The Royal Opera House, Stockholm

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I love opera, so when traveling to Stockholm, we visited the Royal Opera. We listened to opera, Verdi's "A Masked Ball."
This theater is smaller than our Mariinsky Opera House. And our opera repertoire is much wider. But we liked the show at Royal Opera.

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The Opera house I was viewing was not the original on this site, that was demolished in 1892, and this one was built.
Named Operan ("The Opera"), is written in golden letters above the middle arch on the front facade of this neo-classical building.
I should have popped in for a look, as I have read there is a magnificent gold foyer and a marble grand staircase leading to a three-tiered auditorium.

The Royal Swedish Family of King Carl XVI Gustaf keeps the Royal Box reserved, located in the first tier in the auditorium above the orchestra pit.
The orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera, dates back to 1526, making it one of the oldest orchestras in Europe.
The Royal Swedish Ballet was founded by Gustav III of Sweden in 1773.

If you wish, you can go backstage on a tour, and visit the Royal Suite and visit the Orchestra pit.

ADMISSION.....Adults 100 sek
Guided tours only
Free guided tour with the Stockholm Card.

The Stockholm Opera opened in 1773 and has since been the national stage for opera and ballet in Sweden. It all started with King Gustav III who is known as the "theatre king" (also see Drottningholm). He was fed up of the French performers on stage in Stockholm at the time and decided to set up a Swedish theatre instead. Thus, he bought the property the opera is at, and had it built so it was ready in 1782. Ten years later, he was assassinated whilst at the theatre but nevertheless the building survived another hundred years before being torn down and replaced by another by Axel Anderberg, which stood ready in 1898, and this is what you see today.

From an appearance standpoint, I was more impressed with the opera house then the palace or parliament buildings. It is located right before you enter the Gamla Stan area. Didn't get a chance to venture inside.

Between the National Museum and the Royal Palace there is the Royal Opera House. Built in the end of the 19th century it hosts hundreds of performancies during the Season.
In the backyard there is a club, called Cafe Opera. It's an expensive cafeteria during the day and a very popular nightclub at night.

The Royal Opera in Stockholm was founded in 1773 at the direction of King Gustaf III. A great lover of the arts and an actor and playwright himself King Gustaf wanted to promote the use of Swedish as the language of the upper classes. He decreed that all opera was to be sung in Swedish, and began bringing important European composers to create operas with Swedish poets.
The present building was built in 1898. Today about 250 performances of over thirty different works are given every season (from mid-August to mid-June). The repertoire is varied with a concentration on ‘classical’ opera and ballet.

It's a great building to see, and it has to be beautiful inside, but all the times I went there it was closed unfortunately. I believe on Saturday you can go in and have a look around. Make sure you go here on your first day to Stockholm to ask about opening times.

The Royal Opera House
Not as fancy as the Sydney Opera House, but still.. I'll bet it's older. Haha! The 'backyard' of the Opera is an extremly popular nightclub, where the rich and famous spend lots of hours.. and money.

If you hunger for more culture, a visit to one of the frequent operas or ballets staged in the Stockholm Opera house may be an option.

The Opera house also has a bar and a restaurant very popular with the night crowd.

A beautiful building from the outside. Didn't get a chance to see the inside (but from pictures on the website, it looks equally impressive). Guided tours available.

This is an impressive building that still holds classical concerts. It has some ornate balconies and is the place to go for classical opera and ballet. The statue in front is the Gustav Adolf Torg.

This Opera house of Stockholm is considered to be one of the beautiful old buildings. It deserve a visit and a few photograpghs.