Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre

Ornate Moorish-style opera house on Rustaveli Avenue

The Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the most distinctive buildings on Rustaveli Avenue, its Moorish facade a deliberate contrast to the Russian imperial architecture around it. Built in 1896 on the site of an earlier theatre, it has been the premier venue for opera and ballet in the Caucasus for over a century.

The building is worth seeing from the outside even if you don't catch a performance. The interior has been renovated multiple times but retains its grand 19th-century feel. The theatre hosts a regular programme of Georgian and international opera and ballet; tickets are inexpensive by European standards. The season runs September to June.

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The opera house has burned down twice — in 1874 and again in 1973 — and been rebuilt each time. The current building dates from the 1896 reconstruction, which added the striking Moorish facade that makes it stand out so sharply from the Russian imperial neoclassicism elsewhere on Rustaveli. The architect, Victor Schroeter, gave the building a horseshoe arch entrance and polychrome brickwork that looks more Andalusian than Caucasian.

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