The building of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the greatest architectural monuments of Ukraine and one of the most beautiful theaters in the world. Opera is a real jewel of Odessa, which worthy enters the list of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine. Learn more about this monument of architecture and art.

The first opera house was opened in 1810 and destroyed by fire in 1873. The modern building was constructed by Fellner and Helmer in neo-baroque style and opened in 1887. The luxorious hall follows rococo style. Its unique acoustics allows to deliver even a whisper from the stage to any part of the hall. The most recent renovation of the theater was completed in 2007. The building's façade is decorated in the Italian baroque style. In the niches are the busts of Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandr Griboyedov, and Alexander Pushkin. The large hall was modeled after the style of Louis XVI, and is richly decorated with gilded stucco figures and designs. The architects provided the foyer with twenty-four exits, to avoid tragedy in the case of a fire. On the side of the theater is a lawn with fresh flowers and shrubs.

The history of Odessa Opera Theater starts since the foundation of Odessa. It was built in 1809 according to design of the French architect Thomas de Thomon. In 1873 the theater was completely burned, this was a tragedy for the city, but fortunately there were no human casualties. 11 years after the fatal fire, the Odessa Opera Theater began to be built anew. At this time the construction was carried out under the leadership of the Viennese architects F. Felner and H. Helmer. And the opening of the new theater was held on October 1, 1887.

Odessa Opera Theater is famous primarily for its architecture, and is one of the best in Europe due to its planning and technical data. The building itself is constructed in the style of the Viennese "baroque", which was the major stile in European art since the end of 1916 to mid-18th century. Above the facade there towers a group of sculptures depicting one of the Muses – Protectress of the Art Melpomene. She sits in a chariot, harnessed with four furious panthers. Downstairs, near the main entrance, there are two groups of sculptures on high pedestals embodying the comedy and tragedy: on the left - a fragment of the tragedy of Euripides “Hippolytus", on the right - the episode of the comedy by Aristophanes “Birds”. Across the pediment of the building one can see the busts of brilliant creators of Russian Literature and Art: Pushkin, Glinka, Griboyedov, Gogol, who embody the poetry, music, drama and comedy.

But the most beautiful part of the building is the auditorium. Similar to the interior of the theatre, the hall corresponds to the slogan: “Golden content for the gold form”. It is created in the style of Louis 16 - "rococo". Everything inside is created in harmony with each other: dome, columns, arches, sculptures, reliefs, candles and candlesticks, gilding, which is very nice combined with white, beige and warm cream-colored walls and ceilings. On the ceiling there are paintings - scenes from famous works of Shakespeare. And the huge luxurious crystal chandelier seems to tower over everything, weighing about 2 and half tons. The seats and boxes are covered with dark red velvet; mirrors are in gilt frames. In combination with the beautiful music all this is just a delight.

The Saint Petersburg architect Thomas de Thomon designed the first opera theater, opened on February 10, 1810. This first theater is in almost exactly the same spot as today's theater. The main entrance with its colonnade faced the sea. There was no foyer. In 1831, Michael Vorontsov, governor-general of New Russia, decided to assign the newly instituted quarantine fees to the Odessa Theater. Historian Charles King explains that one of the medical inspectors in Odessa was also the owner of the Odessa Theater. When ticket sales were low, he would announce the discovery of an infeciton among newly arrived passengers and ordered them quarantined at their own cost. The expenses of the lazaretto, where the passengers stayed, would be used to hire a major performer for the theater.

On the night of January 2, 1873, the building was gutted by fire. A fund raising campaign began immediately. The city announced an international contest for the best theater design. Forty designs were submitted, but none were chosen. Finally, the project was drafted along the lines of Dresden Semperoper built in 1878, with its nontraditional foyer following the curvatures of auditorium. Two Viennese architects, Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer began to construct the larger replacement in 1883. The foundation stone was laid on September 16, 1884. On October 1, 1887 the theater was completed, costing 1,300,000 rubles to build. It was named the Odessa City Theater. The theater was the first building in Odessa to employ the Edison Company with electric illumination.

To keep theater patrons comfortable in the summers, workers would lower wagonloads of ice and straw down a 35-foot shaft, then would carry it through a tunnel to a basement beneath the hall, where cool air rose up from vents beneath the seats. In 1925 the building was burnt again in a fire. There is a story that, when the Odessa people learned that the construction cost 1.3 million gold rubles, they gasped, but when they saw the new theater, they gasped again, this time in admiration. During World War II, Nikita Khrushchev, concerned about the condition of the city, visited Odessa immediately after it was liberated. Khrushchev reported that only one corner of the building had been damaged by an enemy shell. The theater was remodeled in the 1960s.

The theater sits upon shifting ground and is in danger of collapse. The first cracks in the foundation appeared almost as soon as the theater opened. The theater's eastern half sagged almost seven inches in its first three years, and the six walls began to tilt. Gleb Dranov, a former opera singer who sang at the theater for 25 years, and who worked five years as a geologist, is helping repair the building.