Asmara Opera House

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Asmara Opera House
Auditorium

The Asmara Opera House is a building of late eclectic historicism in the capital of Eritrea , Asmara and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa .

Geographical location

The building was built on the hillside at the western end and on the south side of today's Harnet Avenue , previously: Viale Mussolini , the main street of Asmara, on the corner of Beleza Street .

history

The opera house was completed in 1920 according to plans by Odoardo Cavagnari (1868–1920) and was probably his last work. The design of the immediate area could no longer be completed, as the sponsoring company went bankrupt in 1924 .

The as yet unused area in the vicinity of the opera house fell to the state, which sold it in 1927 to investors who, 10 years later, built shops and a dance hall here. The opera house itself has been converted into a cinema . Since then there is a café in the foyer. The building was used as a cinema until 1957.

After the federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1952, under pressure from the Ethiopian viceroy, the building was sold to the state by the Italian owners, far below its value, according to other sources, to a son-in-law of the then Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie .

After Eritrea gained independence in 1991/93, it was transferred to the state property of the new state. The main office of the national telephone provider Eritel is located in a side building and the actual opera house is occasionally used as a theater. The structural condition is bad.

building

The core of the building is a reinforced concrete construction, which it tries to hide from the outside: it combines elements of neo-Romanesque and neo-renaissance . Since it was built on a hillside, it was possible to design the staircase as a monumental flight of stairs , which leads around a shell-shaped fountain on both sides and is oriented towards a Renaissance loggia with Corinthian columns , which forms a vestibule in front of the building. The rest of the exterior of the building, especially the side facing Beleza Street, is shaped like a castle with battlements and towers.

The vestibule opens to the foyer , which in turn gives access to the auditorium. In addition to the stalls, this has three tiers and holds 750 spectators. The painting of the ceiling of the auditorium comes from Francesco Saverio Fresa and points in the direction of Art Nouveau . The same painter had decorated the arch above the proscenium with a dancing Eritrean woman. This painting no longer exists and was probably removed as early as the 1930s. The stage is relatively small and has no further technical equipment.

World heritage

On 8 July 2017, the has World Heritage Committee of the UNESCO World Heritage application " Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa " adopted and into the World Heritage List inscribed. The Asmara Opera House is part of this world heritage.

literature

  • Jean-Bernard Carillet: Ethiopia & Eritrea . 2009.
  • Leonardo Oriolo: Asmara Style . Asmara 1998, p. 149.

Web links

Commons : Asmara Opera House  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Teklemariam: Asmara , S. 70th
  2. ↑ Teklemariam: Asmara , S. 70th
  3. ↑ Bocresion Haile Gebre Mussie: The Collusion on Eritrea . 2nd edition Asmara 2007, p. 174.
  4. ↑ Teklemariam: Asmara , S. 70th
  5. ↑ Bocresion Haile Gebre Mussie: The Collusion on Eritrea . 2nd edition Asmara 2007, p. 174.
  6. ↑ Teklemariam: Asmara , S. 70th
  7. ↑ Teklemariam: Asmara , S. 70th
  8. ↑ Entry in the World Heritage List .

Coordinates: 15 ° 20 ′ 9 ″  N , 38 ° 56 ′ 6.8 ″  E