National Opera of Ukraine
Ukraine's principal opera and ballet house, in a French Renaissance Revival building of 1901.
The National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko occupies a building put up between 1898 and 1901 to a design by the St Petersburg architect Victor Schröter, after the previous city theatre burned down in 1896. Schröter won an international competition with a French Renaissance Revival scheme faced in grey stone, crowned by a sculptural group and a pair of griffins holding a lyre. The auditorium was laid out on the Italian horseshoe plan and seats roughly 1,300 across stalls, boxes and three tiers.
The house staged the first performances of several Ukrainian operas and is closely associated with Mykola Lysenko, whose monument stands on the square outside. It was here in 1911 that the Russian prime minister Pyotr Stolypin was shot during a gala performance. Since the full-scale Russian invasion began in 2022 the company has kept working, touring abroad and commissioning new Ukrainian ballets, among them Valentyn Silvestrov's Wartime Elegy, while removing Russian repertoire from its programme.
Highlights
- Schröter's 1901 Renaissance Revival facade with griffins and a lyre
- Horseshoe auditorium of around 1,300 seats on three tiers
- Repertoire of Ukrainian opera and ballet alongside the Italian and French canon
- Mykola Lysenko monument on the square in front of the theatre
