Hanoi Opera House: closed until about 2028, and the square

The Hanoi Opera House is closed. It shut to the public after 31 January 2026 for a restoration of about two years. By October 2026 nobody had announced a reopening date.

The closure changes less than it sounds. Most visitors only ever saw the facade, and the facade and the square in front of it are still there to walk past.

What can you still see while the Hanoi Opera House is shut?

You can still see the Hanoi Opera House from August Revolution Square, at the east end of Trang Tien street. The square stays open throughout the work. The front faces west, so late afternoon light puts the yellow stucco in the photograph above at its best.

Expect hoardings and scaffolding on parts of the building while the restoration runs. Which side is covered changes as the work moves, so look before you build an evening around the shot.

What has gone for now is the inside: the marble staircase, the mirrored hall and the auditorium. The tours that used to show them have stopped, and so has every performance, until the building reopens.

Why did the Hanoi Opera House close in 2026?

The 2026 closure is for a scheduled restoration, not for an emergency. The theatre's management said the building was not failing. Funding came through, and the work concentrates on the stage, the technical equipment and the gardens on either side.

A farewell exhibition for the building's 115th anniversary ran until the end of January 2026. A two-year schedule points at a reopening in late 2027 or 2028, but treat that as an estimate rather than a date.

When was the Hanoi Opera House built, and who copied whom?

Builders worked on the Hanoi Opera House from 1901 to 1911, and it staged its first performance on 9 December 1911. French architects designed it after the Palais Garnier in Paris, scaled down to fit a colonial capital rather than an imperial one.

What	Detail
Built	1901 to 1911
First performance	9 December 1911
Model	The Palais Garnier, Paris, at a smaller scale
Auditorium	About 600 seats
Last restored	1995 to 1997, before the current closure
Status in 2026	Closed for a restoration of about two years

The French community wanted its own Paris here, and for decades the building gave them one. The colonial architecture guide covers the quarter it anchors.

What happened on the square in August 1945?

On 19 August 1945 a Viet Minh rally on the square in front of the Opera House turned into the seizure of Hanoi. The August Revolution took the city in a day, and the square carries its name.

The balcony over the entrance is part of that story. Every Vietnamese schoolchild learns it. That history is why Hanoi treats a building put up for French opera as a national monument rather than a colonial leftover.

How does the Hanoi Opera House fit into a walk?

The Hanoi Opera House is the eastern end of a short walk through the French Quarter. Start at Hoan Kiem lake and walk south-east along Trang Tien street, past the old bookshops and the ice-cream counter. The Opera House closes the view.

From there the Metropole hotel is two blocks north. St Joseph's Cathedral is a fifteen-minute walk back west, past the lake. The Hanoi things-to-do guide sets the quarter among the city's other neighbourhoods.

The whole loop is an hour on foot, two with a coffee. It works best late in the afternoon, when the light reaches the Opera House facade and the pavements cool down.

Where else can you see a French opera house in Vietnam?

Saigon has the other one, and it is still open. The Saigon Opera House at the top of Dong Khoi is a decade older, smaller and showier. It runs evening shows aimed at visitors several nights a week.

Hai Phong has a third, small and rarely open, which the Hai Phong hub mentions as the centre of its colonial quarter. Hanoi is also building a new opera house on West Lake. That project is separate from this one, and it will not replace it.

What should you check before planning around the Hanoi Opera House?

Check whether the restoration has finished before booking anything inside. Trust the theatre's own site and box office. Older travel pages still list tours and ticket prices that no longer apply.

Before the closure, a guided tour cost around 120,000 dong and a tour with a short performance about 400,000. Those figures are a guide to what the reopened building may charge, not a price you can pay in 2026.

FAQ

Is the Hanoi Opera House open?

No. The Hanoi Opera House closed to the public after 31 January 2026 for a restoration expected to take about two years, so no tours or performances run inside. No official reopening date had been announced by October 2026; late 2027 or 2028 is the working estimate.

When was the Hanoi Opera House built?

Construction ran from 1901 to 1911, and the first performance was staged on 9 December 1911. French architects designed it after the Palais Garnier in Paris, at a much smaller scale, and it was last restored between 1995 and 1997 before the current closure.

Can you still see the Hanoi Opera House during the restoration?

Yes, from outside. The facade faces August Revolution Square at the east end of Trang Tien street, and the square stays open. Expect scaffolding or hoardings on parts of the building while the work runs, and check what is covered before planning a photograph around it.

Where is the Hanoi Opera House?

The Hanoi Opera House stands at the east end of Trang Tien street in the French Quarter, about ten minutes on foot south-east of Hoan Kiem lake. The Hilton Hanoi Opera hotel sits beside it and the Metropole hotel is two blocks north.

What happened at the Hanoi Opera House in 1945?

On 19 August 1945 a Viet Minh rally on the square in front of the Opera House began the seizure of Hanoi in the August Revolution. The square is named after it, and the building's balcony is part of the story every Vietnamese schoolchild learns.