Yerevan Opera House

Arrived in Armenia as the sun was setting, for the first night of a week long trip around the Caucasus. A walk around town took me quickly to the opera house, a building which I'm told has won architectural awards, and is a bustling venue with a lot more than opera going on. At night it houses an underground club, and provides a grand backdrop to the city's open-air ice rink. It stands proudly at the top of a long avenue, where some of Yerevan's oldest buildings were recently knocked down to make way for a fancy new business and shopping street. The locals don't like the street, and doubt that the new high-rises will withstand the earthquakes; already, there are big cracks in the shiny new pavement.