The Saigon Opera House, as we still see it, is a hard work in terms of both use and decoration, subject to many fluctuations over time and not in line with its original purpose. The French built theaters throughout Indochina, so it is true that we call it “the beauty is buried.”
The current theater architecture, the third public theater architecture, was built by the French in Saigon; before that, two theaters were built in the present-day area, the Caravelle Hotel. The first building on the site was a wooden theater, built in 1872, burned in 1881, and restored the following year with slightly more sustainable materials. Describing this second theater in 1887, Le Figaro newspaper commented: “It is simple, and the architecture is very primitive – but it is impossible to burn down!”
The La Revue Hebdomadaire, written in August 1893, was more flattering. “It’s so pretty, our Saïgon theatre, with its boxes decorated with hanging plants and its wide verandahs filled with flowers! What more wonderful setting could there be in which to meet pretty ladies wearing the latest fashions, officers in uniforms embroidered in gold, elegant gentlemen, and mandarins dressed in rich silk costumes?”
Then, in 1893, the City Council and the colonial government decided that Saigon needed a bigger and more impressive building, one that better reflected the glory of the French Empire.
In 1895, a design competition was organized, and the submissions of three architects – Ferret, Genet, and Berger – were on the list. Finally, the judges chose the design of Eugène Ferret, who is said to have inspired the Petit Palais in Paris. Early next year, Ferret’s winning plans for “Grand Theater de Saigon”, with a new capacity of 800 seats, were displayed at the “Theater and Music” exhibition in Paris in 1896.
Work began in late 1896, and Saigon’s third and current theatre was completed in late 1899. It was inaugurated on 15 January 1900, in the presence of Saigon mayor Paul Blanchy and Prince Waldemar of Denmark, who was then making a state visit to Indochina. The inaugural performance featured the Asian premiere of Jules Massenet’s opera La Navarraise.
Theater architecture is clearly evident in the Petit Palais in Paris at the same time. The façade is made of a large arch divided into three doors to welcome guests, decorated with highlights from two columns that echo the shape of women, following the style of the Greek Caryatids at the Erechtheion. Above the wall under the façade is a mural of five goddesses painted on the façade tiles, surrounded by a small pediment with a carving of a goddess and flowers, and below is the word “City Theater,” replacing the original “Théatre Municipal” from the French period.
Also along the top of the wall is the relief of a human face and a festoon, which is originally a dramatic mask often seen in the theater. The main highlight of the theater is the statue of two angels sitting side by side, honoring the Lyre guitar, a motif typical of Roman-Greek mythology. Below is a cartouche that originally had two words, “RF” (short for République Française), and below is the head of Pan, the god of country music. All the façade sculptures and decorations constitute the “flamboyant” trend in French art at that time, rooted in Baroque architecture, so the Saigon theater has a different architecture from that of Western theaters left over in Indochina.
But then, after the splendor, it was created. When urban tastes changed with contemporary art movements, they changed the 40s building facade into Art Deco style with new and innovative simple lines both inside and outside, and the building has maintained that image until 1998, when it was restored to a “nearly identical” original architecture during the “300 years of Saigon” anniversary.
Not only was the architecture changed, but the building also changed its function from the theater to the National Assembly, then later to the Cultural House and the Lower House, and finally returned to being a city theater…depressed by the fate of Saigon and the South in recent years.
Although efforts are underway to return the building to its original state following the overhauls in 1998 and 2009, the theater and interior architecture cannot be the same as before. Recently, thanks to the modern internet, we can easily search for old images of this building, and with the clear quality of some photos, it shows that the current patterns of the building are quite wrong and do not do justice to the spiritual meaning of the theater, which is a major shortcoming in restoring this architectural monument.
In this article, our page aims to share the history and overall architecture of this magnificent theater. The next installment will introduce you to the theater’s decorative details and another period, and point out the building’s architectural deviations. Please follow our next installment, forthcoming. The article’s history is drawn from Tim Doling’s blog and newspaper articles.
Source: collected by An
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