The first theater, designed by Francesco Frapolli and modified by Jean-François Thomas de Thomon, opened on February 10, 1810. Fire gutted it on January 2, 1873. The Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer designed the replacement, with the foundation stone laid on September 16, 1884 and completion on October 1, 1887 at about 1.3 million rubles.
The design followed the Dresden Semperoper, and the foyer curves with the auditorium. The exterior is neo-baroque, which the article also calls Italian baroque. The horseshoe-shaped hall is late French rococo, with gilded stucco. It seats 1,636 and has 24 foyer exits for fire safety. It was the first building in Odesa with electric lighting.
The site is unstable, and the eastern half sagged almost seven inches (18 cm) in its first three years. A fire destroyed the stage in 1925, and the last renovation was completed in 2007.
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