Roudaki
Hall Opera House in Tehran
The completion of
the Roudaki Hall Opera House in 1967,
nearly ten
years in the building, filled a major gap
in Tehran's
cultural life by providing a modern opera house
and concert
hall equipped with the very latest
theatrical and
electrical devices.
The hall, built
under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture
and Fine Arts
was named after the blind 10th century poet Roudaki,
the first great
classical poet of Iran, and provides accommodation
for audiences
of up to 1,600. The architect was a Armenian-Iranian,
Dr. Eugene
Aftandilian, who studied in Paris, France.
The floodlit
marble entrance foyer incorporates the traditional Talar motif.
Behind, towers
the mass of the main building.
By contrast to
the Hall's overpowering vertical exterior,
its horseshoe
theater within has the cozy,
white-and-gold,
red-plush air of a 19th century
European opera
house, complete with two tiers of boxes and gallery above.