Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Opera house in Baku, Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is a symmetrical building on Nizami Street in Baku, designed by Nikolai Bayev and completed in 1911. Its yellow-tiled facade rises from a dark stone base, with two square towers topped by shallow domes and thin spikes flanking a recessed centre. There an ornate baluster balcony on columns sits above a triple-arched entrance reached by broad steps, and bands of sculpted ornament cross the upper facade and towers.

Brothers Daniil and Ilya Mailov petitioned Baku's city authorities on 2 May 1910 to build a large, modern theatre on their own plot; architect Nikolai Bayev designed it, and construction ended on 19 February (4 March) 1911. It opened on 28 February (13 March) 1911 as the Mailov Brothers' Grand Opera Theatre with a performance of Boris Godunov, conducted by A. I. Aslanov, by M. P. Khryukov's Russian Opera company. The hall seated 1,281. Nationalised on 1 June 1920, it became the Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theatre, was named after M. F. Akhundov in 1930, and has been called academic since 1959.

The theatre's name honours Mirza Fatali Akhundov, a 19th-century Azerbaijani writer and philosopher, since 1930. Its stage saw the 1940 premiere of "Maiden Tower" by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli, the first Azerbaijani ballet. Operas and ballets are performed in Azerbaijani and Russian, continuing a bilingual tradition from the theatre's early years.

The theatre stands on Nizami Street, formerly Gubernski-Torgovy, in central Baku. The auditorium holds 1,281 spectators. The season runs from September to May; arrive early to find the triple-arched entrance and broad steps before the performance begins.

The theatre's opening on 13 March 1911 was a performance of Boris Godunov by the touring Russian Opera company of M. P. Khryukov, conducted by A. I. Aslanov. The hall then held 1,281 spectators. The 1908 premiere of Leyli and Majnun, often linked to this address, took place before the building existed.