The national performing arts centre, rebuilt as a Japanese gift after the original burned down in 1971.
The original Khedivial Opera House opened in 1869, built in six months for the celebrations around the opening of the Suez Canal. Khedive Ismail commissioned Verdi to write an opera for it; Aida was not ready in time and the house opened with Rigoletto instead, with Aida premiering there in 1871.
It burned down in October 1971, and Cairo had no opera house for nearly two decades. The site is now a multi-storey car park, which Cairenes point out with some feeling.
The present building
Built as a gift from Japan, opened in 1988 on Gezira island, designed by Japanese architects in a modern style with Islamic geometric detailing. The complex holds a Main Hall of about 1,200 seats, a Small Hall, an Open-Air Theatre, and the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art and the Nile Gallery in the grounds.
It is the base of the Cairo Opera Company, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company and several Arabic music ensembles.
The programme
Genuinely varied and cheap by any international standard: opera, ballet, symphonic concerts, Arabic classical music, Umm Kulthum tributes, Sufi and Nubian ensembles, and the annual Cairo Opera Festival.
The Cairo Symphony plays a full season. Visiting companies appear regularly.
Tickets cost a small fraction of European prices and can usually be bought a day or two ahead.
The dress code
The Main Hall requires a jacket and tie for men, and this is enforced at the door — people are refused entry. Women should dress smartly and modestly.
The Small Hall and the Open-Air Theatre are relaxed.
Check which venue your performance is in when you buy.
The grounds
The complex sits in gardens with the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art — a good and largely ignored collection of twentieth-century Egyptian painting and sculpture, including Mahmoud Mokhtar and the Alexandria school. Ticketed and inexpensive.
The Cairo Tower is a ten-minute walk across the gardens.
Practicalities
Metro Line 3 stops at Opera. Photography inside the halls is not permitted.
Performances start on time, which is not universal in Cairo, and latecomers wait.
