Italian Egyptians which was to be inaugurated in 1871 with the "Aida" by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The Khedivial Opera House or "Cairo Royal Opera House" was the original Opera House in Cairo. It was inaugurated on November 1869 and burned down on October 1971. The opera house was built on the orders of the Khedive Ismail to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. The Italian Egyptian architects Pietro Avoscani and Mario Rossi designed the building. Pietro Avoscani, before his 1891 death in Alexandria, created even the famous "Corniche" of Alexandria. The fondness of Egyptian monarchs towards Italy appeared in
Raid on the Suez Canal when the decision was made that "the obvious line of actual defence of the eastern frontier of Egypt is the Suez Canal." The long canal had a railway running along its whole length and was supplied with water from the west, while only brackish wells were to the east. The length of the canal included about of the Great and Little Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah, which divided the three sectors organised for the defence. These were, The northern stretch of the canal was shortened by by cutting the Canal bank at Port Said on 25 November to flood a