Mumbai’s colonial-era opera house restored to past glory

Royal Opera House was closed in 1993, and sat crumbling for years. It was put on the World Monuments Fund list of endangered buildings. Photo: AFP

Royal Opera House was closed in 1993, and sat crumbling for years. It was put on the World Monuments Fund list of endangered buildings. Photo: AFP

MUMBAI: India’s only surviving opera house has been restored to its colonial-era glory, reopening to the public more than two decades after it closed in disrepair.

Once the place to be seen for Mumbai’s great and good it was forced to close in the 1990s after years of financial struggles.

But a painstaking seven-year project has transformed the century-old building in Mumbai from a crumbling wreck in danger of collapse to an ornate replica of its 1916 glory days, albeit with some important updates.

“One of the biggest challenges was bringing in modern acoustics, sound, lighting and air conditioning, all the requirements of a 21st century theatre, while ensuring it didn’t jar with restoring a listed interior,” architect Abha Narain Lambah told AFP.

The Royal Opera House was built in a Baroque style complete with Italian balustrades, marble statues, crystal chandeliers and a gold ceiling. It was inaugurated by Britain’s King George V in 1911 and completed in 1916. Only operas were performed on stage for its first two decades—entertainment for the Indian elite and British administrators involved in the running of the empire.

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