The history of the theatre began in the 1920s on the stage of the first State Drama Theatre which was comprised of the opera and ballet companies, chorus, and quite a small symphony orchestra. Various musicals and drama performances, fragments from operas and ballets were staged and folk music was played there.

 

 

At that time future stars of Belarusian opera and ballet studied at music colleges in Minsk, Vitebsk, and Gomel, including the State Opera and Ballet Studio which was opened in 1930 and headed by Anton Bonachich, an outstanding Russian singer who appeared with Feodor Chaliapin at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.For three years a galaxy of professional artists were trained at the studio, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel (1931) and Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1932) were staged.

 

 

Today the soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus are honoured to continue the performing traditions of their noted predecessors. There are 67 employees at the theatre who were awarded with honorary state prizes; numerous artists have been awarded with the Special Prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus to eminent figures of culture and art, grand prizes of the Special Fund of the President of the Republic of Belarus for Support of the Talented Youth, etc.