The Buryat Opera and Ballet Theatre, just off Soviets Square, is a 1952 Stalinist-classical pile painted ochre and white, with a grand colonnaded facade and a sober but generous interior. It is one of the city's defining buildings.
A small ensemble performs a mix of Russian opera, Western ballet, and original Buryat productions drawing on Mongolian legend. Tickets are remarkably cheap by international standards. Walk past at minimum; if a performance is on, go.