The Beauty and Grandeur of Opera Houses Around the World

By Jenny Zhang on May 1, 2015

For centuries, opera houses have stood as the symbol of a nation's wealth and grandeur. David Leventi celebrates these cultural landmarks by photographing the interiors of world-famous opera houses around the globe, capturing the spectacular architecture and ornate decor of vast halls in Budapest, Paris, Buenos Aires, and more.

Alternating between the vantage point of a singer and the perspective of an audience member, Leventi presents a two-fold picture of the opera experience in stunning, large-format detail. From center stage, stars gaze out at the endlessly extending rows of seats underneath magnificently elaborate ceilings. On the flip side, the audience is treated to the beautiful sights and sounds of talented singers standing beneath velvet red curtains.

“The project is in remembrance of my grandfather Anton Gutman, a cantor trained right after World War II by Helge Rosvaenge, a famous Danish operatic tenor who sang regularly with the State Operas in Berlin and Vienna,” says Leventi. “While Gutman was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in the Soviet Union, he performed for prisoners and officers. Nearly a half-century later, I grew up listening to him sing while he walked around our living room. The spaces included in this project are houses in which my grandfather never got the chance to perform. As the son of two architects, I experience an almost religious feeling walking into a grand space such as an opera house.”

Above: Teatro Municipale, Piacenza, Italy Curtain, Palais Garnier, Paris, France