Opera and Ballet Theater, Yekaterinburg (must see)

The Opera and Ballet Theater was established in 1912, and it remains a significant cultural venue in Yekaterinburg. It was built on Drovyanoy Square (now Paris Commune Square) on the former location of a wooden circus building, which had stood on the site since 1896. The facade of the Opera and Ballet Theater faces Lenin Avenue. Over the entrance there is an ornate balcony with balustrades and a sculpture of the three Muses. Inside, the auditorium is in the shape of a horseshoe. The theater (known in Soviet times as the Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of A. V. Lunacharsky) was designed by civil architect Vladimir Nikolaevich Semenov in a style similar to the Vienna and Odessa Opera Houses.