Live Entertainment in Saint Petersburg

Alexandrinsky Theatre is Russia's oldest and most prestigious dramatic theatre — a magnificent 1832 neoclassical building by Carlo Rossi on the magnificent Ostrovsky Square where Chekhov's The Seagull received its disastrous world premiere in 1896 (booed off the stage) before becoming recognized as one of the greatest plays ever written. The Alexandrinsky's extraordinary 200-year dramatic tradition, its remarkable Rossi architectural perfection, and its ongoing world-class theatrical programming create a showroom of genuine Russian theatrical heritage significance.

Gazprom Arena (formerly Zenit Arena) is the most technically sophisticated football and concert stadium in Russia — a spectacular 68,000-capacity retractable roof and sliding pitch stadium on Krestovsky Island that hosted 2018 World Cup matches including a semi-final, and serves as home to Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russia's most successful contemporary football club and multiple Russian Premier League champions). The arena's extraordinary architectural design and its World Cup heritage create a concert venue of considerable Russian sporting significance.

The Hermitage Theatre within the Winter Palace complex is the most historically exclusive performing arts showroom in Russia — an intimate 1787 neoclassical theatre designed by Giacomo Quarenghi for Catherine the Great that served as the private theatre of the Russian Imperial family, and where the greatest performing artists of the 18th and 19th centuries performed for the Tsars of Russia. The theatre's extraordinary Imperial heritage and its continued programming of chamber opera, ballet, and classical music performances create a showroom of singular Russian Imperial cultural significance.

The Mariinsky Theatre under Valery Gergiev is one of the supreme performing arts showrooms in the world — the theatre where Tchaikovsky's greatest ballets received their world premieres, where Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was premiered before Stalin notoriously attended and condemned it, and where the finest Russian operatic and balletic tradition is preserved and transmitted. The Mariinsky's extraordinary tradition of world premieres and its remarkable role in shaping the global history of classical music and ballet create a showroom of singular world performing arts significance.

The Mariinsky Theatre is the greatest opera and ballet theatre in Russia and one of the supreme performing arts institutions in the world — a 1860 Saint Petersburg theatre where Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker received their world premieres, and where Chaliapin, Pavlova, Nijinsky, and Nureyev were formed into artists of world historic importance. The Mariinsky's extraordinary role in creating the Russian classical music and ballet tradition that dominated world culture in the 20th century creates a concert venue of singular world performing arts significance.

Oktyabrsky Concert Hall is Saint Petersburg's largest concert hall and most important popular music venue — a 3,800-capacity venue built in 1967 that has hosted virtually every major Russian pop and classical music artist in the post-Soviet era, from Soviet-era favorites to contemporary Russian artists. The hall's remarkable scale and its extraordinary history as the site of Saint Petersburg's most important popular music concerts create a venue of considerable Russian entertainment significance.

The Saint Petersburg Philharmonic's Bolshoy Zal (Grand Hall) is one of the world's great concert halls and the most historically significant in Russia — a 1,500-seat hall in the magnificent Mikhailovsky Palace complex where the Leningrad Philharmonic performed Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony (the Leningrad Symphony) by candlelight during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, in one of the most extraordinary acts of cultural defiance in history. The Philharmonic's remarkable Cold War musical diplomacy and its extraordinary acoustic quality create a concert hall of singular world classical music heritage significance.

Saint Petersburg's sports and concert arenas serve the second largest city in Russia — a city whose extraordinary cultural ambitions and 5.4 million population create demand for major international concert experiences. Saint Petersburg's remarkable cultural prestige (it was the first Russian city to develop a significant international tourism industry after the Soviet era, drawn by the incomparable Hermitage Museum and White Nights festival) and its outstanding concert infrastructure create venues of considerable Russian entertainment significance.