The Chinese Theatre (an ensemble of the Alexander Park)

Categories / Tsarskoe Selo and town of Pushkin. The digital chronological reference book/Monuments of history and culture
The Chinese Theatre or the Opera House was built by the architects A. Rinaldi and I.V. Neyelov in 1778-1779 in the New Garden western bosket at the place of an outside amphitheatre with turf benches. The building could seat more than three hundred and fifty persons, different performances – German and French plays, buffoonery operas - were given here. It could be mentioned as examples: a performance devoted to Count Falkenshtein in 1780, then the opera “Sevilsky Tsiryulnik” (The Barber of Seville) in 1830; the comedy “Plodi prosveshchenia” (The Fruits of Enlightenment ) of Count Leo Tolstoy in 1892; the performance (the second acts of ballets “Konyek-Gorbunok” (“The Humpbacked Horse”) and “Lebedinoye Ozero” (“The Swan Lake”) staged by A.A. Gorsky with sets of the artists K.A. Korovin and A.Ya. Golovin was given in honour of Emile Loubet, President of France, on 9 May 1902. The President of France and members of the France delegation, who were presented at the theatre, praised enthusiastically about this performance. An amateur staging of F. Schiller’s tragedy “Messinskaya nevesta” (“Die Braut von Messina oder die Feindlichen Brüder”, “The Bride of Messina”) translated by the poet K.R., Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, with his participation and with the presence of the Emperor, took place in 1909. The construction was destroyed during the war and has been being in ruins, which are hidden behind the thick foliage of trees, until the present time. Semenova Galina Victorovna
Golovin Alexander Yakovlevich
Gorsky Alexander Alexeevich
Konstantin Konstantinovich, Grand Prince
Korovin Konstantin Alexeevich
Neelov Ilya Vasilievich
Rinaldi Antonio
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, Count