Dominated by its green and white neo-classical façade and backing onto Kryukov Canal, St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre was built in 1860 and first hosted ballet in 1880. The Mariinsky Opera and Ballet is sometimes still known by its Soviet name, the Kirov.
In was in 1935 that the companies, and theatre, were renamed in honour of Sergey Kirov, a member of Stalin's Politburo assassinated the previous year. It returned to its original name from Tsarist times, Mariinsky, in 1992, with indefatigable conductor Valery Gergiev at the helm.
One of the highlights of the theatre's annual programme is the White Nights festival, where productions are performed during St Petersburg's midsummer period of 24-hour daylight.