After years of reconstruction and accusations of embezzlement and fraud, the Bolshoi Theater will reopen in October looking just as it did during its tsarist era, a subcontractor said Monday.
The theater will be finished in its original 19th-century design, with restored tsarist insignia, embroidered silk tapestry and acoustics-improving fir and papier-mache panels, Summa Capital said. The rectangular building also will have its original violin-shaped auditorium.
The company said some 3,500 construction workers are currently employed in shifts, adding sophisticated electronic and hydraulic devices, redesigning the stage floor to ease the ballet dancers' pain and completing an underground stage located just 30 meters away from the nearest metro station.
"Directors could do things that were impossible before," said Summa Capital spokesman Mikhail Sidorov.
Investigators said in 2009 that millions of dollars have been misspent by another subcontractor, and the Moscow city government has several times fired subcontractors and officials responsible for the reconstruction.
"We're not saying a word about our predecessors," Sidorov said.