Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre

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The St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (Russian: Большой Каменный театр) was built in 1783 to Antonio Rinaldi's Neoclassical design as the Kamenny (i.e., Stone) Theatre. It was rebuilt in 1802 and renamed the Bolshoi, but burned down in 1811. The building was restored in 1818, and modified in 1836 to accommodate more modern machinery. Until 1886, the Bolshoi Kamenny Thetare was principle theatre to both the Imperial Ballet and Opera. It was there that the first Russian operas - Glinka's A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila - were premiered, as well as Marius Petipa's ballet La Bayadère (1877), and his definitive version of Giselle (1884).

In 1886 the building was declared unsafe and, at the behest of the theatre director Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the ballet and opera performances moved to the Mariinsky Theatre, where they have remained ever since. The Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was then torn down to make place for the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. The only surviving sections of the original theatre are the grand staircase and landing, preserved in the building of the conservatory.

Cross-section of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, a drawing by Antonio Rinaldi.	Theatre Square in front of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, 18th century	Theatre Square in 1806	The Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Winter - 18th century water-color
The Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre by Johann George Meyr, 1790	The Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre by Dubois, early 1800s	First edition of the libretto of Verdi's La Forza del Destino, published for the opera's premiere in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in 1862.