Süreyya Opera House

Nightlife, Romantic, What’s New — By Aysegul Surenkok on January 1, 2011 at 4:13 am

Süreyya Opera House is a very nostalgic place, a tiny opera house, in Kadıköy. It was founded for the first time in 1927 by politician Süreyya İlmen Pasha (both designed and built). It was intended to be an musical theater when it was initially founded; however lack of proper sound equipments and facilities, operettas could not be staged here. Funny enough, although Süreyya İlmen Pasha intended for a European type modern musical facility, there was no artist room inside the theater. Hence, only theaters were staged for some time.

In 1930, special sound equipment were brought in and the place was turned into a movie-plex (a cinema). Many of my generation also know Süreyya as the Süreyya Sineması (the Süreyya Movie Center) -as it was kept like that until 2007.

In 2007 the renovation came underway again and the complex was reverted back into an opera house. In 1950 Süreyya İlmen donated the building to Darüşşafaka Foundation (an NGO seeking after the welfare of orphans). Under the governance of Darüşşafaka Foundation few reconstructive initiatives were undertaken to modernize the place and to attract the proper audience that it deserved. These initiatives were respectively in 1996 and in 2003, focusing on the audience hall and the equipments.

When none of these prime initiatives gave fruits, the Kadıköy Municipality leased the building from the foundation around 2005 and renovated the entire building as it should have been renovated. Süreyya was reopened in 2007 as the Süreyya Opera House and the oratorio Yunus Emre was performed at the opening. Mr. İlmen’s dream of an opera house had finally come true.

The opera house is now home to Istanbul State Opera and Ballet and there are performances three days every week. It is still a small stage; but the inside of the building is very magnificent. One shall and should not, never, compare it to La Scala of Milan, but in its own category, Süreyya is a bewildering building.

[Image from the official website of the Opera House]

The above image depicts a corner balcony on the upper / second floor of the opera house. From this close-up view one can also easily see the figures and figurines on the ceiling. That you cannot that easily see once you are inside and under the dim light.

via Süreyya Opera House | Istanbul | NileGuide.