large squared domes in a style inspired by the French Renaissance. The theatre has a Corinthian colonnade at the first floor, rising to the second, forming a loggia in front of the circle foyer. This is above a canopy over the main ground floor entrances. The theatre lies on an east–west axis. The stage at the western end was deep and wide, and reputedly the first to be flat, rather than raked. The interior was designed by the consulting architect, W. H. Romaine-Walker (1854–1940), after the Opera at Versailles by Gabriel. Stalls and the pit were entered at ground level, with two partly cantilevered tiers above accommodating dress and family circles on the first level, and upper circle, amphitheatre and gallery on the tier above. In all, there were 1,319 seats. Contemporary opinion was critical of the project. Edwin Sachs wrote in his 1897 guide to theatres, "The treatment is considered to be in the French Renaissance style and stone has been used throughout. The detail cannot, however, be termed satisfactory, nor does the exterior architecturally express the purpose of the building." Modern opinion of the theatre is more generous, with English Heritage describing the building as both Phipps's finest work and one of the best planned theatres in London. The building was Grade II* listed in January 1970. Appreciation of the buildings came too late to save the adjacent hotel from redevelopment as the new High Commission for New Zealand, completed in 1963 by British architects Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall and Partners, who also designed the Commonwealth Institute. In 1995, this too was Grade II listed as a fine example of 1960s architecture. The 200-year-old Royal Opera Arcade, built by Nash and Repton, is all that survives of the second theatre and is the earliest example of a London arcade. Performance The current theatre opened on 28 April 1897. Herbert Beerbohm Tree built the theatre with profits from his tremendous success at the Haymarket Theatre, and he owned, managed and lived in the theatre from its construction until his death in 1917. For his personal use, he had a banqueting hall and living room installed in the massive, central, square French-style dome. This building did not specialise in opera, although there were some operatic performances in its early years. The theatre opened with a dramatisation of Gilbert Parker's The Seats of the Mighty. Adaptations of novels by Dickens, Tolstoy,