Hanoi Opera House was built by The French colonialists during the early 20th century. In the past, this was a marsh region of 2 villages named Thach Tan and Tay Luong which were bordered with Cuu Lau village, Tong Phuc Tan, Tho Xuong district.
In 1899, the city council was held with the attendance of Richard who was a minister envoy of Hanoi proposed to the Hanoi’s governor named Fourer to build the Hanoi Opera House. The blueprints of this construction were made by 2 architects: Broyer and Harvy and approved with the budget of about 2 million franc. This design was amended many times from the comments from various architects.
This grand architecture structure was built on 7th of June in 1901 under the supervision of urban inspectors – the architect Harlay, one of two project authors with two supervisors, Travary and Savelon. The aggrandizement was absolutely hard with 300 employees working everyday. The designers researched to create a masterpiece by combining the ancient Greek’s Corinth architecture, Tuylory castle style and the Opera de Paris.
In 1911, this construction was completely finished with the length of 87 meter, the width of 30 meter and the area of 26,000 square meter. The front of the beautiful opera is a large square that is now known as August Revolution Square.
Inside the Opera house, there are a large stage, a main audience room with a size of 24x24m with its capacity of 870 seats and several smaller rooms in the middle floor for the private tickets. Comparing with the popularity of Hanoi in 1945, which was about 2 thousand people, the size of this building block was enormous. Currently, many foreigner visitors came to Hanoi Opera house believe that it is more spectacular and magnificent due to the fact that it was built more than 300 years after the Paris Opera House.
At that time, this opera house was used for annually Western art performances of French government officials. Later on, the upper class of Vietnamese was also able to participate; however, they had to pay for more expensive ticket and had to follow a certain dress code.
Passing more than 100 years, the Hanoi Opera House was downgraded. The inside spaces from decoration, material, colors and services to many technical systems were getting out of date. In addition, many new buildings appeared outside of the opera house that broke architectural space of this ancient architecture work.
Along with renovating and bringing up to date in 1997, it was improved with the installation of state-of-the-art equipment and the renewal of interior decorations. Many performances of international artists, such as violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Wolfgang Glemser as well as many famous Vietnamese divas bring the former charm to this architecture landmark.
Now, to visit inside, you have to reserve a ticket for a performance to admire the beauty of the centerpiece of Hanoi’s French Quarter.
The Hanoi Opera House in the 21st century
In the past, in front of the Hanoi opera house, there was a fountain
After that, the fountain was replaced by the August Square
A main audience room with a size of 24x24m and its capacity of 870 seats
Inside of the Hanoi Opera House after being renovated in 1997
The Paul Bert street leading to the Hanoi Opera House in the past
Trang Tien street is now instead of the old Paul Bert leading to the glorious Hanoi Opera House
The sparkling Hanoi Opera House in the evening