The historic Elhamra Stage in the western province of İzmir is marking 100 years at the heart of the city’s cultural scene, celebrating a remarkable transformation from a local cinema into one of Türkiye’s signature opera and ballet houses.
Its story begins in 1912, when a civic initiative first set up the İzmir National Library inside the reception quarters of the Salepçioğlu Hacı Ahmet Mansion. To finance a permanent, purpose-built home for the library, planners decided to construct a revenue-generating cinema in its garden, giving birth to the Elhamra Stage.
Architect Tahsin Sermet drafted the plans for the library and cinema buildings in 1915, before World War I forced construction to pause. Work resumed after İzmir’s liberation, and by 1926 the completed theater welcomed its first audiences as the Elhamra Cinema, a landmark also remembered through the years as the National Library Cinema and the National Library Theater.
The venue hosted concerts by numerous musicians and became an important part of the city’s entertainment scene. However, as television reduced cinema attendance and rental income proved insufficient, the building was leased to the Culture and Tourism Ministry in 1978. Following restoration, it began serving the İzmir State Opera and Ballet in 1982.
Since then, Elhamra has hosted the Turkish premieres of major works, including Richard Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos,” Giuseppe Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” and Mozart’s “Idomeneo.” It has also staged world premieres of several operas and ballets, including “Magnificent Suleiman,” “Blue Dot” and “The Kerbela Ballet.” Today, the venue continues to host opera and ballet performances as well as cultural events organized by İzmir Municipality.
Built in a neoclassical style, the two-story structure features a domed roof, arched windows, floral motifs and decorative tile panels. Its interior includes two oval-framed oil portraits of modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, painted by photographer and artist Jean Weinberg, alongside four panels by painter Naci Kalmukoğlu depicting scenes from operas such as “Madama Butterfly,” “Rigoletto” and “The Marriage of Figaro.”
Atatürk watched films from the building’s private boxes on three occasions. The venue also hosted the initial hearings of the 1926 trial concerning an assassination plot against him in İzmir.
Ulvi Puğ, chairman of the İzmir National Library Foundation, described Elhamra and the adjacent National Library building as two of the city’s most treasured landmarks, saying the venue had helped nurture opera and ballet culture despite originally being designed as a cinema. “Culture is an institution that matures over time, like something slowly brewed over a gentle fire. Although it was built as a cinema, it also served to cultivate opera and ballet culture,” Puğ said, adding that the first screening of a sound film in Izmir, “The Jazz Singer,” took place there.
Aytül Büyüksaraç, an artist with the İzmir State Opera and Ballet and an instructor at Dokuz Eylül University State Conservatory, said performing at Elhamra gave her a sense of belonging, describing its ambience as almost mystical.
She also praised its acoustics, saying the venue possessed qualities she believed could not be replicated in other opera houses in Türkiye. Generations of young performers, including members of its children’s choir and ballet, had taken their first steps on its stage before going on to become professional artists, she added.
