Not long ago this theater was called St. Petersburg Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. However, its original name was Mikhailovsky, in honor of Emperor Nicolas I's brother. The permanent troupe of actors appeared only after the Social Revolution. That's when the theater got its own style and aesthetic credo. The theater attracted the audience with its unusual performances, as its actors were always searching for the new ways of performing. On the stage of the theater premieres of the operas by Prokofiev and Shostakovich took place. Famous Meyerhold staged several performances. Such masters as Shalyapin and Kshesinskaya gave performances on the stage of the theater. Today, the repertoire of the Mikhailovsky Theater includes operas and operettas by Russian and foreign composers performed by masters of the genre (The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, La Traviata by Verdi, Die Fledermaus by Straus). The performances at the Mikhailovsky Theater were successful in many countries of the world.