Opera Antwerp
Antwerp's 1907 opera house on the Frankrijklei, a main stage of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
The Flemish Opera was built between 1904 and 1907 on the Frankrijklei, part of the boulevard laid out over Antwerp's demolished Spanish ramparts. Alexis Van Mechelen designed a compact house squeezed into a narrow site, with the auditorium, stage and foyers stacked behind a stone facade; after his death in 1905 the work was finished by the city architect Emile Van Averbeke. The interiors are among the richest of their date in Belgium, with a marble staircase, gilded plasterwork, mosaic floors and a painted ceiling over the horseshoe auditorium.
The theatre was built for a company founded to perform opera in Dutch, and since 2014 it has been one of the two houses of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, the merged opera and ballet company of Flanders, whose other stage is in Ghent. A restoration completed in 2007 returned the decoration and improved the technical installations. Each season brings staged operas, ballet programmes performed by the company's dancers and concerts, most productions playing in both Antwerp and Ghent.
Highlights
- Horseshoe auditorium under a painted ceiling
- Marble staircase and gilded foyers of 1907
- Shared home of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen with Ghent
- Guided tours of the stage and backstage areas
