National Opera and Ballet Theatre

The National Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the most well-known symbols of Yerevan today. It's a favorite place not only for the youth, but for the adults as well; feasts, various events, even political meetings and protests are held in the yard of the Opera quite often, and not to speak of concerts and famous performers of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre itself.

The Armenian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre n. a. A. Spendiaryan is situated in Yerevan. It was founded in 1932and was unclosed in 1933 by "Almast" opera of A. Spendiaryan.

The project of Tamanian was very ambitious, the state did not have sufficient means to support it back then, and Moscow refused to cover all the expenses.

Anyway, even now, far from being totally finished by the primary project of the author, it is an arterial and even a crucial point for the city, one of the most visited places.

Here, you will meet Aram Khachaturian, and in the back part of the building, you will meet Hovhannes Toumanian and Alexander Spendiarian.

Even observing the map of Yerevan from above, one may find that the National Opera and Ballet Theatre is very remarkable in the center of the city.

The building is designed by the architect Alexander Tamanian. It was established in 28 Nov of 1930, as a popular theatre. According to the main idea of the project, the winter (southern) and the summer (northern) theatres should have been unified into one, two-hall building. In the centre, there was the scene joint by a common portal, the semi-circle halls of which, opposite to each other, with their auxiliary parts, were unified in the project in an oviform composition that was gradually heading  upwards. In case of significant plays, they would open the portals of the two sides which would allow to unite the stages and to create a big domain with parterres, and the two amphitheatres would be able to host nearly 3000 spectators. The cover of the summer theatre would rest on the pillars organized in a semicircle periphery. The first, second, third open spaces of the front between the pillars would dimensionally link the hall to the adjacent park that would serve as an open-air foyer. For the prominent parts of the building, there have been ornaments, frescos, statues designed. In Paris World Exposition 1937, the project of the theatre was awarded a golden medal. After A. Tamanian, the works of the planning were carried and the construction supervised by his son, G. Tamanian. In 1939, the part of the winter theatre was finished, where the opera and ballet theatre started to act, yet the important idea of unifying the halls was not accomplished, the mechanization of the stage was incomplete, only the first two floors were made by granite. In 1980, they commenced the granite lining of the building, and in 2002-03 the renovation of the building of Armenian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre was performed.

In the first theatre season, the theatre, with its primary staff – opera artists – 20, orchestra 40, choir 30, ballet artists – 20, have actualized the plays of the operas of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Tchaykovski's Evgeny Onegin, Gounod's «Faust».
Today the troupe is composed of: orchestra – 100, choir – 60, soloitsts – 55, ballet 80 people. The theatre has performed tours in Moscow, st. Petersburg, Sochi, Tbilisi, Kiev, Spain, Beirut, Argentina, Mexico, Syria, France, Algeria and in many other countries.