Royal Opera House (Mumbai)

Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
Location within Mumbai
General information
Architectural style	Baroque design - a blend of European and Indian Architectural style
Town or city	Mumbai
Country	India
Coordinates	18°57′22″N 72°48′56″E / 18.956111°N 72.815556°E / 18.956111; 72.815556
Construction started	1909
Completed	1912
Client	Bombay Presidency
Design and construction
Architect	Maurice Bandmann & Jehangir Framji Karaka

Royal Opera House, also known as Opera House in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), is India's only surviving opera house. Situated on Charni Road, near Girgaum Chowpatti beach, the adjective ‘Royal’ was prefixed to ‘Opera House’ to reflect the fact that its foundation stone was laid during the British Raj in 1909, and King George V inaugurated the building in 1911 while the building was still under construction. Work on the Royal Opera House was completed in 1912, although additions were made to the building up to 1915. After years of neglect following its closure in 1993, restoration work started in 2008. The exterior restoration was completed in 2011 and restoration was completed in 2016. The area around the theatre is also referred to as the Opera House in Mumbai.The Opera House area has many jewellery, metal and IT companies. On 21 October 2016, after a gap of 23 years, Royal Opera House hosted performance of Bombay-born British soprano Patricia Rozario and her husband, pianist Mark Troop. The private event was organised by Opera House owners Maharaja Joytendrasinhji Jadeja and Maharani Kumud Kumari Jadeja of Gondal, Gujarat.

Inaugurated in 1912, the Opera House was acquired in 1952 by Maharaja Bhojrajsingh of Gondal. The Maharaja took the property on a 999-year lease and attempted to run it as a self-sustaining commercial enterprise.

The Royal Opera House was conceived in 1908 by Maurice Bandmann, a famous entertainer from Calcutta, and Jehangir Framji Karaka, who headed a coal brokers’ firm. A baroque design incorporating a blend of European and Indian detailing was chosen for the structure. A long frontage was created to let carriages drive up to the entrance. Twenty-six rows of boxes behind the stalls were put up for the best view of the stage. The ceiling was constructed to enable even those in the gallery to hear every word uttered by the performers.

Initially, the opera house was used strictly for staging operas, and catered almost exclusively to the city's elite - British officials, a few Europeans, a westernized layer (mostly Parsi) of Indians. After the first world war, times and tastes changed even within this tiny section of society, and it was no longer imperative for colonial officers and deracinated Indians to exhibit interest or knowledge of the opera, or similar cultural markers, to establish that they belonged to the ton. It became difficult to maintain and run the opera house, a sumptuous building, on the income from the opera alone. Also, with the coming of "talkie" movies in the early 1930s, the popularity of cinema increased. In 1935, the opera house was modified to accommodate movie screenings and fashion shows. In 1947, the