# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published September 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-22-most-beautiful-opera-houses-in-the-world*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Metropolitan Opera House** — score 1000/1000
   Lincoln Center house opened in 1966, with Chagall murals behind its glass facade.
2. **Estates Theatre** — score 930/1000
   Prague theatre where Mozart conducted the premiere of Don Giovanni in 1787.
3. **Teatro Amazonas** — score 930/1000
   Rubber-boom opera house of 1896 in the middle of the rainforest at Manaus.
4. **La Fenice** — score 818/1000
   Venice's opera house, named the Phoenix and rebuilt after fires in 1836 and 1996.
5. **Hungarian State Opera** — score 818/1000
   Miklós Ybl's neo-Renaissance house on Andrássy Avenue in Budapest, opened in 1884.
6. **Copenhagen Opera House** — score 818/1000
   Waterfront opera house on the island of Holmen, opened in 2005.
7. **Palais Garnier** — score 818/1000
   Charles Garnier's gilded Paris opera of 1875, with a ceiling painted by Marc Chagall.
8. **Vienna State Opera** — score 734/1000
   Ringstrasse house that opened in 1869 with Mozart's Don Giovanni.
9. **Semperoper** — score 636/1000
   Dresden opera house rebuilt after its destruction in 1945 and reopened in 1985.
10. **Gran Teatre del Liceu** — score 636/1000
   Barcelona's opera house on La Rambla, open since 1847.
11. **Teatro Massimo** — score 636/1000
   Palermo's opera house, the largest in Italy, seen in The Godfather Part III.
12. **La Scala** — score 636/1000
   Milan's opera house since 1778, where Verdi and Puccini premiered their work.
13. **Royal Opera House** — score 520/1000
   Covent Garden home of the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet.
14. **Margravial Opera House** — score 520/1000
   Baroque court opera in Bayreuth, opened in 1748 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
15. **Teatro Colón** — score 520/1000
   Buenos Aires opera house of 1908, famous for some of the best acoustics in the world.
16. **Teatro Real** — score 520/1000
   Madrid's royal opera house, facing the Royal Palace across the square.
17. **Sydney Opera House** — score 382/1000
   Jørn Utzon's sail-roofed harbourside house, opened in 1973.
18. **Lviv Opera** — score 382/1000
   Zygmunt Gorgolewski's 1900 theatre, crowned with bronze statues of Glory, Poetry and Music.
19. **Bolshoi Theatre** — score 382/1000
   Moscow theatre with a bronze quadriga of Apollo above its portico.
20. **Odesa Opera House** — score 0/1000
   Neo-baroque opera house by Fellner and Helmer, opened in 1887 above the Black Sea port.
21. **Oslo Opera House** — score 0/1000
   Marble-clad building on the Oslo fjord with a sloping roof people can walk on.
22. **Guangzhou Opera House** — score 0/1000
   Zaha Hadid's opera house on the Pearl River, opened in 2010.

Tags: travel, architecture, opera