Opera House in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

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Location: Ho Chi Minh Municipal Theatre is located on Dong Khoi Street, Ho Chi Minh City, between the Caravelle and Continental Hotels.

Characteristics: The theatre has a rotating stage and a 800-seat hall and requirements of standards for various artistic form including singing, music, dancing and traditional and modern dramas.

Ferret Eugene, a French architect winning a prize for theatre designing in July 1895, designed the Municipal theatre with an original architecture and it was built on the first days of 1987. In order to celebrare the 300th anniversary of the foundation of Saigon (1698-1998), the theatre was reopened and resumed.

All the reflections of the old days in the architectural style and staple material of the Municipal Theatre include stone veranda, a pair of white stone statues of pretty girls at the gate, the colourful granite tiled floors, the chandeliers, the bronze statues in front of the stairs, the audience’s hall with its arch engraved with decorative designs and rows of statues on the two sides of the theatre.

During the Second World War, the French got involved in many battles. In Vietnam, the colonial regime was also shaken because of the revolutionary high tide, Therefore, the theatre was closed and became deserted. In the French re-invasion of the South after 1945, it was opened again. After the Geneva in 1965, the French invaders pulled out the South, the theatre was turned into headquarters of the lower House by the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. So, they also changed the inside and outside structure of the theatre.

After regaining the power in the Spring 1975 Great Victory, the City authorities permitted to renew it as a central theatre. In 1995, the Municipal People’s Committee approved a project with the purpose for restoring the building after the start of the initial building project a hundred years ago. This project attracted many experienced historians and architects to take part in. They renewed the building with new materials and equipped with state-of-the-art electric appliances, light and sound systems and fire and safety equipment. The theatre has a rotating stage and a 800-seat hall and requirements of standards for various artistic form including singing, music, dancing and traditional and modern dramas. When domestic and foreign art ensembles and well-know artists visit Ho Chi Minh City, the theatre is wonderful place for them to perfomances.