Saigon Opera House

The Municipal Theatre opened in 1900 on Lam Son square, built by French architects in a Third Republic idiom borrowed from the Petit Palais, with a heavily ornamented front, caryatids and a domed vestibule. Under the Republic of Vietnam it was converted and used as the lower house of the National Assembly, and the interior was altered accordingly; it was returned to use as a theatre in 1975 and restored towards its original appearance for the city's tercentenary in 1998. It now hosts the A O Show and similar productions, which use bamboo, acrobatics and Vietnamese rural imagery, along with concerts and ballet.

Background

Construction started in 1898 on the site of an older theatre and was finished by 1 January 1900. The building's character comes from the architect Félix Olivier, while Ernest Guichard and Eugène Ferret supervised the work. It belongs to the same group of French-built opera houses as those in Hanoi and Haiphong. The hall once held 1,800 people on a main seating floor and two upper levels, but its capacity today is 500 seats. In 1943 some of the facade decoration was taken down, and renovations followed in 1955, 1998 and 2007-2009. An Opera House station on Line 1 of the Ho Chi Minh City Metro serves the square.

Source: Wikipedia, "Ho Chi Minh City Opera House"

What you'll find

• A theatre of 1900 - built in a French Third Republic manner.
• Years as a parliament chamber - before returning to theatre use in 1975.
• Restored for 1998 - the city's tercentenary.
• The A O Show and concerts - what plays there now.

When to go

Year round; evenings for performances. An hour, or a night out.

What to expect

The interior is only seen with a ticket - there are no general tours. Show prices are high by Vietnamese standards. The square outside is busy. The building is best photographed in the evening light.

Nearby

The cathedral and post office are a short walk north-west.

Key facts