The riverfront opera house is Shanghai’s latest cultural statement. It features three performance halls and is designed to be accessible to everyone, not just ticket-holders

October 21, 2026 1:50 p.m.

The opera house's spiral staircase connects the riverfront with the roof. Yumeng Zhu

The world’s newest opera house officially opened its doors this week, featuring a bold architectural flair and a soaring spiral staircase that connects city streets to a rooftop stage and observation deck.

The Shanghai Grand Opera House now stands complete on the banks of China’s Huangpu River, a decade after Snøhetta , an architecture firm from Norway, won the international competition to design it.

The nearly 1.6 million square-foot building is home to three separate auditoriums with a combined capacity of 4,200 seats.…