A Spiral Staircase Climbs to the Roof of Snøhetta's New Shanghai Opera House
A spiral staircase climbs from the ground to the roof of the Shanghai Grand Opera House, the 4,200-seat building by Snøhetta that opened on the Huangpu River on 17 October 2026. The roof, nearly 40 meters up on a 45-meter building, is its public space. Snøhetta describes it as a stage, an observation deck and a gathering place open throughout the year.
The 146,786-square-meter building is a resident opera house. A single sweeping roof, shaped in response to the ebb and flow of the river, covers its restaurants, exhibition spaces, education centers and three auditoriums.
The roof
The staircase frames views toward the river and the skyline on the way up. At the top is the "Chinese Fan" outdoor observation deck. Roof visits have run in announced windows, 1 to 7 October and 27 to 31 October, in timed slots. The late-October round also covered the ground-floor public lobby and an opera exhibition. Entry has been 50 yuan, half price for visitors 70 and over and students 18 and under.
Three halls, dark to light
Against the white exterior, the auditoriums move from darker to lighter tones. Harmony Hall, the 2,000-seat main room, rises through five levels, from stalls and parterre to three balconies, and reads as a volume carved from a single block stained dark red, shaped to resonate with the human voice. It hosted the opening concert, which also opened the 25th China Shanghai International Arts Festival, with conductors Long Yu, Zhang Guoyong and Xu Zhong and the tenor Juan Diego Flórez.
Soar Theatre, with 1,200 seats, is suited to baroque and classical opera, operetta and theater. American Ballet Theatre performs Swan Lake there from 12 to 15 November.
The 1,000-seat Open Stage has an adaptable stage and seating for experimental formats, and a full-height window looking out to the park and the roof.
An opera house past the auditorium
Snøhetta won the international competition in 2016 and was commissioned in 2019 in a consortium with East China Architectural Design & Research Institute, Theatre Projects and Nagata Acoustics. The studio explored the same idea of an opera house open beyond its audiences at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo. "Public buildings should contribute to public life," Snøhetta said. "Opera houses have unavoidable barriers, but architecture can help soften them." In Shanghai, the building contributes to the regeneration of the Expo Houtan district, with a radial landscape tying it to the park, the city and the river.
The opening season
Teatro La Fenice's Tosca was the building's first opera, on 22 October. The season also included the Mariinsky's Aida and Staatsoper Unter den Linden's Der Rosenkavalier under Christian Thielemann, its Asian premiere, on 8 November.
Shanghai Grand Opera House, Huangpu River waterfront, Expo Houtan, Shanghai. Roof visits, when a visit window is announced, by timed booking in the opera house's WeChat mini program.
