November is St Petersburg's most theatrical month: the season is in full swing, and the New Year children's shows haven't yet pushed the grown-up repertoire out of the listings. We went through the websites of the five major theatres, plus four more that have new titles in November, and wrote down everything the theatres themselves label "premiere" (премьера, premyera).
One important caveat for visitors: in a Russian theatre's playbill, "premiere" lasts the whole season. Of the seventeen productions below, only four open for the very first time in November — The Idiot, Malevich, The Dresser and Dostoevsky & Co. The rest opened between February and October 2026 and are now on their second or third run: easier to get tickets for, yet still brand-new stagings. Dates and labels were checked on the theatres' websites on 19 October 2026. None of the theatres publishes prices on its production pages; prices appear only in the booking widget once you pick a seat. Drama performances are in Russian without translation; check each opera's page for the language it is sung in.
🎭 Alexandrinsky Theatre: five premiere titles
The Alexandrinsky (6 Ostrovskogo Square; New Stage at 49A Fontanka Embankment; Gostiny Dvor and Nevsky Prospekt metro) has the longest premiere line-up in November, and all five productions are rated 16+ or 18+.
The Alexandrinsky auditorium with the imperial box — Photo: Muesse, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
The main novelty of the autumn is The Last Year (Posledniy god) by Nikita Kobelev, based on Tynyanov's novel The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar about the final year of the poet-diplomat Griboyedov; it opened on 9 October and plays on 6 and 7 November on the Main Stage. On 19 November comes Liturgy Zero (Liturgiya Zero), Valery Fokin's staging of Dostoevsky's The Gambler — a second edition of his 2012 production, re-released on 12 September. On 21 and 22 November at 18:00 there is The Government Inspector, Continued (Revizor s prodolzheniem), in which Fokin has written an extra episode of his own onto Gogol (premiered 27 February).
The New Stage has two productions based on contemporary prose and drama: Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (Ustal rozhdatsya i umirat), the Chinese director Ding Yiteng's staging of Mo Yan's novel (6 and 7 November), and Ivona, Princess of Burgundia by Hugo Eriksson — the first Gombrowicz ever staged at the theatre (22 November). As of 19 October, tickets are on sale for all dates.
🏛 The BDT (Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre): Happiness, restored
The BDT (65 Fontanka Embankment; Dostoevskaya and Vladimirskaya metro) has no "premiere" labels at all in its November playbill: its only new production of the season opened at the very end of October. Happiness (Schastye) by Andrey Moguchy and Konstantin Filippov, loosely based on Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird, is a restored version of the show Moguchy created at the Alexandrinsky in 2011, now transferred to the BDT stage with Liza Doronicheva as restoration director. The premiere performances were on 29 and 30 October; in November it plays on the 27th and 28th at 19:00 and on the 29th at 15:00. The theatre describes it as "for audiences over 12", which makes it the rare family-friendly premiere on our list.
The BDT building on the Fontanka Embankment — Photo: Florstein, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
🎼 Mariinsky Theatre: a five-hour William Tell
At the Mariinsky (1 Teatralnaya Square; Mariinsky-2 at 34 Dekabristov Street; Concert Hall at 20 Pisareva Street; Sadovaya and Sennaya Ploshchad metro), the November playbill marks two operas as premieres.
The Mariinsky-2 auditorium, where William Tell is playing — Photo: MBH, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Rossini's William Tell, staged by Giancarlo del Monaco and conducted by Valery Gergiev, opened on 16 October at Mariinsky-2 and plays on 5, 6, 17 and 18 November at 18:00. Prepare for a long night: the theatre lists a running time of 4 hours 55 minutes with two intervals, so it ends around 23:00 — worth bearing in mind if you're staying on the other bank of the Neva. Rated 12+. The second premiere is Rachmaninoff's one-act The Miserly Knight (Skupoi rytsar), directed by Alexander Ponomarev, with a single performance on 2 November at 20:00 in the Concert Hall: one hour, no interval, 12+.
The Mariinsky has no other November premieres, but Raymonda in the 1948 edition runs on the historic stage on 19–21 November, and Mahler's Eighth Symphony is in the Concert Hall on 14 November. How ticket sales work and which of the three halls to choose is explained in our guide Mariinsky Theatre: how to buy tickets.
🩰 Mikhailovsky Theatre: Nacho Duato's Raymonda and the returning Dutchman
The Mikhailovsky (1 Iskusstv Square; Nevsky Prospekt and Gostiny Dvor metro) has announced no new November premieres, but two dates carry the "premiere" label: Glazunov's Raymonda in Nacho Duato's choreography, first shown on 16 September, plays on 18 and 19 November at 19:00, conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov, rated 12+.
The Mikhailovsky Theatre on Arts Square — Photo: A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Another listing is labelled differently — "return to the stage": Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in Vasily Barkhatov's 2013 production came back to the repertoire on 7 October and plays on 3 and 27 November at 19:00 (16+). Manon Lescaut on 12 November carries the same label. House rules, the seating plan and ticket purchase are covered in our piece on the Mikhailovsky Theatre: tickets and what's on.
🎬 The MDT — Theatre of Europe: four premieres in November
The Maly Drama Theatre (18 Rubinshteina Street; Dostoevskaya, Vladimirskaya and Mayakovskaya metro) has gathered four premieres in November, three of them on its Chamber Stage, where seats are few and tickets go fast.
The MDT facade on Rubinshteina Street — Photo: Vladimir Koltsov, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The freshest is Edward Albee's The Zoo Story (Chto sluchilos v zooparke), staged by Semyon Kozlov from Lev Dodin's directing laboratory: it premiered on 15 October and plays on 13 and 14 November at 19:30, 50 minutes, 16+. On 17 November comes Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman after Stefan Zweig (directed by Artur Kozin, one hour without interval, 18+). On 19 November the Chamber Stage has Beckett's Happy Days directed by Dmitry Volkostrelov (16+), while the same evening on the Main Stage Dodin himself presents Gorky's The Lower Depths (Na dne): an hour and a half without interval, 18+, premiered on 9 April.
Note the reschedulings: Eight Dreams, Be Well, Schoolboy and It's a Family Affair have moved from their November dates to December, and Romeo and Juliet in the Dark on 3 November is cancelled.
🆕 November's first nights: The Idiot, Malevich, The Dresser
If what you want is a genuine first night, look beyond the big five.
The Baltic House (4 Alexandrovsky Park; Gorkovskaya metro) opens The Idiot, staged by Gulnaz Balpeisova, on 27 and 28 November at 19:00 — the theatre has timed the premiere to Dostoevsky's 205th anniversary; rated 16+, tickets on sale. The same theatre also plays its summer premieres in November: Anatoly Praudin's nearly four-hour Hamlet (5 and 30 November at 18:00) and Igor Konyaev's The Dog in the Manger (12 November).
The Theatre on Sadovaya, formerly the Comedian's Shelter (27/9 Sadovaya Street; Sennaya Ploshchad metro), presents Malevich on 28 and 29 November — an avant-garde rock musical by Anna Tess with music by Daniil Yachin, 12+; the theatre says the running time is "to be confirmed". Alongside it are two premieres of the season: The Oresteia on 12 November and Dostoevsky's Gambler on 17 November (both 18+).
The Lensovet Theatre (12 Vladimirsky Prospekt) gives the first performance of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser (Kostyumer), directed by Roman Kocherzhevsky, on 6 November on its Small Stage (two hours without interval, 16+; second performance 20 November), and on 14 and 17 November it plays Dostoevsky & Co. by Vladimir Kustov (12+). The Komissarzhevskaya Theatre (19 Italyanskaya Street) performs The Three Musketeers, or the Queen's Pendants by Roman Gabria — a comedy after Dumas that premiered on 24 October — on 5 and 25 November, rated 12+.
📅 What's next
Among December premieres, the Komissarzhevskaya has already announced Andrey Prikotenko's The Government Inspector / Waiting on 18, 19 and 20 December (16+). The Alexandrinsky, BDT, MDT, Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky have no new December titles on their sites yet: in December they repeat the November premieres. If you're on a budget, see our guide on how to buy cheap theatre tickets in St Petersburg.
📌 In short
✅ Four productions open for the first time in November 2026: The Idiot (Baltic House, 27–28 Nov), Malevich (Theatre on Sadovaya, 28–29 Nov), The Dresser (Lensovet, 6 Nov) and Dostoevsky & Co. (Lensovet, 14 Nov).
✅ The Alexandrinsky has five premiere titles this season, the MDT four, and the Mariinsky has William Tell (5, 6, 17, 18 Nov) and The Miserly Knight (2 Nov).
✅ The BDT plays Happiness on 27–29 November — the only 12+ premiere among the major theatres; the Mikhailovsky has Nacho Duato's Raymonda on 18–19 November.
✅ William Tell runs almost five hours and finishes around 23:00.
✅ No theatre publishes prices on its production pages — only in the booking widget; as of 19 October, tickets are on sale for every date listed.
The November playbill is good precisely because the September–October premieres have settled in and the first-night rush is over: your chances of a good seat for The Last Year or William Tell are noticeably better in November than on opening night. Checked on 19 October 2026 on the theatres' websites.
❓ Questions and answers
Which productions will be shown in St Petersburg for the very first time in November 2026?
The Idiot at the Baltic House (27 and 28 November), the rock musical Malevich at the Theatre on Sadovaya (28 and 29 November), and The Dresser and Dostoevsky & Co at the Lensovet Theatre (6 and 14 November). The other November 'premieres' are productions first shown between spring and October 2026.
How much do premiere tickets cost?
None of the theatres publishes prices on the production pages: the price only appears in the booking widget once you choose a seat. We have a separate article on how to buy tickets cheaply.
Are there premieres at the Mariinsky and the Mikhailovsky in November?
Mariinsky II has a premiere run of Rossini's William Tell (5, 6, 17 and 18 November), and the Concert Hall has Rachmaninoff's The Miserly Knight (2 November). The Mikhailovsky has Raymonda staged by Nacho Duato (18 and 19 November) and The Flying Dutchman back on stage (3 and 27 November).
Cover photo: Kora27, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
