Prime Minister Vladimir Putin played the piano at the Theatre of Nations to test the acoustics of the uptown building, which is reopening following its reconstruction.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin played the piano at the Theatre of Nations to test the acoustics of the uptown building, which is reopening following its reconstruction.
Built on the land plot of the millionaire Bakhrushin merchant family, since 1885 the building has housed the country’s largest private theatre, the Russian Drama, better known as the Korsch Theatre, after its proprietor. The theatre received its current name after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Artistic director Yevgeny Mironov meets Putin at the front entrance.
The prime minister's tour began with the building's façade. “We’re reopening 126 years after the theatre was built,” Mironov said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin joined the tour later on.
Mironov asked Putin to hammer into the floor of the stage a silver coin minted in the year the theatre was founded, according to an old theatre tradition. A hammer and a silver ruble from 1885 were waiting for him on the edge of the stage.
As Putin spoke with actors who were rehearsing a comic review, a white piano caught his eye from behind the stage. He went up to it and played the song, “From Where the Motherland Begins.”
Young actors and directors told Putin about the problems and advantages of the company.
At the end of the meeting, the company had their photo taken with the prime minister, and presented him with an antique engraving depicting the theatre.
