Malmö Opera began as Malmö City Theatre, built between 1933 and 1944 to designs by Sigurd Lewerentz, David Helldén and Erik Lallerstedt and opened on 23 September 1944. The building combines a Functionalist arrangement of volumes with classical features such as the marble-clad columns of the entrance front, and the foyer is decorated with works by Carl Milles and Isaac Grünewald. The amphitheatre-shaped auditorium holds up to 1,511 and can be reduced in size with movable walls, while the stage, with a revolve 20 metres in diameter, is among the largest in Europe. Ingmar Bergman directed here, including The Merry Widow in 1954. Since a reorganisation in the early 1990s Malmö Opera has used the main stage for opera, operetta and musicals. It has been a listed building since 1994.
The Malmö Opera, opened in 1944 in Functionalist style, is Scandinavia's largest opera house — the close cooperation with Danish Copenhagen across the Öresund Bridge makes it a bridgehead of the Öresund region.
At a glance
- Type
- Opera house
- Location
- Malmö, Sweden
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