Crouched on the edge of a park in central Kharkiv, 30km from the Russian border, the city’s vast brutalist opera house resembles a battered spacecraft that has crashlanded after some epic intergalactic battle.
The Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet theatre building, opened in 1991 after about 25 years under construction, is the largest theatre in Ukraine. Locally, it is nicknamed “the aircraft carrier”.
The venue was conceived, according to the company’s director of opera,.