Saigon Opera House, the one you can still go inside

The Saigon Opera House is the colonial theatre you can still enter. Hanoi's closed for restoration in 2026; this one, a decade older, sells tickets most evenings and keeps its front steps open to anyone.

The theatre opened on 1 January 1900 at the top of Dong Khoi, and its official name is the Ho Chi Minh City Municipal Theatre. For twenty years in the middle of its life it was a parliament, which is the stranger and better part of its story.

How do you get inside the Saigon Opera House?

The only way into the Saigon Opera House is with a performance ticket. No daytime tour runs, and the doors stay shut between shows. The evening programme is the A O Show on most weeknights. The city's ballet, symphony and opera company stages its own seasons on other dates.

The show is the easier ticket and the one built for visitors. The house companies are the better way to see the auditorium full of the people it belongs to, and their seats usually cost less.

What is the A O Show, and what does it cost?

The A O Show is a contemporary circus by Lune Production, about an hour long, built from bamboo poles, baskets and acrobatics. Its subject is the shift from southern village life to the city. It needs no Vietnamese, which is why most foreign visitors who go inside see this.

Shows start around 6pm on the nights they run, and tickets are not refundable or exchangeable. The schedule follows the theatre's own calendar, so confirm the date on Lune's site before you pay a reseller.

When was the Saigon Opera House built?

The theatre went up from 1898 and opened on 1 January 1900, eleven years before Hanoi's. The style is French Third Republic, and the arched front is modelled on the Petit Palais in Paris rather than on an opera house.

The cover shows it head on: the great arch, the winged figures on the roofline and the caryatids holding up the porch. Much of that decoration came back in the 1998 restoration, after a 1955 rebuild had simplified it. That is why photographs from the 1960s look severe.

Why did the Saigon Opera House become a parliament?

From 1956 to 1975 the building housed the National Assembly of South Vietnam, and later its Lower House. The auditorium that had seated about 1,800 for opera became a chamber of deputies, with the street outside its stage for protest and ceremony alike.

The building returned to theatre use in 1976, after reunification. A renovation in 2007 to 2009 brought it to its present form, with about 500 cushioned seats.

What is around the Saigon Opera House?

Lam Son square, where Dong Khoi meets Le Loi, is the old heart of colonial Saigon. The Continental hotel stands on one side of the Opera House and the Caravelle on the other. Both were the base of the foreign press in the 1960s.

The Central Post Office, the cathedral and the People's Committee building are a few minutes' walk away. The Ho Chi Minh City things-to-do guide reckons forty-five minutes for the post office, cathedral and Opera House at a stroll.

The Opera House station of Metro Line 1 sits under the square. Ben Thanh market is ten minutes away on foot down Le Loi.

When should you photograph the Saigon Opera House?

Photograph the theatre in the early morning, before the traffic around Lam Son square builds and while the facade sits in soft light. The front steps are a public space, and by late afternoon they fill with wedding shoots and students.

After dark the building is floodlit and the square in front becomes a meeting point. That is when the show crowd arrives, and when the colonial architecture guide suggests walking the rest of the district.

Is the Saigon Opera House worth an evening?

An evening here is worth it if you want to see a French colonial building used for what it was built for. The auditorium is small, red and gilded, and every seat is close to the stage.

The ticket is less worth the money if you only want to tick off the building. The facade is free, and it is most of what makes the place famous. The Hanoi Opera House is the sibling to compare it with, and for now you can only see that one from outside.