Mikhailovsky Theatre was once five minutes manor. He stands next to the former palace of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, which is now the Russian Museum. And Alexander Briullov (elder brother of the author of "The Last Day of Pompeii") built it in the 1830s, not as big a regal scene showcase of state power and the splendor of the court, as well as more optional. His company at the theater was not, act in it is dramatic artists from other scenes, the foreign guest performers (Johann Strauss, for example), and the second half of XIX century, attributed to him in the national capital French theater "company."