The Hanoi Opera House (french: Opéra de Hanoï), or the Grand Opera House ( vi, Nhà hát lớn Hà Nội, french: Grand Opéra) is an

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...

in central

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. It was erected by the French colonial administration between 1901 and 1911. Hanoi Opera House is one of three opera houses that the French built during their time in

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

, the others are Haiphong Opera House and

Municipal Theatre A municipal theatre is a theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific ...

in Ho Chi Minh city.

Building

It was modeled on the

Palais Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

, the older of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

's two opera houses, and is considered to be one of the architectural landmarks of Hanoi. The main architectural style of the Opera House is

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

. As mentioned before, Hanoi Opera House was modeled on the Palais Garnier but with a smaller scale and using materials that are suitable with the environment. After the departure of the French the opera house became the scene for several political events. as well as the scene of street fighting during the fight for Hanoi. The Hanoi Opera House provides the names for the neighboring Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel which opened in 1999, as well as for the MGallery Hotel de l'Opera Hanoi, which opened in 2011. For historical reasons associated with the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel was not named the Hanoi Hilton.

The Opera Company

Colonial period

The opera house is described in the memoirs of

Blanche Arral Blanche Arral (10 October 1864 – 3 March 1945) was a Belgian coloratura soprano. Born Clara Lardinois in Liège, Belgium, the youngest of 17 children, she studied under Mathilde Marchesi, Mathilde Graumann Marchesi in Paris. She debuted in a sm ...

who performed in the new Hanoi Opera House in 1902 while waiting for the 1902 Exposition of Hanoi to open. The opera had depended on touring artists performing French and Italian repertoire during the colonial period for a mainly French audience.

The Vietnam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB)

After the departure of the French the building was used for Vietnamese plays and musicals. The return of Western opera, and the first major non-French or Italian opera, was a performance of Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'' organised under Vietnam-Soviet cultural auspices in 1960, where the Russian vocal coach selected an untrained singer

Quý Dương NSND Phạm Quý Dương (Hải Dương, 1937 - 28 June 2011 at Hanoi) was a Vietnamese classical singer, and vocal coach at the Vietnam National Academy of Music. He was selected by Russian voice coaches as the singer to sing the lead baritone r ...

as a fit for the

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

title role.Nghệ sỹ Quý Dương: Tình ca dài theo đất nước
/ref> Today the orchestra of the opera overlaps with the

Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (or Việt Nam National Symphony Orchestra; abbreviated VNSO, Vietnamese: ''Dàn nhạc giao hưởng Việt Nam'') is the foremost symphony orchestra in Vietnam. It is based in Hanoi, the nation's capital. T ...

, and calls on the

Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

of the

Hanoi Conservatory Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

. Famous singers of the company include the

Tchaikovsky Conservatory Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

-trained soprano

Lê Dung NSND Lê Dung (5 June 1951 in Hòn Gai, Quảng Ninh – 29 January 2001 in Hanoi) was a Vietnamese soprano opera singer. She was a student at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and toured and performed widely in Eastern Europe. She won prizes at Sof ...

, the youngest ever person to be awarded

People's Artist People's Artist is an honorary title in the Soviet Union, Union republics, in some other Eastern bloc states (and communist states in general), as well as in a number of post-Soviet states, modeled after the title of the People's Artist of the USS ...

of Vietnam in 1993. The Opera has seen many premieres of operas and musicals by Vietnamese composers. The operas of

Đỗ Nhuận Đỗ Nhuận (December 10, 1922 in Hải Dương – May 18, 1991 in Hanoi) was a Vietnamese classical composer. He is known for the first homegrown Vietnamese opera - ''Cô Sao'' "Miss Sao." This and other more-or-less revolutionary themed mus ...

- ''

Cô Sao ''Cô Sao'' ("Miss Sao") is a 1965 Vietnamese-language western-style opera by the composer Đỗ Nhuận Đỗ Nhuận (December 10, 1922 in Hải Dương – May 18, 1991 in Hanoi) was a Vietnamese classical composer. He is known for the firs ...

'' ('Miss Sao') 1965, ''Người tạc tượng'' ('The Sculptor') 1971 and ''Nguyễn Trãi'' 1980, the works of

Lưu Hữu Phước Lưu Hữu Phước (12 September 1921 in Cần Thơ, Cochinchina – 8 June 1989 in Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam) was a Vietnamese composer, a member of the National Assembly, and Chairman of the Committee of Culture and Education of the National ...

and the choral works of film composer

Đặng Hữu Phúc Đặng Hữu Phúc (born June 4, 1953) is a Vietnamese pianist and composer best known for his film scores. A graduate of the Hanoi Conservatory, he has penned over 60 works, primarily for film and theatre. In 2001 he won the Vietnam National ...

. As well as works by returning emigre composers such as Nguyễn Thiên Đạo, a pupil of

Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...

in Paris. The National Ballet is also part of the Opera House company and stages Western classics such as ''

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...

'' as well as traditional and modern Vietnamese dance productions.

Gallery

File:LUNE Hanoi Opera House 01.jpg File: Hanoi Opera House, 24 December 2016.jpg File:Hanoi Opera House - detail.jpg File:Hanoi Opera House 2018.jpg File:Mặt Nam Nhà hát Lớn HN.JPG File:Opera House - Hanoi - Vietnam.JPG File:Hanoi opera house. Made as a copy of the Opera Garnier in Paris (22334215449).jpg File:LUNE Hanoi Opera House 02.jpg File:Hanoi opera stage.JPG File:LUNE Hanoi Opera House 03.jpg File:Hanoi Opera House 2012 1.jpg File:Hanoi Theatre.JPG File:Hanoi rue Paul Bert.jpg File:Nhahatlonhanoi07.jpg

References

Notes Sources *Arral, Blanche (Trans: Ira Glackens; Ed: William R. Moran), ''Extraordinary Operatic Adventures of Blanche Arral''. Milwaukee, WI: Amadeus Press, 2002

External links

Performance at Hanoi Opera HouseHanoi Opera House – A Witness of Vietnamese History
{{authority control Historical sites in Hanoi Culture of Hanoi Opera houses in Vietnam Buildings and structures in Hanoi French colonial architecture in Vietnam Tourist attractions in Hanoi Theatres completed in 1901 Event venues established in 1901