Tbilisi Opera: connect the building to the repertoire

The Tbilisi Zakaria Paliashvili Opera and Ballet State Theatre is both a performance venue and a record of the city's cultural institutions. Its official history dates the first opera theatre's opening to 1851 and notes that an Italian company began the first opera season with Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The theatre's chronology then follows fires, relocations, Georgian opera, ballet and rebuilding. Read that history beside the current repertoire: a living theatre carries inherited works forward while making room for new staging and artists.

The building's history includes loss and reconstruction

The theatre's history page records that the original house was destroyed by fire in 1874 and that a new building opened in 1896. A later fire in 1973 destroyed much of the interior, including the famous curtain and archival material; the building was restored and reopened in 1978, then underwent another major restoration before reopening in 2016. These dates explain why the present venue should not be mistaken for a continuous, untouched interior. The theatre itself frames a history of performance, disaster and deliberate reconstruction.

Listen for Georgian works within an international repertoire

The official repertoire includes Georgian composers alongside works from European opera and ballet traditions. Its history page identifies 1919 as a defining year for Georgian National Opera, with works by Dimitri Arakishvili, Zakaria Paliashvili and Victor Dolidze staged in the same year. The current repertoire page shows how the company's programme moves across those traditions. A performance is a more direct way to encounter this collection of works than a static display, but the programme changes by season.

Choose a performance through the official playbill

The theatre's website has a live playbill and ticket entry point. Check the exact date, production, language and ticket information there before going. This guide does not treat any one performance as permanently scheduled, and it does not promise access to backstage areas or architectural tours. The useful distinction is between the building's long institutional history and a particular night's production. Use the official repertoire to choose a work, then the playbill for the current performance details.

The official repertoire is the bridge between the theatre's history page and the present stage. It shows the continuing relationship between Georgian composition and international works without implying that every title is scheduled in every season.