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NATIONAL OPERA THEATRE OF UKRAINE
The National Opera of Ukraine is one of the oldest theaters, where musical performances and concerts are shown. The creation of a permanent opera ensemble in 1867 was inspired by the successful tours of Italian artists. The first performance was “The Askold’s grave” opera about the old Kyiv. In 1874, the first opera “Christmas Night” by Mykola Lysenko was performed in Ukrainian. A monument to a brilliant composer, whose name is associated with the greatest times of Ukrainian musical art, is set on the Teatralna square. The building of the Opera, built in the style of French Renaissance, has an original semiellipse facade, nicely decorated with stucco.
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The interior of the Opera Theatre is richly decorated with velvet, marble, gilded stucco and crystal chandeliers. The pride of the theater is organ designed by the professionals of the Czech company Rieger-Kloss.
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There is another, so-called Small Opera in Kyiv. It was built in 1902 as Lukianivskyi people’s house. At the same time, the first Kyiv cinematograph began to work. In 2005, an old building was reconstructed and opened as a modern art space for creative experiments.
- Find out whose sculpture originally decorated the roof of the Opera House and why was it replaced with griffins?
