The Bucharest National Opera is one of the four national operas in Romania, being the largest lyrical theater in the country.
The current building of the Romanian Opera, with a capacity of 952 seats, was erected in 1953, according to the plans of the architect Octav Doicescu, under the name of the Opera and Ballet Theater for two two large international events: the third World Youth Congress (25 -July 30) and the fourth World Festival of Youth and Students (August 2-14), but it was inaugurated only on January 9, 1954, with the show Lady of Spades, opera by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The facade of the building, modified from the original idea of the architect, has a portico with 3 monumental arches, adorned with statues of four muses, and three access doors, which allow entry into the magnificent hall raised on two levels. The building is listed on the list of historical monuments in Bucharest with the code B-II-m-B-19004.
The performance hall is horseshoe-shaped. The stage is 24 m wide, 20 m deep and 30 m high. On the top floor there is the Opera Museum. In the park in front of the building is the statue of the great musician George Enescu, a bronze sculpture by Ion Jalea. Also in front of the building, but facing the entrance, is the bust of the composer Gheorghe Stephănescu (1843 - 1925), the founder of the Romanian Opera.
On the facade of the building, instead of two smaller arches, which initially framed the three large ones, two bas-reliefs were mounted, one depicting an opera scene (sculptors Zoe Băicoianu and Boris Caragea), and the other, the flight of some ballerinas ( sculptor Ion Vlad). In the performance hall there is a chandelier with 100 arms of gilded crystal.
The Bucharest National Opera adopted a heraldic insignia, created by the heraldist Tudor-Radu Tiron, and a logo in Latin: ARS GRATIA ARTIS which means art for art's sake or, literally, art is the reward of art.