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
Suez Canal Company War (1967-1975). In 1938, Benito Mussolini demanded that Italy have a sphere of influence in the Suez Canal, specifically demanding that an Italian representative be placed on the company's board of directors. Italy opposed the French monopoly over the Suez Canal because under French domination of the company all Italian merchant traffic to its colony of Italian East Africa was forced to pay tolls upon entering the canal. On 26 July 1956, the Egyptian government announced it intended to nationalise the Suez Company, owned by the French and the British, and also closed the canal to all Israeli shipping. This