1. A night out at a theatre — вечер, проведенный в театре

2. the Old Vic — the Old Victoria — драматический театр

Covent Garden

The Royal Opera House, or Covent Garden as it is usu­ally known, stands not far away from one of the most fa­mous of London streets, the Strand, and you ought to go there at least once during the season if you can.

A visitor to London is always surprised when he sees the Opera House standing almost inside the flower and vegetable market which gives a distinct smell to the whole quarter.

The fine building of the Opera House, as you see it today, was opened in 1858. Yet its "father" and "grand­father" that were burnt down (in 1808 and 1856) stood on this very place before.

The inside of the Opera House is in the shape of a horseshoe. There are seats for 2,320 persons.

Now Covent Garden is one of the few well-known opera houses open for eleven months of the year and it employs over 600 people both of the Opera Company and the Royal Ballet.

At the Royal Opera House you get the best of every­thing—a first-rate orchestra, famous conductors and sing­ers. But of course if you are not fond of music, this won't interest you.

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

(The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)

Stratford is only a small country town, standing on the banks of the peaceful Avon. This river runs slowly past the green meadows, never hurrying.

April 23rd, Shakespeare's birthday, is the greatest day in the year at Stratford. On this day in 1879, the first Me­morial Theatre was opened with a Shakespeare Festival. From that time, Festivals were held for a few weeks every year. In 1926 Stratford's theatre was burned to the ground.

The present Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, an ex­cellent modern building of red brick, was opened in 1932.

The Theatre is now one of the most comfortable and best equipped in the world, with its own workshops, li­brary, picture gallery and restaurant.

The whole season the Theatre gives only Shakespeare's plays. It is a great pleasure to see here "Romeo and Juliet", "Twelfth Night", "Hamlet" and many others.

MUSEUMS

The British Museum

There are many museums in London. One of the most famous is the British Museum. Built in the middle of the last century, it is situated in Bloomsbury, a district in central London. It is an immense, light-grey building, like a Greek temple.

It is difficult to answer the question "What the British Museum is." However, we shall try.

For a long time it was a great library, one of the largest In the world, with something like 5 or 6 million books. By law a copy of every book, pamphlet, periodical including maps and music published in Britain had to be kept at the British Museum.

Karl Marx spent a great deal of his time in the Museum Reading-Room conducting his researches. Later, in 1902 V. I. Lenin also became a regular visitor of the Museum Reading-Room.

During the Second World War, the Reading-Room was badly damaged, over 150,000 volumes perished in flames caused by nazi bombs.

Besides, the British Museum is a great scientific insti­tution, generally known as Natural History Museum.

Lastly the British Museum has a wonderful art gallery. It has unique collections of sculpture, ceramics, drawings, and paintings of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and many other peoples.

It has unique collections of Italian drawings (Leonardo da Vinci), English and French prints, and so on,¹ and so on.

The British Museum is the most important place of archaeological study in the world, with unique prehistoric collections. We could go on ² enumerating its treasures for hours.³

Yes, visitor, it is quite true: the finest collection of Greek art is here—-why not in Athens? The finest Chinese vases are here—why not in Peking?

Notes