Front facade of the Opera House

Fora long time, Hanoi Opera House has been a rendezvous for those who lovetheatrical performance and traditional songs and music, symphonies,opera and classical opera. It is also a tourist attraction for localand foreign visitors.

The history of Hanoi Opera House

Hanoi Opera House is a great construction built by the French Colonialist Government during the early years of the 20th century. Harleyand Broyer were designers. This design was much modified by ideas ofsome architects. The work was started on june, 7th, 1901, undertaken bya local supervisor - Harley Architect. Mr Travary and Savelon were incharge of the construction. The work, the peak of which is 34 metersabove the ground, was carried out in a total area of 2600 square meterswith the 87-meter length and 30-meter width. The designers consultedCorankta Greek ancient architecture in combination with Tuylory Castleand Opera de Paris to form a unique architecture.

HanoiOpera House has a great value in history, architecture as well as itsuse. It was a historical evidence of Vietnamese social and culturaldevelopment under French rule, a vestige

Striking characteristics

HanoiOpera House is renowned for its unique architecture and goodcomposition. It is furnished rationally and harmoniously. Since itsestablishment, Hanoi Opera House is the largest theatre in Vietnam.

Previouslythe site was a big pond, adjacent to the city gate of Tay Long (alsocalled Tay Luong) of the ancient Thang Long Capital. The constructionmet with many difficulties, because the foundations of the theatre werebuilt on the pond. Before building a concrete foundation, nearly onemetre thick, the pond was emptied and dredged, then 30,000 hard bamboostakes were placed on its bed.

HanoiOpera House is of the same architectural style as the Opera House inFrance. Some foreign architects said that due to being built nearly 300years after the Paris Opera House, Hanoi Opera House avoids superfluousarchitectural details, which make it more magnificent and attractive. Insidethe opera house are a large stage and a main audience room with a sizeof 24x24m, with many small rooms for audience on the central floor. Themiddle staircase leads to a large Hall on the second floor. Thesub-staircase and corridors are located in both sides.

Beingan ancient architecture work, the Opera House is now becoming anational art work of international renown, which contributes to ourcountry's modern cultural field, also serves as a foundation incultural exchanging, in our present social economic development and thenational cultural innovation in particular.

Hanoi Opera House is a worthy artistic centre, a cultural and architectural relic of the capital Hanoi. This is truly a beautiful building in Hanoi and the best place to see the Opera House is from the 6th floor of the Hanoi Hilton.