Saigon Opera House Restoration Projects

Saigon Opera House Restoration Projects

Since 1943, due to high cost of maintaining the building, the façade of Saigon Opera House was not the same with the original version built in 1900 anymore (Corfield 2013, 225f.). In 1956, when it housed South Vietnam's National Assembly, as seen in the picture, most of the engravings and reliefs of the original building were gone. After the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) seized the South in 1975, the Opera House returned to its function as a theater. In 1998, on the occasion of the 300th year of Saigon's foundation, the government decided to fund for a restoration project of the Opera House, which costed around 1 million dollars at that time (See Corfield 2013, 225–6). The project restored most of the facade of the original building, such as the caryatids, laurel wreaths, etc. (Đoan 2007).
In 2007–2009, the Opera House underwent another major restoration project. In 2007, with the expected cost of around 70,000$, the project restored the rooftop and some of the engravings to their original version, and changed the seats, the floors, and the statues inside the theater. In 2008, the project received additional funding of around 350,000$ by Indochina Land, which is said to mark the first time a foreign fund contributed to the "building and restoring Vietnamese culture and architecture". The theater also received 160.000 € from Lyon, France, for lighting equipment in 2007 (Hồng 2007).

References:
Corfield, Justin. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City. London: Anthem Press.
Đoan, Linh. 2007. "Sẽ phục hồi Nhà hát thành phố." Tuoi Tre. Last modified March 3, 2007 (12 April 2022).
Hồng, Ánh. 2007. "Trùng tu Nhà hát lớn TP HCM." Do Thi. Last modified December 8, 2007 (12 April 2022).

Nguyễn Đỗ Nguyễn