Mikhail Khazanov:
"There's no need to compete with eternity"

Sergei Khodnev:
How did it come that you have started to work upon the Bolshoy Theater?
Mikhail Khazanov:
At first the Bolshoy came up as a subject of design for us in 1976. At that time a major international competition had been announced: "Theater for Future Generations". Having decided that we would participate, my friends (including Mikhail Belov) and I got together at my home in order to discuss what we would do. My mother after listening to our dispute suggested that we could "practice" with our brilliant ideas on the Theater Square in front of the Bolshoy Theater or perhaps in the quarters nearby where the theatrical life of Moscow was practically concentrated. Suddenly that brought the heated discussion to an end. The Bolshoy with the other theatrical buildings, studios, and schools formed a kind of theatrical parade in the capital. Immediately everyone agreed enthusiastically. Touching upon the Bolshoy Theater, that "sacred cow" of the official Soviet culture, hurling a mass of vivid theatricality at the dreary, decrepit centre of Moscow seemed to us then revolutionary, romantic and " blustery ".

S.Kh.
Are you still working at that project today?
M.Kh.
Today everything is taking place with "new scenery", in a new situation, under a changed system of values. The closer you are to the realities of construction, the farther you get from all sorts of ideas. Decisions are based more and more on the state of the market. The objective, the rational gradually 'squeezes out' of the project all that is sincere and personal. Furthermore, moving the project forward is accompanied by a fierce battle between conservative and innovatory forces in a multitude of city, state and public organizations which have the right to accept or reject our architectural solutions in obedience to Russian laws.

S.Kh.
And what is the logic of "rejection"?
M.Kh.
There is no logic, only the jerks in opposite directions. The city authorities, the people, and the experts - all recognize a terrible discomfort in the service of the audience, the extreme physical wear of the building and the critical condition of the auditorium, the foyer and the lobbies. But at the same time they fight energetically against any changes of the familiar look of this "cult" object. Historians, critics and restorers steadfastly resist any kind of active intervention, any movement outside of the historical contours of the Bolshoy. They would prefer, so it seems, to set up a museum of scenic practices of the 19th and 20th centuries. On the other hand, directors, scene designers and artists, the troupe and the theater management all are waiting for a nearly total transformation of the stage with new technical and technological possibilities of a 21st century theater from us.

S.Kh.
You have to choose something, right?
M.Kh.
It seems to me that now we have come to a decision that allows the coexistence of the historical Bolshoy Theater, its established image with a up-to-date "theater-plant", a "theater-factory". In one building, in a single complex, but in parallel worlds and parallel spaces there must coexist the " humanized ", eternal, 'handmade' historical architecture, sculpture, and painting of the 19th century, the theatrical traditions, customs and rituals that have been set over two centuries must dwell alongside with a high-technological, utilitarian architecture of 21th century consciously devoid of any specific stylistic features. The complicated interaction of these two parallel worlds, audience and stage, can be seen from another angle, from the point of view of the city and the citizens traveling through the "theater in a theater" down the specially provided passages made in the "intermediate" space of the building in between the old historical and the new "technological" walls of the building, down the covered Kopievsky Lane, and through courtyards, passages and atriums of the theatrical quarter. The underground vestibule situated in front of the main portico allows to extend the boundaries of traditional theatrical action, to 'spill it out' into the city, onto the square in front of the Bolshoy Theater with the help of a convertible glass roof. Ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of all structural elements of such a complicated theatrical mechanism is a very interesting professional task; but there`s a certain desire for more, something that makes the Bolshoy the Bolshoy (Grand!).

S.Kh.
Nonetheless you are resolutely changing the appearance of this monument, completing it with new architecture.
M.Kh.
In my opinion, our architecture cannot really alter the image of such a monument. There is a historical architecture - created for centuries, for good, from eternal materials, by hand. And modern architecture is definitly technological trash with a precisely determined life span. In twenty years all of this technological machinery will be hopelessly out of date; in fifty years it will crack up. Then all of it will be wrecked and something new will be created. My concept of the theater's architecture consists of the precise separation between these two layers. But the theater as a monument, a shrine is eternal. The theater-factory has a life span of thirty years. The important thing is to realize that, to understand what you are designing and what has been left to you by your predecessors without trying to compete with eternity. If you remember that, the monument will not suffer.