Named for the father of Tajik literature and the first president of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, the Sadriddin Aini State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, or "Opera-Ballet" in local parlance, reopens after a five-year, $5 million total refit and refurbishment. Completed in 1942, the theater was originally built as a gift from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to the people of Tajikistan.
David Trilling is the Central Asia news editor for EurasiaNet.
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