The Göteborg Opera

The Göteborg Opera (Swedish: Göteborgsoperan) is an opera house at Lilla Bommen in Gothenburg, Sweden.

History

The Gothenburg Opera house is relatively new: construction started in September 1989 after significant local commitment in the late 1980s (with as many as 6,000 contributors to the new house) and it was completed with great speed. Ground breaking took place in June 1991, and the building was inaugurated in October 1994.

It hosted Melodifestivalen 2000, the Swedish selection to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Building and capacity

The result was a world class opera house with its auditorium built in the classical style. With its stalls and balconies, it has 1,301 seats. The orchestra pit has room for about 100 musicians. The House is shared by opera, ballet, musicals and operettas so the architects had to meet a number of challenges.

It is a large house – 160 metres long and 85 metres wide at its widest – and the building is 32 metres high. The floor area is 28,700 square metres. The main stage is 500 square metres, while the stage opening is 20 metres (66 ft) high and 9 metres (30 ft) wide. There are four movable platforms that each can carry a weight of 15 tons. The stage can be lit by 1000 spotlights with 250 automatic color scrollers and 900 dimmer lights.