At the turn of the 20th century, this magnificent building, designed by French architect Ferret Eugene, was built as a classical opera house with 800 seats to entertain French colonists. Anyone who has been to France can recognize many similarities between the Opera House and the Petit Palais. In fact, just like the Reunification Palace, the applied ornament, balustrades, cartouches, and roof were imported directly from France.
In order to celebrate the 300th birthday of Saigon, the municipal government invited some of famous architects and artists to restore the house in 1998. Today, renovated with new materials, the theatre is equipped with state-of-the-art electric appliances, lighting and sound systems, and safety equipment. Many original architectural and decorative features have been incorporated, including a stone veranda, white stone statues at the entrance, colourful granite tiled floors, chandeliers, bronze statues in front of the stairs and richly-engraved auditorium arch and wall statues. The Opera House is surrounded by new shopping plazas and posh hotels, which allow you to combine the trip to the Opera House with a shopping tour.
Nowadays, the Saigon Opera House, lying charmingly in the heart of the city’s District 1 area, becomes a theater for a variety of traditional and classical performances such as plays, concerts, ballet, opera, and Vietnamese traditional dance. Morever, this house – the brightest building of Ho Chi Minh City – is also one of the exciting destinations which no one should miss when visiting this city
