter Vasilyevich Urusov a license to present public theatrical entertainments, masquerades, and balls in Moscow. Urusov established an entertainment enterprise in partnership with Michael Maddox, an English tightrope walker. While the venture initially staged performances inside a private residence, it soon acquired the Petrovka Theatre. There, on 30 December 1780, the company began presenting plays and operas, laying the organizational foundation for what would later evolve into the Bolshoi Theatre.

The company's early decades were marked by catastrophic fires. The Petrovka Theatre burned down in October 1805, prompting the company to relocate to the New Arbat Imperial Theatre in 1808. That structure met a similar fate during the French invasion of Moscow in 1812. To replace it, imperial authorities selected a design by Petersburg-based architect Andrei Mikhailov, but after deeming it excessively expensive, they engaged architect Joseph Bove to redesign and oversee the construction. The resulting building opened in January 1825 under the name Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre, with a specially written prologue, The Triumph of the Muses.