The theatre has gone a long way of maturing. A talented traveling theatrical company under the guidance of L.A. Lazarev, which became the Voronezh Musical Comedy theatre in 1931, was the foundation for establishment and opening of the Voronezh Opera and Ballet theatre.

The first stage performance in the new building that marked the establishment of a new musical theatre on Voronezh soil was Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. It was produced by the first chief conductor V. Timofeev and the first chief stage director V. Titov. The first night performance took place on February 25, 1961. The ballet company that was headed by a talented choreographer T. Romanova started its way to the shining summits of art on February 26 by performing the Swan Lake.

Outstanding creative persons came to work at the theatre in ’60. In 1962 the chief conductor, People’s Artist of Russia, winner of the State Awards of the USSR A. Ludmilin and in 1963 – chief choreographer, Honoured master of Arts of Russia V. Tsibin.

In 1986 the Voronezh Musical Theatre was renamed the Voronezh Opera and Ballet Theatre.

In the past 44 years there have been produced over 200 performances including all the popular classical opera and ballet repertoire. Today it is very important to combine naturally the classical traditions with the modern tendencies of musical and theatrical art.

The operas that were produced at the Voronezh stage for the fist time such as “Long journey” by A. Flyarkovsky, “The Brest Fortress” and “The Russian Woman” by K. Molchanov, “Anna Frank’s Diary” by G. Frid became popular all over the Soviet Union.

The theatre involved the local authors. A ballet “The song of triumphant love” written to the music of composer and director of the theater M. Nosyrev was produced in 1971.

The first Voronezh opera “Oleko Dundich”, balet-symphony “The tale of the Russian land” and opera “Vivat, Russia!” were produced in cooperation with composer G. Stavonin.

The soloists of opera and ballet toured the USA, Germany, Hungary, Spain, France, Poland, Austria, Check Republic, Slovakia, Vietnam, Japan, Africa, Cyprus and Malta.

The ballet soloists toured Finland in the company of “Imperial Russian Ballet” in 1996, Holland in the company of “Russian Ballet” (Saint Petersburg) in 1998 with “The Nutcracker”. In 1996 “The Sleeping beauty” ballet was shown in 38 cities and in 1997 and 1999 it toured India.

For the last five years the Voronezh ballet has been touring Holland, Germany and Belgium with “Giselle”, “The Nutcracker”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Swan Lake”. The theatre toured Holland, Poland in 1999 and 2001 with operas “The Troubadour”, “Otello” and “Queen of Spades”.

The success of the theatre is the result of the collective effort of the whole company.