Mikhaylovsky Theatre, Opera house in Arts Square, Saint Petersburg, Russia
The Mikhaylovsky Theatre, also known as the Maly Theatre, is an opera and ballet venue on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg and ranks among the city's historic performance halls. The auditorium displays a three-tier balcony system in white and gold tones that wraps around the stage area, while a large chandelier hangs from the ceiling centre and lights the space up to the uppermost rows.
Tsar Nicholas I commissioned the building in 1833 to provide a frame for the French stage tradition in the Russian capital. Over the next eight decades French-language troupes dominated the programme, before Russian ensembles took over after the October Revolution and shifted the focus to domestic composers.
On ballet evenings you often see well-dressed spectators who regard their visit as a social event with its own set of unwritten codes. The name honors Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, the younger brother of the tsar, who saw the house as a key space for court life and attended regularly during its early decades.
It helps to get an overview of the hall layout as soon as you enter, since the balconies can feel a bit winding and finding the correct tier may take a moment. If you prefer a quieter visit, weekday afternoons offer less crowding and shorter waits at the box office windows.
In 2012 Natalia Osipova left the Bolshoi Theatre and joined the local company, a move that created notable attention within the Russian ballet scene. Her decision marked a rare case of a principal dancer abandoning the Moscow stage in favor of Saint Petersburg and briefly shifted perceptions of priorities in dance theatre.
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