Pete TurnerAfter closing its doors in 2005 for a rafters-to-orchestra-pit renovation, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater still kicked up controversy — embezzlement, corruption, sex scandal. Now, three years past due and way over budget, the hall, which dates to 1825, will reopen next month with a gala performance of the ballet and opera companies’ greatest hits. In attendance will be President Dmitri Medvedev and other heads of state, who will finally see what $760 million restores. It took more than 3,500 workers to restore the Apollo and the Muses ceiling piece, replicate the missing Villeroy & Boch tiles and hang 617 pounds of crystal from the main chandelier. Much of the work was supervised by the president’s office itself, which stepped in when construction faltered in 2009, after a contractor was paid three times for the same work. Now the acoustics are fixed, subterranean hydraulic stages are built, and, for the finishing touch, the Romanov coat of arms has been reinstated above the lintels, in place of the hammer and sickle.
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