Night at the Opera at Emirates Palace

John and I recently went to the Emirates Palace for a night at the Opera to see La Boheme. Just being inside this exquisite building is quite a treat even when not going to see the opera. We experienced a night of great entertainment in a beautiful theater inside the palace surrounded by nationalities from all over the world. What an experience!

The Emirates Palace is a seven star hotel (the only one in the world) that contains a beautiful auditorium that is host to concerts and theater throughout the year. During March and April, the city hosts the Abu Dhabi Classic Festival featuring opera productions, the London Symphony Orchestra, a Chopin Festival with piano solo performances, Wynton Marsallis, singers such as El Divo, and the ballet. Many of these events are held in the Emirates Palace.

20,000 workers built the 3 billion dollar Emirates Palace over the course of three years.
Some interesting facts about the hotel are:
There are 128 kitchens in the hotel that serve 200 tons of fresh squeezed orange juice daily.

There are 114 domes in the structure. The central dome reaches a height of 72.6 meters.

1800 people are employed at the hotel.

There are 1002 Chandeliers, the largest weighting 2.5 tons. All the crystals are Swarovski crystals.

There are 8,000 trees on the property.

40 people are on staff just to change light bulbs.

There are 8 escalators and 120 elevators in the hotel.

There are 12 fountains outside and 8 inside.

5 kg of edible gold are served on desserts each year.


The scale of the building is extremely hard to capture in a photograph. The ceilings and doors are of enormous heights. The grand entrance has a huge design in the floor tiles. Everywhere you look is something grand. Many of the ceilings are domes outlined with gold filigre.