The historic building of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre has opened for audiences again after a large-scale restoration.

Millions of people attended what has become the cultural highlight of the past week. The Bolshoi’s gala concert on October 28th was broadcast by Russian and foreign television channels and on the Internet.

The six-year restoration efforts have produced impressive results, says General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre Anatoly Iksanov.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were among the guests for Friday’s performance at Russia’s main ballet and opera house.

"It’s a very happy day for our country," Medvedev said from the stage before the concert. "Our country is big, but the number of such uniting symbols, national treasures - what we call national brands - is very limited. And the Bolshoi is one of our greatest national brands."

The Bolshoi Theatre, built in 1825, closed for reconstruction in 2005. The reconstruction was initially scheduled for completion in 2008, but the project has been marred by repeated delays.

The Russian government spent 21 billion rubles ($681 million) on the restoration, which involved more than 3,600 designers, builders and engineers.

The acoustics have been improved significantly. The wall and ceiling paintings, stucco-work and door handles, golden leaf and velvet of the boxes, the chandeliers and hangings, all the way to Apollo and his chariot - were all exhaustively studied and restored with the use of authentic original technology. Today the renovated, pristine auditorium and the Theatre’s numerous other halls simply take one’s breathe away.

The Bolshoi Theatre today is a virtual city in itself with a maze of overhead and underground passages. It comprises the historic main building, the so-called New Stage – an extension which had been built before the theatre's closure for reconstruction, and two auxiliary buildings with spacious rooms for rehearsals. There is also a complex of ultra-modern facilities which include warehouses and workshops for making stage props and costumes.

The first premieres of the season include Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Ludmila and Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty.