The Dnipro Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is the city's principal performing arts venue, originally opened in 1931 as a workers' opera house during the Soviet industrialisation drive. Evacuated during the Second World War and substantially rebuilt, the current building dates from 1974 and is notable for a light-and-music fountain called the Muse in front of it. The theatre seats 1,148 and carries a repertoire of eighteen operas, eighteen ballets, and a selection of operettas and musicals.
For a city that most foreign visitors associate purely with heavy industry and Soviet rockets, the opera house is a reminder of Dnipro's substantial cultural life. Ticket prices are far lower than comparable Western European venues. Check the programme in advance — the ballet company in particular has won international recognition in recent years.