The concert hall of the Novosibirsk opera and ballet history found on October 14th, 1956 has a very rich history. For many years the second stage of the theatre was the only concert hall in Novosibirsk, and it was home for the Novosibirsk academic symphonic orchestra under the great conductor Arnold Katz.
The stage’s history contains performances of all the outstanding maestros of the Soviet performing tradition, including David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Sviatoslav Richter and Nikolay Petrov. Almost all Novosibirsk musician, who subsequently became globally renowned, had their debut on this stage – Vadim Repin, Maksim Vengerov, Anton Barakhovsky are among them.
The renovated stage of the Concert hall opened on December 2nd, 2017 at the Novosibirsk state academic opera and ballet theatre.
After its renovation the second stage of the “Siberian Coliseum” has turned into a modern venue with 333 seats, extremely comfortable for the audience and equipped with all necessary features for having concerts, performances and special screenings. The audience hall was completely remodeled during the renovation and now it has new Italian seats installed and rising in semicircle. Besides all that, the historic stage was subject to major acoustic improvements.
The renewed hall has become a multi-purpose one, as it was conceived during the project development, which first draft won the Golden medal at the World Expo in Paris, 1937.
The concert hall of NOVAT is name after Isidor Zak, an outstanding conductor, National Artist of the USSR. His name is written with golden letters in the history of the Theatre’s establishment.
Isidor Arkadievich Zak is the first chief conductor of the theatre and one of its artistic founders. The outstanding conductor devoted more than 30 years of his artistic life to the theatre; all the main productions of the theatre’s first 50 years are related to his name.
Isidor Zak was invited to Novosibirsk to take part in preparations for the opening of the opera and ballet theatre. Maestro engaged in assembling the company and the repertoire. It was Isidor Zak, who stood at the conductor’s desk on the opening day of the theatre, May 12th 1945. The first performance has become Glinka’s “Ivan Susanin”.
Maestro Isidor Arkadievich Zak worked with numerous musical theatres of the country throughout his career, however the Novosibirsk opera and ballet theatre may be rightfully called his best offspring.
