St Petersburg's answer to Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre is the Mariinsky Theatre, which is located on the western end of Kazansky Island on Teatralnaya Ploschad (Theatre Square).  The ballet and opera theatre was opened in 1860 and saw premiers of the work of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. It is named in honour of Empress Maria Aleksandrovna, the wife of Emperor Alexander II, and this imperial link led to it being renamed after the Revolution - for much of the Soviet era it was known as the Kirov Theatre. Tickets for performances can be bought on the theatre's official website or via ticket agents and are much more affordable than tickets to the Bolshoi. Just behind the theatre is the St Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, plus statues of two of Russia's finest composers - Mikhail Glinka and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.