Mariinsky Theatre
The first ballet groups to perform in St Petersburg were Italian ballet dancers in the early 18th century.  Catherine the Great wanted a Russian theatre to be built.  It was built in 1783.  It was called Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (“Kamenny” is the Russian word for “stone”.  It was used to distinguish the building from the wooden theatre that was being used.).  The building we see today dates from 1860.  It opened with a performance of Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar.  It was called the Mariinsky Theatre, named after the Empress Maria Alexandrovna.  The great choreographer Marius Petipa put on the first performances of many famous ballets such as Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, The Nutcracker in 1892, Alexander Glazunov's ballet Raymonda in 1898, and an updated version of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov) in 1895.