I often answer questions on Trip Advisor as there first and now only Destination Expert for St Petersburg and a frequent question is where there is anything to do in the city besides museums, I wrote that “yes, there is”.
Combining that frequent question with a current FB thread on St Petersburg Insider page, In a thread about concert and opera theaters, I figured I would combine topics with about to write on music venues and vocal performance venues. There are many popular classical and general music theaters but one that seldom is talked about by visitors is Mariinsky Concert All. The original ornate Mariinsky Theater and the modern next door neighbor gigantic music and opera theater, and productions, training, and media center, the 2000 seat Mariinsky II are well known. Mariinsky II is probably the largest acoustically tuned/optimized venue in the world, with 2200 regular seating and 3000 in some configurations. The building is a small city of performing arts and 2000 staff members. Mariinsky original is smaller but late 18th century ornate and palatial, it is hard not to feel like royalty in any seat. It is someplace where you feel uncomfortable dressing too casually knowing the royalty and nobles who sat in your seat in the past. But little is mentioned about the lesser known Mariinsky Concert Hall.
The 3rd venue in the Mariinsky ensemble the Concert Hall started out as a warehouse where sets were stored and constructed but had a fire that partially destroyed it.