Design and Construction of the Opera House in Nizhny Novgorod (Gor'ky): 1932–1935

Abstract

The Opera House in Gor'ky, which arose according to the project of architects A.Z. Grinberg and M.T. Smurov, as a
result of the restructuring of the People's House built in pre-revolutionary times, became, apparently, the first opera house in
the country, built in Soviet times. However, the history of the construction of this building has not yet been studied. It was
started according to a constructivist project, however, then, due to a change in direction in Soviet architecture as a result of
the competition for the Palace of Soviets in Moscow, the building had to be re-designed already during construction, in this
case in the Art Deco style. During this period, Grinberg, in addition to the Opera House, simultaneously designed and built the
Panoramic Planetary Theater in Novosibirsk and the Palace of Culture with a theater building in the social city of the Gor'ky
Automobile Plant. In 1933, when the phases of designing these objects in the new style coincided, the project of the Opera House turned out to be a kind of model for them, which determines the special place of the building in question in the history
of Russian architecture of the 1930s.