Museums art galleries of London and Moscow

Plan

1. Museums and art galleries

2. British theatres

3. The National Theatre

4. Art galleries of London

5. Moscow theatres

6. Theatres, Music halls and Cinemas

7. Art in Moscow

8. Musicians

9. Music

MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

Millions people al over the world spend their holidays visiting museums and art galleries. They visit them to see new things, to know more about other countries, their traditions, about history and even future of the mankind. There are different type of museums : historical, military The Tower of London is a historical museum. It is the oldest palace, fortress and prison in Europe. It's also one of the most popular museums nowadays. The great central tower, the White tower was built around 1090 by William the Conqueror on the site of a Roman fort built there more than 1000 years earlier. Massive defensive walls and other towers were added later. Through the centuries, the Tower of London has been a citadel, a palace, a prison for offenders against the State, the home of the Mint, the treasury for the Crown Jewels, a menagerie, and the first Royal observatory. Three queens of England have been beheaded within its walls. The Tower's guardians are the Yeomen Warders who wear splendid scarlet and gold uniforms dating back to Henry VII's time. Sir Hans Sloane was a great collector. He filled his house with rare books and pictures, precious stones, stuffed animals, birds and butterflies, and ancient remains from all over the world. There had never been a collection quite like it , and visitors were amazed by what they saw. When Sir Hans Sloane died in 1753, his wife let the King buy the whole collection for just 20 000 pounds so that it could belong to the nation for ever. This was the start of the British Museums. It took thirty years and thousands of tons of stone to complete the building and the forty-four massive columns which decorated the front. The building of the British Museums was finished in 1948. The state Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries in the world. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and art connoisseur. In the mid-19^th century, Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures of contemporary artists. Little by little Tretyakov extended his range of interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More than once he had to add wings to his house, because his collection grew larger and larger. In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection to the public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Since then the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museums and private collection. Today the Tretyakov gallery is not only Russia's biggest and most important museums of Russian art, it is also a research, cultural and educational center.

BRITISH THEATRES

Until recently the history of the english theatre has been build around actors rather then companies. It has been hard to find any London theatre that even had a consistent policy. There are no permanent staff in British theatres. Apply is rehearsed for a few weeks by a company of actors working together mostly for the first time and it is allowed to run as long as it draws the odious and pays it's way.

Another peculiarity of the theatres in Great Britain is an follows: there are two kinds of seats, which can be booked an advanced (bookable), and un bookable once have no numbers and the spectators occupy them on the principal: first come first served. And ancient times plays were acted inside churches and later on the market places.

The first theatre in England "The Blackfries" build in 1576, and "The Globe" build in 1599, which is closely connected with William Shakespeare. Speaking about our times we should first of all mention "The English National theatre", "The Royal Shakespeare company" and "Covent Garden". "Covent Garden" used to be a fashionable promenade - it was, before then, a convent garden - but when it became overrun with flower-sellers, orange-vendors and vegetable-growers, the people moved to more exclusive surroundings farther west, such as "St.Jame's Square".

The first "Covent Garden theatre" was build in 1732. It was burnt down in 1808 and rebuild exactly a year after. It opened in September 1809, with Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Since the middle of the last century "Covent Garden" became exclusively devoted to opera.

Now "Covent Garden" in busier than ever, it is one of the few well-known opera houses open for 11 months of the year and it employs over 600 people both of the Opera company and the Royal Ballet.

THE NATIONAL THEATRE

It took over the hundred years to establish a national theatre company. It's first director from 1962 was Lawrence Olivier. This is the first state theatre Britain has ever had. A special building for it was opened in 1976. It has three theatres in one: "The Oliver theatre", the biggest is for the main classical repertoire; "The Lyttilton", a bit smaller is for new writing and for visiting foreign countries and "The Cottesloe theatre", the smallest is used for experimental writing and productions. "The Royal Shakespeare company" are devided between the country and the capital and it's produces plays mainly by

Shakespeare and his contempraries when it performs is "Stratford -on Avon", and modern plays in it's two auditoria in the Cities, Barbican centre.

ART GALLERIES OF LONDON

Speaking about art galleries of London we should first of all mention The national gallery, The national portret gallery and The taste gallery. I would like to tell you about National portrait gallery and about Tate gallery.

The national gallery houses one of the richest and most extensive collections of painting in the world. It stands to the north of the Trafalgar Square. The gallery was designed by William Wilkins and build in 1834-37. The collection covers all schools and periods of painting, but is a specially famous for it's examples of Rembrant and Rubents. The british schools is only moderately represented as the national collections are shared with the Tate gallery. The National gallery was founded in 1824 when the government bought the collection of John Angerstein which included 38 paintings.

The Tate gallery houses the national collection of british painting from the 16-th century to the present day. It is also the national gallery for modern art, including painting and sculpture made in Britain, Europe, America and other countries. It was opened in 1897 as the national gallery of british art. It owes it's establishment to Suie Henritate who built the gallery and gave his own collection of 65 painting.

MOSCOW THEATRES

For decades Moscow has had a reputation as a city of theatres. The birth plays of the historic "Bolshoy", "Maly" and "Moscow Art" theatres the city has been and steel is a centre for the development exploretary modern ideas in the dramatic art and is famous for it's great number of highly gifted, interesting directors, actors, play wrigts and artists.

Every evening the doors of Moscow theatres open to streams of theatre-gowers. The best Moscow theatres devoded themselves to developing the principals of directing and acting laid down by Stanislavsky, Meerhold, Nemerovich-Danchenko, Vachtangov and others. The discoveries and successes of Moscow theatres today exists due to experience and triumphs of preceding generations.

I'd like to tell you about the Bolshoy Theatre. The magic building of the Bolshoy Theatre stands in Theatre Square in Moscow's central square, not far from Kremlin. This is the leading Russian opera house with the best vocalists and choreographers in it's company.

The Bolshoi traces it's history to 1776 when a standing opera company was organized in Moscow. The first opera shown in Bolshoi theatre was opera "life of tsar" (now "Ivan Susanin"). At later times operas by Dargomyzhsky, Serov, Tcaikovsky, Borodin, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rubinstein were produced here.

At the same time the Bolshoi company staged the best operas and ballets by West European composers-Mozart, Rossini, Weber, Verdi and others.

The bolshoi ballet company enjoys well-deserved fame as the world's finest. This is equally true of it's brilliant realistic style of performance and repertoire.

THEATRES, MUSIC HALLS AND CINEMAS

Theatres are very much the same in London as anywhere else the chief theatres ,music halls and cinemas are in the West End.

If you are staying in London for a few days, you'll have no difficulty whatever in finding somewhere to spend an enjoyable evening. You'll find opera, balley, comedy, drama, revue, musical comedy and variety. Films are shown in the cinemas during the greatest part of the day.

The best seats at theatres are those in the stalls, the circle and the upper circle. Then comes the pit, and the last of all the gallery where the seats are cheapest. Boxes, of course, are the most expensive. Most theatres and music halls have good orchestras with popular conductors.

You ought to make a point of going to the opera at least once during the season if you can. There you can get the best of everything - an excellent orchestras, famous conductors, celebrated singers and well dressed audience. But, of course, if you are not fond of music and singing, won't interest you.

At the West End theatres you can see most of the famous English actors and actresses. As a rule, the plays are magnificently staged - costumes, dresses, scenery, everything being done of the most lavish scale. Choose a good play, and you'll enjoy yourself thoroughly from the moment the curtain goes up to the end of the last act. Get your seats beforehand, either at the box-office of theatre itself or at one of the agencies.

When you go to a theatre, you'll probably want to seat as near to the stage as possible. But if you are at the cinema, you may prefer to seat some distance from the screen. In fact, I would say, the further away the better.

ART IN MOSCOW

Speaking about art galleries of Moscow we must mention the most famous galleries.

The State Tretyakov gallery is one of the best known picture galleries in Russia. It takes it's name from it's founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow mercant. In the 19'th century Tretyakov began to collect russian paintings. He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures. Little by little Tretyakov extended his interests and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. In 1881 Tretyakov opened in St. Peterburg to the public, 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow.

Since then the gallery has received hundred paintings from other museums and private collections. The Tretyakov gallery reflects the whole history of Russian paintings from 11'th century to the present day.

Also I'd like to tell you about state pushkin museum of fine art. The building was built in Greek stile by Roman Klein in 1898 - 1912 to house a museum of fine art, founded of initiative of professor Ivan Cvetayev. Since 1937 it has be known as The Puskin museum of fine art. It has one of the world largest ancient collections of european art. Now the picture gallery has over 2 thousands works of various schools of painting which enaibous us to understand and appreciate the variaty of staills over the centuries.

The Pushkin museum preodically hald's exhibition of the art of various countries and of individual outstanding artist of past and present.

MUSICIANS

I will tell you about not a very popular and famous musician. His songs sound wonderful, and be has an interesting way of making his melodies. Ed Alleyne-Johnson is a composer and violinist. Ed leant to play the violin at school. He played in the school orchestra, but he did not really enjoy playing classical music. It was too rigid. He did not go to the music college. He studied painting at the school of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. But he carried on playing the violin in rock bands and folk bands. He tried to make career as a painter, but it was too difficult so he went back to music. He started playing on the streets in England, and then he traveled around the Europe and the States. He met a lot of different musicians in different countries and leant some of the styles. He does not imitate them. Not many people play electric violin on the street, so people are usually interested. His violin is also a special one. Normal violins have four strings. Ed is violin has got five. He painted it purple as his first violin which he inherited from his grandfather. It became a sort of trade mark. When he is playing it, it sounds like more than one instrument. It has a device that records music he has Just played, and repeats it again and again. It is a sort of high-tech, one-man band. He has also made a CD. It is called «The Purple Electric Violin Concerto». At the moment he is recording a new CD. He is going to go back to Europe and give free concerts on the streets and in record stores. His music was inspired by the streets, and he would like to take it back to the people who helped him to write it. And here is another man who has been in the music business for about twenty years .His name is Paul Keгак. He never had another job. He started playing when he was just a kid, he taught himself to play. He tried few instruments , First there drums-it was when he was only five. After that it was there piano and then later the keyboards. He plays guitar also. He started playing professionally when he was still at school. He left school at sixteen. He was playing in a band, working on Sunday evening in pubs and clubs. When he left school his only ambitions was to be in a pop group. He was played with «Roxy Music» and »THE Smiths» . And he made records with «Pretendness» and «Madness». It is very important to him because he made a first hit record with them. That was in 1974 . The song was called «How Long» and it was a big bit all over the world. Since 1985 he is with «Mike and the Mechanics». He is the singer -vocalist and Mike plays the guitar. He always wanted to work in America. He was pleased when his records were successful there. And last summer he made an own record. It came out in the October and it is called «Groove Approval». It is doing quite well, especially in America. His records are often played on radio there and there are more people that have heard of him then in Britain. He is not a superstar of course. But people know his name and buy his albums.

MUSIC

Music - is art, reflecting validity in sound art images, one of the forms of public ideology. Having by powerful force direct emotional effect, music during of all history of man-kind plays a huge social, cultural and educational role.

Leading composers are connected to progressive public movements, life, interests and aspirations people. Each nation differs by peculiar national features. Folk music, being improved by creative efforts of many generations of the people, reaches a high degree of art maturity. On the basis of riches of national music professional musical creativity of composers is developed. Rejection of music from advanced ideas epoch of national culture, national roots of art leads to it's to decline and degeneration. Idia emotional contents of music is passed through sound art images, implemented in musical sounds. The basic of music is the tune. according to the way of performance music is divided into 2 main branches: instrumental and vocal. There are a lot of different styles of music. Such as: Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classic; and new musical directions. Such as: Rave, Hard Core, Jungle, Break Beat and many other. I like to listen to rave music and Happy Hard Core. As for me i like these styles because they are very rythmic and dancing. The beginning of techno music was put very known singer Fredde Mercuri was the first to compose music in the style techno. In those years very few people evaluated new style of music. But with the years a new style has grown up to such global sizes. Now this music is listened to by large part of youth. I think it's very good that such musical direction as raiv has appeared. Because in raiv there are a lot of musical directions. Young people that are fond of music can easily choose just that style which appeals to them.