Like many other remarkable buildings, the Bolshoy Theater in Moscow affects an audience in other ways besides its current appearance: the shadows of all other theaters that have stood on this spot distinguish the structure. An attentive glance will uncover traces of countless reconstructions, rearrangements and renovations in the interior and on the facades. This palpable sense of the theater's many strata is hard to convey in words. A short history of the building, though, is sufficient to give the reader a good idea of the main problems.

The first in a series of theatrical structures in the Petrovka Street was given the name of the Petrovski Theater according to its location, but it was known popularly as the Maddox Theater for its entrepreneur, Michael Maddox. This building was erected in 1776 -1780 by a project of the Moscow architect Kh. I. Rozenberg. It stood on approximately the same spot as the present edifice but it was a building consisting of two volumes, the main facade of which faced Petrovka Street. The tall auditorium with levels of boxes and a raked parterre was sumptuously decorated in the early classicism style, i.e., 'à la français'. The facades were rather modest and represented the style known as "orderless classicism".

The Maddox theater burned down in 1805; its charred ruins stood in the Petrovka street until 1815, when by order of Emperor Alexander I was begun the reconstruction of the area in front of the theater, subsequently named Theater Square.

The project by Moscow architect Osip Beauvais called for a spacious rectangular square surrounded by identically styled buildings. In the northern section of the square the construction of a new theater was planned. At the competition held by the Academy of Arts, Petersburg architect A. A. Mikhailov's project was declared the winner. The design called for a typical solution in the Empire style: a rectangular volume with an eight column Doric portico on the main butt-end facade with a tall central portion decorated with Apollo's quadriga set against a deep, arched niche.

Mikhailov's project was substantially reworked by Beauvais, who developed the triumphal decor and original construction of the auditorium, somewhat modified the proportions of the entire building (it became shorter), and also left the rustication which according to Mikhailov's project covered the whole surface of the walls only on the lowest third of the facades. The result of this retooling and the architect's supervision of construction was such that the Petersburg Empire was given a Muscovite softness. During construction of the new building in 1821-1827 the theater recieved its current name. It was called the Bolshoy (Grand) Petrovski while the smaller theater of drama on the same square was called the Maly (Small) Petrovski.

The Empire-styled Bolshoy Theater had been reconstructed twice. In 1843 the architect A. S. Nikitin redesigned the layout of the boxes and replaced the original Ionic capitals of the portico with more archaic looking Ionic capitals and in 1847 the service areas were laid out anew.

In 1853 the Bolshoy Petrovski Theater of Mikhailov and Beauvais had burned away. The remaining line of walls and standing columns of the portico served as the basis for the restoration and reconstruction of the building undertaken by Petersburg architect A. K. Cavos, the offspring of the theatrical family. He specialized in the architecture of theaters. The existing dimensions of the theater are still Mikhailov's and Beauvais's but the treatment of the facades and interior belongs to an entirely new era, that of eclecticism.

Kavos kept the columns of the portico but exchanged the Ionic capitals for composite ones, which gave the facade decorations a more luxurious but at the same time vain character. The strip of rustication along the lower third of the building was also preserved; it was made deeper and more detailed. The smooth surfaces of the upper two thirds were filled with a more graphic rustication. The architect labored to fill in the blank surfaces of the walls characteristic of the Empire style with window platbands, panels, niches and other similar decorations the style of which can be described as neo-Renaissance with individual elements of late classicism. This style in which the rich and sumptuous treatment corresponds to the abundance of "scientific" forms forced the architect to change the design of the upper portion of the main facade: the sloping pitch of the roof was here replaced by a second sloping fronton that repeated the fronton of the portico while the sculpture of Apollo's quadriga by Petersburg sculptor Peter Clodt was set against a backdrop of a row of windows that replaced the original arched niche. The dry, fragmentary nature of the facade decor of the Bolshoy Theater was not very noticeable because the Empire style architecture continued to set a monumental scale (something which cannot be said, for instance, about the Mariinski Theater also executed by Cavos a few years later).

The stated criticism of Cavos's facades does not regard the interior. The stage, with its technical solutions and fireproofing, the auditorium, with its increased number of levels and luxurious finishing (in the "Renaissance mixed with Byzantine" style, by the words of the architect), and the foyer with its complex style - the whole design helps to create the visible luxury and sense of celebration characteristic of opera houses.

After Cavos's capital reconstruction, the Bolshoy was redone several other times as well. At the end of the 19th century, in 1895-1896 the original neo-Renaissance decor of the imperial foyer was replaced by the neo-Rococo style. At the same time, the works were begun on the reinforcement of the sinking foundation, an undertaking that continues up to this day.

In the Soviet epoch, the 1920s and 30s saw practically continuous work to reequip the theater. First the brick vaulting was replaced with reinforced concrete. Then the cloakroom buried by Cavos was dug out. Finally, staircases were reworked and the additional foyer was added. In 1940-41 a large-scale project to reconstruct the Bolshoy was developed by an entire collective under the leadership of the famous neoclassical architect Ivan Zholtovski. This project, perhaps luckily never realized, called for the return to the original Empire decor. The Zholtovski project marked the end of the period of reconstructions and the start of an entire epoch of cautious restorations. This era, which lasted the whole second half of the 20th century, featured the careful restoration of the gilding and the painting of the facades, the engineering fortification and the work with the applied and decorative forms in the interior. Thanks to these almost imperceptible improvements that preserved its forms for the time being, the Muscovites have begun to perceive the Bolshoy as something immutable and permanent. 

Vladimir Sedov