Alberto Cavo's design for the Mariinsky's exterior 1860. photo: Vili Onikul. About 5:00 am on 26 January 1859, the Circus Theatre across the Square from the Bolshoi Kamenny caught fire... In Less than a month, Czar Alexander II ordered that a new Theatre be built for Russian Opera. A report to the Ministry of Imperial court says "His majesty has ordered architect Alberto Cavos to undertake immediately the reconstruction of the burned out theatre with all the improvements that had been needed to be made when the circus building was turned into a theatre.The Czar further orders that the Architect preserve the interior decoration as it used to be". The theatre's first facade was a simple one, described at the time as romanesque in its lines and proportions. The vast differences between the old and the new building were most apparent inside. The new theatre was more richly guilded, and its formerly round interior was reshaped to crate the classic horseshoe design typical of the traditional European opera house. The Fifth tier of seats increased the capacity to more than 1500, making it smaller than La Scala but larger than Venice's la Fenice... The gold of the hall was accented by blue rather than the traditional red, with the seats in the parterre covered in blue velvet and the boxes draped in blue silk with gold and blue velvet chairs. When the Mariinsly first opened its doors on 2 October 1860 with Glinka's great nationalistic epic A Life for the Czar, conducted by Konstantin Liadov, it was described as "the most splendid theatre of Europe". Addtions and alterations were made under the supervision of Nikolai Benois, who was made chief Architect of of the Imperial Theatres after Cavo's death in 1863. In 1894, a third floor was added and to the right wing and the front of the theatre was entirely rebuilt, destroying its former classical simplicity in the process. The new facade, the one we know today, was set off by the addition of two tall stone towers on either side of the main entrance. The reconstituted Mariinsky reopened its doors on in mid-October 1896. The interior was even more brilliant, thanks to a ring of miniature chandeliers added to each level of boxes and a ceiling repainted to include dancing figures interspersed with angels. Mariinsky Theatre 1860. Courtesy Mariinsky theatre. The Mariinsky Theatre with damage from World War II. Courtesy Mariinsky Theatre. The great Blue-and-gold curtain, which is so closely associated with the Mariinsky was not added until 1914. It was the work of painter Alexander Golovin and was supposedly patterned after the design for a gown worn by Catherine the Great. During the terrible 900-day siege of Leningrad, there was damage to the roof and ceiling, and a direct hit on the right side of the Kirov in 1944 necessitated extensive rebuilding. Out of these changes fostered by necessity, politics and war emerged the building we know today. Although it is altered in shape and design from the original structure of 1860, it nevertheless remains decidedly imperial. When the Theatre reverted from Kirov to its original name, the hammer and sickles throughout the house were replaced with an interwining gold A and M, for Alexander II and his Czarina Marie, after whom the theatre was originally named. The Mariinsky Theatre, present day exterior. Photo: Valentin Baranovsky.