The decoration of the auditorium which has remained almost without changes to present time is really magnificent. The coiled columns, the "broken" frontons, the stucco decorations shaped like women's heads, putti, masks and various ornaments, the Atlantes and the Cariathides of the central box – all these are real masterpieces. The final part of this excellent composition if the ceiling painting showing dancing girls and Amours (by Enrico Francioli using the sketches by Christian Duzi). The ceiling painting is surrounded by portraits of Russian dramatists: these remind us that the first performances in this theater were drama performances. The opening ceremony of the theater after its reconstruction took place on October 2, 1860, and the opera performed on that day was Mikhail Glinka's Life for the Czar . Contemporary mass media published excellent reports of the luxury of the auditorium. The theater was named Mariinsky Theater after the wife of Emperor Alexander II. In 1855, all the performances previously staged at the city's Grand Theater were transferred here.

Many famous Russian artists, such as Alexander Benois, Mikhail Dobuzhinsky, Constantine Korovin and Boris Kustodiev, made scenery for this theater. The soloists Leonid Sobinov and Fyodor Chaliapine used to sing here. There were also performances of such outstanding choreographers and ballet dancers as Lev Ivanov, Anna Pavlova, Marious Petipas and Mikhail Fokine.

In addition to classical ballets and operas, modern ballets and operas are performed here. Excellent professional skills of Tatiana Vecheslova, Natalia Dudinskaya, Constantine Sergeyev, Galina Ulanova, Vakhtang Chabukiani and many younger members of the theater company are well known far away from Russia . Among the well-known opera soloists in the Mariinsky theater company were Nadezhda Welter, Rosalie Gorskaya, Olga Mshanskaya, Nikolai Pechkovsky and Irina Bogacheva.