Süreyya Opera House

The Süreyya Opera House features a facade adorned with carved stone faces and heavy wrought-iron balconies that look distinctly French. Süreyya İlmen, a retired pasha, built the venue in nineteen twenty-seven with the goal of bringing opera to the Asian side of Istanbul. He intended for it to be a grand music hall, but the stage equipment remained incomplete for decades. For years, the building served primarily as a movie theater, until a thorough renovation finally allowed it to stage its first opera in two thousand seven.