mikhailovsky opera and ballet theater

We went for a ballet. The dancers are one of the best. Nice place and easy to arrive. We were very pleased with the musicians and artists.

Last Saturday, me and my lady, had visited the Mikhaylovskiy Theatre to enjoy the famous "NUTRACKER" by Tchaikovskiy. We expected it would be colorful, rich, nice and charming. In fact it looked like amateur theatre of a small town. Yes, the dresses and scenery were not bad, but the music and the danses were disgusting. They even did not try to do their best, hardly performing rather simple ballet elements with grumpy faces. It looked like their scorn for the spectators. We were really shocked and dissapointed. Two tickets costed os 10.00 rubles (in the city where "middle" class get less than 40.000 rubles). So as I told before, for this Theatre it's just getting the money, nothing about culture and art.

This theater was built three years before the Mariinsky Theater an has lots of grand elements of the imperial style. There are charming large bells from the 17th century which chime to call the audience to their seats.

I have never seen ballet like this. Completely professional orchestra and performers. Mesmerizing. Got tickets through our hotel concierge the day before. Thrilling.

The ballet is wonderful, high-level professionals an unforgettable spectacle. I did not like the theater because it is very small, depending on the place you sit, the view of the stage is seriously injured. The seats are not reserved. My advice: try to arrive at least one hour before the start of the show to ensure a good seat.

Went to see the Mirage of Figaro - excellent seats although a warning - the seats themselves are a bit uncomfortable. Amazing to see Russian society. The theatre is worth a visit to see on its own. Programmes available in English, and you can hire opera glasses .The opera itself was impressive - excellent soloists. The staging was conservative. It is warm in the theatre so wear layers, and take some water as it is difficult to get refreshments in the interval because of the crowds.

This is one beautiful theatre! We were thrilled to experience The Sleeping Beauty in perhaps the nicest overall seats in the house - Stalls Circle Box 14. You are comfortably seated at eye level with the dancers, overlook the orchestra pit, and have an unobstructed view of the entire stage because of the unique contours/positioning of this box. We purchased the entire box of 4 seats to insure a great view for the two of us, but invited a 3rd person to join us. We all enjoyed the marvelous, unobstructed seating unique to this box. Please note that the boxes on either side of Box 14 do not enjoy the same outstanding views. These seats were worth every penny we paid - we were most pleased!!Food and drinks (reasonably priced) are available for purchase during intermissions with local currency only.

We were initially disappointed that the Mariinsky Theatre would be closed (on tour) while we were in St Petersburg but were not at all disappointed in the Mikhailovsky Theatre. We went to a performance of Don Quixote and not only was the theatre absolutely beautiful but the ballet was stunning and the orchestra sublime. Expensive for travellers as the seats they book for you are in the Parterre so you have a centre stage view. Well worth the price! You can book online and they follow up with emails too.

Expensive but lovely and well done. Do it if you can. Get a local to buy and arrange for your tickets at the box office. Better seats and a you can even afford it. Normally can do for the same night.

This theatre near the state russian museum was our favourite of all the theatres we went too. Delightful and a great production.

Thank you Mikhailovsky for an experience of a lifetime. We had the good fortune to see Giselle with Natalia Osipova. The corps de ballet and male lead dancer were excellent, and she was sublime. We will remember the Mikhailovsky Theater as a definite highlight.

We attended the ballet at this theater as part of a St. Petersburg tour offered by SPB Tours in the evening. The tour picked us up at the boat and drove us to the theater in plenty of time for the start of the performance. It gave us time enough to take photos and admire the theater before the performance started. There was also an intermission with time for a toilet break; the men had to wait online but the women had plenty of toilets. Yay! We paid $125 each for seats on the main floor. The floor slopes so our view was excellent; it is not a huge theater so even though we were near the back we were not a long way from the stage.I was exhausted that day due to a previous night's illness and contemplated skipping this performance of Swan Lake, but I am so glad that I went. Although I am not a huge ballet fan this performance was absolutely enchanting. The principal dancers were so good that it was almost breathtaking. The principal ballerina was so beautifully nuanced in her performance; I have never seen anything like it before. I expected to be bored and too tired to appreciate it but the performance kept me spellbound and wide awake.If you are into music, this piece was written by Tchaikovsky somewhat early in his career (his 40s I think) and was almost immediately modified so that most performances are not in line with his original. This performance deviated from the original, in part by having the black swan danced by a male and the story was turned into a conflict between the men for the white swan; it had a happy ending too. If you are a Tchaikovsky fan you know that the original is a battle between two women and the ending is - well - Russian. Let's put it that way.Still, a superb performance and very much worth the money and effort to attend. I highly recommend it.

The Marinsky theatre and company were in Covent Garden London this summer so when we arrived in St Petersburg we were a little apprehensive about what the quality was going to be like at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. Well we needn't have worried .The theatre is close to the Arts Square and your landmark is the statue of Pushkin. Our tickets were arranged by TJ Travel (see other comments on trip Advisor - and we can't speak highly enough of them and our guide Zenya) .The Theatre is exquisite and the seats (front stalls) were excellent . The orchestra (Swan Lake) were tremendous and the dancing( of which I am not a huge fan) was exquisite and made the whole evening quite magical .As others have said , not cheap , but worth every penny!TIP arrive early so you can soak up the atmosphere.TIP Make sure you have a taxi booked and waiting when you leave as there can be quite a scrumTIP Try not to take bags and coats as you have to deposit them at the cloakroom and it can take a significant period of time to retrieve them at the end of the performance.I would also suggest to the Management of the Theatre that they do something about people trying to film and photograph the performance using mobile devices during the performance . This was allowed to proceed unimpeded and I noticed at least half a dozen people doing it . It was extremely annoying and did interfere with the enjoyment of the performance . In the west end in London you would have been asked to leave . Doing that once or twice would enable the management to put a stop to this practice as it must also upset the artists.Great show,great theatre, great City , lovely people .

Good orcestra, nice sound. Inside it looks like it was one hundred years ago. Tasy to reach from Nevsky - situated in a wonderful place. Chairs a little outdated - difficult to sit several hours.

Located just beside Arts Square and the statue of Pushkin. Great rendition by local dancers - not the big names. Beautiful theater. Not cheap but worth the experience!