In a season of old city landmarks falling off Mumbai’s map like autumn leaves, one landmark will come back to life soon. After remaining closed for 25 years, the Royal Opera House is set to reopen in 2016. In its restored avatar, it will host theatre performances, but will not screen films. And it promises to hold the same charm and grandeur that patrons from many years ago fondly remember it for.
The Opera House, that gave its identity to an entire area, shut down in 1991 after becoming economically unviable. From hosting premieres of big-ticket releases, by the mid-1980s it was screening re-runs of released films. The audience numbers dipped, more so with television and VCRs invading living rooms.
Restoration work started in 2010, nearly two decades after it closed, and is slated to be completed by the end of 2016, said R.L. Divakar, manager with Opera House Theatres, adding that the civil work is currently on. He added that fresh applications for licences and no-objection-certificates will now be made.
The structural stability work is over, and work on the interiors of the 500-seat theatre is under way. Old stain glasses have been replaced by new ones that were imported from the U.K., but painted here. Since it is a listed heritage structure, restoration work is being carried out in compliance with norms.
“The first show was held here on October 16, 1911. So we are working towards October, to coincide with that,” said conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah, who is helming the restoration work of the Opera House. “It was an opera house and a performance theatre, so the idea is to bring it back to a performance theatre,” she said, adding that it would have the trappings, rather facilities, of a modern-day theatre including an air-conditioner, lighting and acoustics to keep up with the times.
The restoration work has leaned heavily on archival images and text material as it has to be restored to the pre-1930 era. Ms. Lambah quotes from a 1916 catalogue souvenir of the Opera House that describes in great detail the cold air pipes, the crystal crown, portraits of poets, musicians and authors from bygone days and also the mauve and silver colour scheme – rich details of this landmark structure’s interiors – parts of which may be revived and reproduced in its restored avatar.
The restored Opera House will have the 26 rows of boxes that were removed when it became a cinema hall in the mid-1930s.
The reopening of Opera House would be a historical moment for Mumbai, said filmmaker Madhushree Dutta, who authored Dates.sites: Project Cinema City that maps Mumbai’s history through the lens of cinema.
“Opera House was one of the art deco cinemas. It was like a monument, like the Gateway of India for Mumbai. Other cinemas, such as Metro, came up much later,” said Ms. Dutta, adding that Opera House lost its status when new cinemas came up. Opera House is owned by Gondal Maharaja Jyotendra Sinhji Jadeja and the restoration work has steered clear of any financial help from any business house. The news of its restoration and imminent opening has already brought much cheer.
“Not one of my projects gets the kind of nostalgia and recall that Opera House gets. I am already getting emails from Italian opera professionals asking when they can perform here,” said Ms. Lambah.