The 22 Most Beautiful Opera Houses in the World

Gilded boxes from the age of candles sit here beside concrete and glass that would have baffled the composers performed inside.

1. 1
   Metropolitan Opera House

   Lincoln Center house opened in 1966, with Chagall murals behind its glass facade.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Estates Theatre

   Prague theatre where Mozart conducted the premiere of Don Giovanni in 1787.
   930pts
3. 3
   Teatro Amazonas

   Rubber-boom opera house of 1896 in the middle of the rainforest at Manaus.
   930pts
4. 4
   La Fenice

   Venice's opera house, named the Phoenix and rebuilt after fires in 1836 and 1996.
   818pts
5. 5
   Hungarian State Opera

   Miklós Ybl's neo-Renaissance house on Andrássy Avenue in Budapest, opened in 1884.
   818pts
6. 6
   Copenhagen Opera House

   Waterfront opera house on the island of Holmen, opened in 2005.
   818pts
7. 7
   Palais Garnier

   Charles Garnier's gilded Paris opera of 1875, with a ceiling painted by Marc Chagall.
   818pts
8. 8
   Vienna State Opera

   Ringstrasse house that opened in 1869 with Mozart's Don Giovanni.
   734pts
9. 9
   Semperoper

   Dresden opera house rebuilt after its destruction in 1945 and reopened in 1985.
   636pts
10. 10
    Gran Teatre del Liceu

    Barcelona's opera house on La Rambla, open since 1847.
    636pts
11. 11
    Teatro Massimo

    Palermo's opera house, the largest in Italy, seen in The Godfather Part III.
    636pts
12. 12
    La Scala

    Milan's opera house since 1778, where Verdi and Puccini premiered their work.
    636pts
13. 13
    Royal Opera House

    Covent Garden home of the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet.
    520pts
14. 14
    Margravial Opera House

    Baroque court opera in Bayreuth, opened in 1748 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
    520pts
15. 15
    Teatro Colón

    Buenos Aires opera house of 1908, famous for some of the best acoustics in the world.
    520pts
16. 16
    Teatro Real

    Madrid's royal opera house, facing the Royal Palace across the square.
    520pts
17. 17
    Sydney Opera House

    Jørn Utzon's sail-roofed harbourside house, opened in 1973.
    382pts
18. 18
    Lviv Opera

    Zygmunt Gorgolewski's 1900 theatre, crowned with bronze statues of Glory, Poetry and Music.
    382pts
19. 19
    Bolshoi Theatre

    Moscow theatre with a bronze quadriga of Apollo above its portico.
    382pts
20. 20
    Odesa Opera House

    Neo-baroque opera house by Fellner and Helmer, opened in 1887 above the Black Sea port.
    0pts
21. 21
    Oslo Opera House

    Marble-clad building on the Oslo fjord with a sloping roof people can walk on.
    0pts
22. 22
    Guangzhou Opera House

    Zaha Hadid's opera house on the Pearl River, opened in 2010.
    0pts

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