Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet
Tamanian's circular tuff building on Freedom Square, home to Armenia's opera and ballet companies.
Alexander Tamanian drew up the scheme in the 1920s as part of his master plan for Yerevan, conceiving a single circular building containing two auditoriums back to back. The opera company gave its first performance in 1933 with Spendiaryan's Almast, and the complex was finished in stages over the following two decades; Tamanian's son Gevorg completed the work. Faced in volcanic tuff, with an open-air amphitheatre wrapped around the drum, the design won a grand prize at the 1937 Paris world exhibition.
The building holds the Alexander Spendiaryan opera and ballet auditorium and the Aram Khachaturian concert hall, which is the base of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. The repertoire mixes Italian, French and Russian standards with Armenian works such as Tigranyan's Anoush and Khachaturian's ballets Gayane and Spartacus. The surrounding park, with its pond and the Swan Lake, forms one of the main public spaces of central Yerevan.
Highlights
- Circular tuff building by Alexander Tamanian, begun in the late 1920s
- Two auditoriums: the Spendiaryan opera house and Khachaturian concert hall
- Armenian repertoire including Anoush, Gayane and Spartacus
- Open-air amphitheatre and surrounding park on Freedom Square
