Oslo Opera House
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The Oslo Opera House (in Norwegian, Operahuset) is the seat of The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the national opera theatre in Norway. The building lies in Bjørvika, in the center of Oslo, at the head of the Oslofjord. Its builder was Statsbygg, a government-run property owner. The architects were the Norwegian firm Snøhetta who were also the architects of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the Library of Alexandria) in Egypt. The theatre designers were Theatre Projects Consultants based in London, the acoustic designers were BrekkeStrandArup, a joint venture between local consultant Brekke Strand Akustikk and international acousticians Arup Acoustics. Norwegian construction company Veidekke was awarded one of the largest building contracts of the project. The structure provides a total area of 38,500 m² and includes 1,100 rooms, one of which has 1,350 seats and another has up to 400 seats. Total expenditures for the building project were planned at 4.4 billion NOK, but finished ahead of schedule, and 300 million NOK under budget.
The Opera House was finished in 2007 with the opening event held on April 12, 2008. King Harald V of Norway opened the Opera House that evening at a gala performance attended by national leaders and royaly, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
[edit] Main stage
The main stage is 16 meters wide, and can be made up to 40 meters deep.
[edit] Gallery
 The Opera House during construction - photographed in 2005 from the seaside. |
 The Opera House in Bjørvika being built, June 2005. |
 The Opera House during construction, Autumn 2006 |
 The Opera House seen from Ekeberg still during construction, February 2007. |
[edit] External links
- Norwegian National Opera web pages about the Opera (Norwegian)
- Artworks at the new Opera House
- Snøhetta's web pages about the Opera
- Statsbygg's brochure about the Opera
- Veidekke's web pages about the Opera (Norwegian)
- The entire building procedure compressed to a 3 minute-long video
