The theater will be finished in October in its original 19th-century design, with restored czarist 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's spokesman, Mikhail Sidorov. The 1825 building stood on thousands of stained oak stilts stuck in central Moscow's constantly moist soil, but after nearby rivulets were encapsulated in underground pipes, the stilts dried up and collapsed. It was further damaged by fires and a 1941 Nazi bombing.

Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin wanted the building blown up, but Communists ended up using the theater for party gatherings. Lenin's death was announced from the theater's stage, and the troupe was twice awarded the Lenin's Medal, the Soviet Union's highest award.