Alberto Cavos

Alberto Cavos (Russified to Albert Katerinovich Kavos, Russian: Aльберт Катeринович Кавос, December 22, 1800 – May 22, 1863) was a Russian–Italian architect best known for his theatre designs, the builder of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg (1859–1860) and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (1853–1856).

Alberto Cavos was born in Saint Petersburg to Venetian opera composer Catterino Cavos (see Cavos family), and his wife, Camilla Baglioni, who had settled in Russia in 1798, after the fall of the Republic of Venice. Alberto Cavos was educated in the University of Padua and then returned to Russia to complete practical training in Carlo Rossi's workshop. His brother Giovanni (Ivan, 1805–1861) was trained in music and assisted his father in Saint Petersburg opera.

In 1826 Cavos received his first commission – rebuilding of the former Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (the Stone Theatre). Built by Antonio Rinaldi in 1770, the theatre burnt down in 1811; restoration was interrupted by the death of its supervisor, Jean-François Thomas de Thomon, in 1813, and slowly dragged until 1818. Cavos dedicated ten years to this project; the theatre reopened as Saint Petersburg's main opera stage in 1836. However, the art of opera found little attention at the court; operas by Russian composers were banned in 1843 and in 1846 the Russian opera company migrated to Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre, built in the same period by Joseph Bové. Nevertheless, the theatre retained its Italian company and became a home stage for Marius Petipa ballet and operated until 1886, when it was rebuilt it into the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

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