The Ballet Company of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre can trace its roots back to an infamous meeting held just over a century ago. In 1897, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko met at the Slavyansky Bazaar restaurant in Moscow for a lunch that began on June 22 and ended 18 hours later at the Stanislavsky family estate of Lyubimovka near the capital. Both visionaries shared a common goal: to create a modern performing arts centre within which they could merge their active organizations and ultimately meld their contacts of amateur performers and students. A year and four months later, they inaugurated the Moscow Art Theatre bringing together some of Russia’s finest artists. This year marks the 100th anniversary of this successful drama theatre.

Stanislavsky formed another centre in 1926, the Opera Studio, an offspring of the famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. There, he directed several operas, including Carmen, which were considered to be exemplar productions.