Private Opera, Opera house in Moscow, Russia

The Private Opera was an opera house first located in the Solodovnikov Theatre on Bolshaya Dmitrovskaya Street, then relocated to the Theatre Paradis on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street after a fire. Both venues featured large stages equipped for operatic performances.

Savva Mamontov, a Russian industrialist, founded the opera house in 1885 with initial performances at his Abramtsevo Estate near Moscow. The move to Moscow's city center reflected its growing importance in Russian musical life.

The opera house shaped Russian musical traditions by presenting works of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov on its stage. Performances here reflected a commitment to advancing national composers through ambitious and creative interpretations.

The company no longer performs; its former Solodovnikov Theatre on Bolshaya Dmitrovskaya Street was damaged by fire in January 1898, and the troupe then moved to the Paradis theatre at 19/13 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, today the Mayakovsky Theater. The Solodovnikov building later passed to Zimin's opera and then to the Helikon Opera. Check which address you want before setting out.

Savva Mamontov paid all the company's expenses himself, staging operas, conducting the orchestra and training the singers. His money and patronage, not state support, kept the theatre running until his 1899 arrest for embezzlement over the Yaroslavl railway left him bankrupt.