The Egyptian Opera House, or the General Authority of the National Cultural Center, opened in 1988 and is located in its new building, which was built with a grant from the Japanese government to its Egyptian counterpart in the land of the island in Cairo. The house was built in the Islamic style. This great cultural edifice, which opened on October 10, 1988, is considered the alternative to the Khedivial Opera House, which was built by Khedive Ismail in 1869 and burned down on October 28, 1971, after it remained a cultural beacon for 102 years. The history of the construction of the old opera house dates back to the boom period witnessed by Khedive Ismail in all fields. Khedive Ismail ordered the construction of the Khedivial Opera House in the Azbakeya neighborhood in central Cairo on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal, where he intended to invite a large number of European kings and queens. The opera was built in just six months after it was designed by Italian architects Afoscani and Ross. Khedive Ismail's desire was directed towards an Egyptian opera in which the Khedive Opera House will open, which is the Opera of Aida, whose music was set by the Italian composer Verdi, but circumstances prevented it from being presented at the time of the opening of the ceremony. Crown Prince of Prussia. The Khedivial Opera House, which burned at the dawn of October 28, 1971, could accommodate 850 people, and the
Under the new Opera House officially in 1988 under the name "Cultural and Educational Center", and so named because the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) does not grant aid to entertainment projects and grants them to development projects, health and education only. In 1989, a decision was issued to establish the center with its current name “The National Cultural Center” as a public authority that includes the Egyptian Opera and the artistic house of music “operal and heritage groups”.
The National Cultural Center “The New Opera House” is located in the southern part of Zamalek Island, located between the two branches of the Nile in central Cairo, and within walking distance of cultural and social edifices, most notably the Museum of the sculptor Mahmoud Mukhtar, the statue of leader Saad Zagloul, Freedom Park, Al Ahly Club and Umm Kulthum Street. All of which are spaces for daily living for the Egyptians. The unique location of the building in the southern part of the island, the abundance of the Nile waters in this area, and the abundance of trees in the surrounding garden made this place an excellent natural content for the new opera house. The facade of the main entrance to the Opera House overlooks the statue of Saad Zagloul at the entrance to the Qasr al-Nil Bridge. The tribal side overlooks Tahrir Street, the waterfront overlooks Al-Ahly Club, and the western facade (background) is overlooking Jabalia Street (formerly Umm Kulthum).
The Japanese government has drawn the advice of Nikken Sekkei to design the building and supervise its implementation. The company has conducted an extensive study about the old opera house, which included about 800 seats. The company also made some detailed studies on Egyptian theaters and modern international theaters. Based on these studies, the company submitted its proposal for the design, as well as the spaces and needs for the new opera house. The plot of land on which the project is built constituted an obstacle in the design due to its irregularity, so the company put forward several design proposals until the building settled on this final form, which was designed by the Japanese architect Koichiro Shikida, and he designed it in the modern Islamic style according to The requests of the Egyptian side, which included a number of engineers specialized in the architectural, plastic and technical aspects. Where the Egyptian side, represented by this technical committee formed for this purpose by the Ministry of Culture, gave some instructions and directions to reach the appropriate form for the general design, especially the shape of the dome and the arches so that they appear homogeneous with the general shape of the project, in addition to their suitability to the Egyptian environment built on its lands. The domes were placed to give the project an Islamic character, as well as the puppets on the edge of the building from the top, and the void of the large dome does not appear from the inside, as it is installed on iron trusses. In order not to cause any visual obstructions to the surrounding buildings, the new opera building was built as low as possible, as the designer tried to scale the heights from the Museum of Modern Art building (as the lowest height) to the planetarium (as the highest height on the site), where the dome represents the The entrance is covered at the lowest level in height, then it is gradually increased in height in the main hall until it reaches the maximum height of the building in the large dome above the stage of the stage (42.5 from the level of the ground floor). The designer also took into account in his design the climatic changes of the Egyptian environment, which is characterized by strong sunlight in the summer and the presence of strong differences in temperature between noon and night, so the heat-repellent properties of external walls and ceilings were stimulated, and the size of windows was reduced as much as possible, as well as an interior garden and secured spaces Half open to provide natural ventilation, in addition to the design of an outdoor open theater with a capacity of 600 movable seats suitable for summer shows and seminars. As for the building materials used, it was taken into account to use local, long-lasting building materials as much as possible. For example, a local Egyptian artificial stone was used in the external walls in order to reduce the financial burden of maintenance operations in the future.
The idea of building the new opera house began as an alternative to the Khedivial Opera House, which burned at the dawn of the twenty-eighth of October 1971 AD. The Council of Ministers met three days after its burning and approved an amount of 200,000 pounds to start building the new opera house. In May 1972 AD, Muhammad Abdel Qader Hatem, Deputy Prime Minister for Culture and Information, laid the foundation stone on the land of the island in front of the Revolutionary Command Council building, however, it was not implemented. President Anwar El-Sadat also expressed on more than one occasion his interest in rebuilding the Opera and that the financial funds needed to rebuild it would be provided, but that did not happen. During that period, there were many projects submitted by foreign think tanks to establish the opera house, as a German expert house offered to build the opera at a cost of 60 million pounds, and one of the consulting houses in Austria and some investors presented an integrated cultural and commercial project in which Egypt does not bear any costs, provided that Austria takes advantage of The profits of the project for a period of 35 years, after which they will be transferred to Egyptian ownership. The last of these proposals was an Italian project submitted to Abdel Hamid Radwan, the Minister of Culture at the time, but all these projects were unsuccessful to see the light of day. In the early eighties, Mr. Yosuke Nakai, the Ambassador of Japan in Egypt, consulted with officials in charge of the music sector at the Egyptian Ministry of Culture about the possibility of allocating one of the grants offered by Japan to Egypt for the construction of an educational cultural center. year 1983 AD. On the occasion of this visit and in support of cultural relations between the two countries, the Japanese government decided to provide an irrevocable grant of 6 billion and 485 million Japanese yen (33 million US dollars) to build a new opera house in Cairo as a project (building an educational and cultural center). In August 1983, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) held talks with an Egyptian working group, chosen by the Minister of Culture, Dr. Abdel Hamid Radwan, to implement the project. As a result of these discussions and studies, which continued until the end of the first quarter of 1985, it was agreed on the interior and exterior design of the building, which was designed by Nikken Sekkei company according to the requests of the Egyptian side, and the design was characterized by a modern Islamic architectural character. It was also agreed that the Japanese side would construct the house with its contents from the approved grant, and that the Egyptian side would demolish the buildings opposed to the project at the expense of the Ministry of Culture, provided that the entire project would be completed within 36 months. On March 31, 1985, President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone for the Opera House on the island, and in May of the same year, the Japanese company Kajima began building and implementing designs. The construction and building works were completely completed on March 31, 1988, ie 34 months after the start of work. About 30 Japanese engineers and administrators participated in the implementation of the project, along with about 500 Egyptians, all of them workers except for six engineers.
The new opera house was inaugurated on October 10, 1988 in the presence of President Hosni Mubarak, Japanese Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, the younger brother of the Emperor of Japan, and King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who was then governor of Riyadh. Cairo witnessed that night a great official, cultural and artistic celebration. Groups of percussionists and cavalry troupes who carried colored flags spread out in formations starting from the first Qasr El-Nil Bridge from the side of Tahrir Square to its end, and police students surrounded the hall of the statue of Saad Zagloul overlooking the opera and lit candles And the candelabra inside the inner courtyard of the opera. In the midst of these processions, Mubarak proceeded to cut the ribbon and unveil the memorial plaque. The great Egyptian and international musicians, artists, intellectuals, and innovators gathered around him, along with the guests of the celebration, including ministers, princes, ambassadors and political figures. The poet Mamoun El-Shinawy, the author of the opening anthem, did not call the “Anthem of Jihad” as well as Naguib Mahfouz, who received the Nobel Prize a few days later. The program of the opening ceremony, directed by the artist Karam Mutawa, started with the launch of 800 flames of fireworks in the sky of Cairo. Taha Nagy, then the first paragraphs of the ceremony began with the Japanese program, where Japan participated in the opening ceremony with Japanese kabuki performances for the first time in Africa and the Middle East. , including 15 supporting actors and singers, along with technicians and administrators working in the theater. The troupe presented a musical and dance play titled "Shunkan", and the "Fuji Musume" dance, which means "The Virgin of Wisteria Plants." This was followed by the Egyptian program in which he presented music from the musical heritage of the Umm Kulthum band led by Hussein Junaid, during which he presented a muwashshah “Ghant La Tala’a” by Sheikh Mahmoud Sobeih, and “Adara al-Hawa” from “Huda’s Operetta” by Sheikh Sayed Darwish, to then play solo on the piano, the pianist Ramzi Yassin. Then the Conservatoire Orchestra, led by Maestro Ahmed Al-Saeedi, played the first movement of Beethoven’s Trio Concerto, then “Anthem of Jihad” by musician Mohamed Abdel Wahab after it was arranged by Maestro Mustafa Nagy orchestral arrangement, and Nevin Allouba and Sobhi Badir sang, and finally presented the Cairo Opera Choir led by Maestro Youssef Al-Sisi, the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. On the sidelines of the opening, an exhibition of 30 works by the Italian artist “Umberto Mastroianni” was opened, in appreciation of the Italian role in building the ancient opera, as the Italian architects Pietro Afoscani and Ruzzi designed its building, and it was inaugurated with “Rigoletto” by Giuseppe Verdi on November 1, 1869. The exhibition includes 29 artistic posters signed by international Italian artists representing thirty years of cooperation between the Egyptian Opera and the Italian Opera. The current opera includes 3 theaters: the large 1200 seat, the small 500 seat, and the 600 seat open, and played an important role in enriching the artistic movement in Egypt, as it includes the Cairo Opera Ballet Troupe, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the National Arab Music Ensemble, and the Modern Theater Dance Ensemble. The opera holds cultural salons, plastic art exhibitions, and summer music festivals for amateur bands. It also displays the works of major artists and international bands in their various directions. On Wednesday, April 25, the first concerts of the Egyptian Opera House were held at the King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh, under the patronage of the Saudi and Egyptian Ministers of Culture.