Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
Baku's opera house of 1911, home to Azerbaijani opera and ballet on Nizami Street.
The building was put up in 1911 for the oil magnates Daniil and Ilya Mailov, who commissioned it after a visiting soprano performed in Baku, and it was completed in under a year to designs by Nikolai Bayev. The exterior mixes Gothic Revival and Renaissance motifs with pointed arches, turrets and rich stone carving. A fire in 1985 destroyed much of the interior; the theatre was restored and reopened, and it now carries the name of the playwright Mirza Fatali Akhundov.
The company is the home of Azerbaijani opera, which began here with Uzeyir Hajibeyli's Leyli and Majnun in 1908, the first opera written in the Muslim East. Its repertoire pairs national works such as Koroghlu and the ballet Seven Beauties by Gara Garayev with Italian, Russian and French standards. The theatre keeps resident opera and ballet troupes, an orchestra and a chorus, stages an international festival devoted to Azerbaijani composers, and receives guest soloists from abroad.
Highlights
- Gothic Revival and Renaissance facade completed in 1911
- Birthplace of Azerbaijani opera with Hajibeyli's Leyli and Majnun
- National works such as Koroghlu and the ballet Seven Beauties
- Resident opera and ballet companies, orchestra and chorus
