3 Best Performing Arts Venues in City Center, St. Petersburg

Russia's oldest theater opened in 1756 and is one of the country's most elegant and comfortable. Its repertoire is dominated by 19th-century classics but with prominent Moscow director Valery Fokin at the helm, the company is enjoying a prolonged renaissance and staging new productions that have been critically acclaimed. Fokin's interpretations of Dostoyevsky's The Double and Gogol's The Government Inspector are thought-provoking and engaging. The theater also hosts an international drama festival in the early summer.

Known as BDT, this theater is one of the jewels in St. Petersburg's crown and with a repertoire that focuses on classics—from Chekhov and Ostrosky to Shakespeare and Albee—attracts Russia's top acting talent to its boards. With the appointment of one of Russia's most respected directors for the stage, Andrei Moguchi, as artistic director, big things are expected.

The company revels in an avant-garde and experimental tradition in which works by Swift and Andersen are adapted for marionettes. It has a varied repertoire of fairy tales and children's stories.