“We’ve never faced this type of situation before and since we had to close the theatre we didn’t want to lose our connection with our audience,” he said.

The ballet and opera house said it will show six of its most popular productions on its YouTube channel.

“We’re honoured that YouTube can support the Bolshoi as they engage with fans in new ways during these challenging times,” Julia Solovieva, head of Google in Russia, said.

The “Golden Collection” will include some of the Bolshoi’s most popular productions: The Tsar’s Bride (April 1), Marco Spada (April 4), Boris Godunov (April 7) and The Nutcracker (April 10). These upcoming performances will go live at 7pm Moscow time and will be available online for 24 hours.

Inspired by the tragic fate of Ivan the Terrible's 19-year-old third wife, who died in mysterious circumstances, “it's the composer's most popular work in Russia and the beauty of the music, intense drama and convincing, psychologically complex characters make it easy to see why,” she says.

Created for the Bolshoi and not yet performed elsewhere, choreographer/designer Pierre Lacotte's reimagining of Marco Spada – a “lost” 19th century ballet set to an original score by Daniel Auber – boasts gorgeous sets and costumes, lively music and above all, spectacular dancing.

Rogai says: “Forget the preposterous plot about the adventures of a dashing bandit in 1830s Rome and revel in the virtuosity of a truly all-star cast led by David Hallberg, Olga Smirnova, Evgenia Obraztsova, Semyon Chudin and Igor Tsvirko, with a wealth of outstanding soloists in even the smaller roles.”

The Bolshoi production of Boris Godunov, Modest Mussorgsky's 1888 masterpiece, remains sharply relevant today in its depiction of the ruthlessness, hypocrisy and greed which haunt any struggle for political power.

According to Rogai, in this seminal production a superb cast is headed by the tormented Boris of Mikhail Kazakov, hailed as one of the world's greatest basses.

“Mussorgsky's sumptuous, dark and richly layered score is performed with matchless power by the magnificent Bolshoi Orchestra and Chorus, under the baton of Chief Conductor and Music Director Tugan Sokhiev,” she says.

The Bolshoi earlier cancelled all of its scheduled performances between March 17 and April 10, following restrictions on public events of more than 50 people.

Dozens of theatres and opera houses around the world have closed their doors to the public in recent days to slow the spread of the coronavirus, with some others also live-streaming shows.

In the UK, National Theatre Live, which records and broadcasts stage shows from London’s West End to cinemas worldwide, is unveiling a new at-home initiative amid the closure of cinemas due to the novel coronavirus.

Beginning on April 2, audiences can watch a number of NT Live’s live-captured productions for free via the National Theatre’s YouTube channel. Every Thursday at 3pm Eastern time (7pm UK time), a production filmed in front of an audience in the theatre will be streamed and then be available on demand for seven days.

The “National Theatre at Home” line-up kicks off with Richard Bean’s comedic play One Man, Two Guvnors, featuring James Corden’s Tony Award-winning performance as “an insatiable Humpty Dumpty who has hired himself out to two masters he’s determined to keep apart while doubling his wages and calories”, wrote Los Angeles Times critic Charles McNulty in 2012.

That production will be followed by Sally Cookson’s 2017 adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (April 9), Bryony Lavery’s 2014 take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (April 16) and Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night (April 23).

Further titles, plus accompanying content like chats with casts and creative teams, will be announced at a later date. Students and teachers also will have access to the National Theatre Collection at home, delivered in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing.

National Theatre executive director Lisa Burger said: “We will be streaming each production at the same time each week in order to re-create, where possible, the communal viewing experience, and we hope this will be an opportunity for people to share their enjoyment together online.”