* 1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with Bolshoi Ballet.

Other work included accompanying the Bolshoi Ballet on their first British tour in 1956.

On a tour stop in Moscow with a local ballet company, Nureyev auditioned for the Bolshoi ballet company and was accepted.

In 1964 she performed with La Scala at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the first opera company tour to the Soviet Union during the Cold War years.

On August 21, 1979, while on a tour with the Bolshoi Ballet in New York City, Godunov contacted authorities and asked for political asylum.

On the strength of his Mamontov appearances, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow engaged Chaliapin, where he appeared regularly from 1899 until 1914.

A 1997 two-act version of Iolanta is performed regularly at Bolshoi Theatre ( 13 nights during the 2006 season ).

Former posts include Principal Oboe with the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet.

She worked as a guest artist with Roland Petit's Le Ballet National de Marseilles, the Bolshoi Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, and the Eliot Feld Ballet.

Along with other great Indian artists Tara performed Bharatnatyam at the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre.

Smyslov was a fine baritone singer, who only positively decided upon a chess career after a failed audition with the Bolshoi Theatre in 1950.

The premiere of Cinderella was conducted by Yuri Fayer on Wednesday, November 21st, 1945, at the Bolshoi Theatre with choreography by Rostislav Zakharov.

This is not to be confused with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, which is the home of the Bolshoi Ballet.

She had as much to do with the victory as I did with last night's performance of the Bolshoi.

Along with the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, the Bolshoi is recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in Russia.

The early history of the Bolshoi Ballet is very sketchy and, despite staging many famous ballets, it struggled to compete with the reputation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, today's Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg.

Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the worlds foremost ballet companies, as well as being the largest, with approximately 220 dancers.

The performance style of the Bolshoi Ballet, is typically identified as being colourful and bold, combining technique and athleticism with expressiveness and dramatic intensity.

The Bolshoi has an historical rivalry with St. Petersburg heritage ballet company, the Mariinsky.

Both have developed very different performing styles: the Bolshoi has a more colourful and bold approasitych, whereas the Mariinsky is associated with pure and refined classicism.

The Bolshoi Ballet operates two troupes of corps de ballet, with approximately 120 dancers in total.

On 12 March 1842, the ballet was first presented in England at Her Majesty's Theatre, London with Carlotta Grisi and Jules Perrot in the principal roles and Louise Fleury as Myrtha, and, on 30 December of the same year, the ballet was first presented in St. Petersburg at the Bolshoi Theatre with Elena Andreyanova as Giselle.

The endeavor began in 2000 with the Music Center ’ s sold-out presentation of the Bolshoi Ballet in its historic production of Prokofiev ’ s Romeo and Juliet as well as new interpretation of Don Quixote.

Together with auxiliary buildings ( a restored 17th century building, two rehearsal halls, and artists ' recreation rooms ) it became a single theater complex, the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.

On October 28, 2011, the Bolshoi Theatre was re-opened with a concert featuring international artists and the ballet and opera companies.

Image: Moscow 05-2012 Bolshoi after renewal. jpg | Bolshoi Theatre, in Moscow, Russia, is one of the world's most recognizable opera houses and home for the most famous ballet company in the world

In 1967, at the invitation of the Bolshoi Theatre's director Mikhail Chulaki, he conducted Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi, thus letting forth his passion for both the role of conductor and the opera.

The film was directed by Roman Tikhomirov and starred Vadim Medvedev as Onegin, Ariadna Shengelaya as Tatyana and Igor Ozerov as Lensky. The principal solo parts were performed by notable opera singers of the Bolshoi Theatre. The film was well received by critics and viewers.

Yet a number of composers born in the 1950s and later have made some impact, notably Leonid Desyatnikov who became the first composer in decades to have a new opera commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre ( Rosenthal's Children, 2005 ), and whose music has been championed by Gidon Kremer and Roman Mints.

The opera was given its first performance by the Alisher Navoi State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet in 1940.

* Bolshoi Theatre hosts its first annual opera season

The Bolshoi Theatre (, meaning Large, Great or Grand Theatre, also spelled Bolshoy ) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera.

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world.

Moscow and St Petersburg each had only two theatres, one intended for opera and ballet ( these were known as the Bolshoi Theatres ), and one for plays ( tragedies and comedies ).

As opera and ballet were considered nobler than drama, the opera houses were named " Grand Theatres " (" Bolshoi " is Russian for " large " or " grand ") and the drama theatres were called the " Smaller Theatre " (" Maly " is Russian for " small ", " lesser ", or " little ").

Feodor Chaliapin, Leonid Sobinov, Antonina Nezhdanova, Ksenia Derzhinskaia and other outstanding opera singers have performed at the Bolshoi.

* Bolshoi Theatre, a major ballet and opera theatre in Moscow, Russia

The opera was given at the city's Bolshoi Theatre a month later, on 6 November, conducted by Vyacheslav Suk and with set designs by Konstantin Korovin.

The opera has been performed at the Bolshoi Theatre each year since 2006.

She continued her career with the Metropolitan Opera, moved into leading roles and performed with leading opera houses around the world, including the Bolshoi, Vienna State, Berlin, Bavarian State ( Munich ), Paris and San Francisco Operas as well as the Salzburg Festival.

The initial lack of enthusiasm for this Russian-inspired production has been attributed to the St. Petersburg's audience's growing taste at the time for Italian opera, which was so pronounced that in 1843, Tsar Nicholas I established an Italian opera company in the Bolshoi Kamenniy Teatr, and the Russian opera company lost its home.