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Bolshoi Theatre of Saint Petersburg


Coordinates: 59°55′33″N 30°17′53″E / 59.92583°N 30.29806°E / 59.92583; 30.29806

The Saint Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (The Big Stone Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Russian: Большой Каменный Театр) was a theatre in Saint Petersburg.

It was built in 1783 to Antonio Rinaldi's Neoclassical design as the Kamenny (i.e., Stone) Theatre; Giovanni Paisiello’s opera Il mondo della luna was performed at the opening on 24 September. It was rebuilt in 1802 according to the designs of the architect Thomas de Thomon and renamed the Bolshoi, but burned down in 1811. The building was restored in 1818, and modified between 1826 and 1836 by Alberto Cavos to accommodate more modern machinery.

Until 1886, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was principal theatre for both the Imperial Ballet and the Imperial Russian Opera. It was there that the first Russian operas — Glinka's A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila — were premiered. Although the theatre would include many of the great Russian operas in its repertory, many of the works of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their world premieres on the stage of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Many of the great 19th century ballets of Marius Petipa and Arthur Saint-Léon were given for the first time on the stage of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre.


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