THE Shanghai Grand Opera House, a contemporary architectural wonder and new city landmark, is preparing to face the public.

Six years in the making, since it broke ground on Dec 18, 2019, the 146,000-square-metre complex, sitting on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River beside the Shanghai Expo Culture Park, houses three main performance venues with a combined 4,200 seats. It stands as one of Shanghai’s most ambitious cultural projects and “the final piece in the city’s theatrical ecosystem”, says Zhang Xiaoding, general manager of Shanghai Grand Opera House Management Co.

Of the three theaters in the complex, the largest is Harmony Hall with 2,000 seats. It is designed for opera, ballet and symphonic performances. It boasts one of the largest theater stages in Asia at 3,500 sq m and enables rapid scene changes, allowing up to three or four different productions in a single week.

Then there is the Soar Theatre, with 1,200 seats, tailored for experimental and original theater, music and dance productions. The smallest of the three, the Open Stage, is defined by a 13-meter glass wall overlooking the park. It is a flexible space that supports immersive theater and chamber music.

The new opera house “filled the last blank in the cluster of theaters in Pudong”, Zhang says. With its launch, “theaters on both sides of the Huangpu River will form a complete ecosystem. In the future, they will each have their distinctive function and positioning, complementing each other”.

In terms of operating scale or its overall size, the Shanghai Grand Opera House will be the “highest-standard, top-quality theater in Shanghai”, she says.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026