Hungarian State Opera House is considered to be amongst the finest opera houses in the world. The auditorium holds 1,261 people. It is horseshoe-shaped and – according to measurements done in the 1970s by a group of international engineers – has the third best acoustics in Europe after La Scala in Milan and the Palais Garnier in Paris. Although many opera houses have been built since, the Budapest Opera House is still among the best in terms of the acoustics. In front of the building are statues of Ferenc Erkel and Franz Liszt. Liszt is the best known Hungarian composer. Erkel composed the Hungarian
Jersey Opera House became a cinema. It ran a regular cinema programme until the German Occupation. When the Germans arrived, there were three cinemas in operation in Jersey: the Forum (opened 1935), the Opera House, and Wests (opened 1909). The Forum, as the largest cinema, was commandeered by the Germans for entertaining the troops. The two remaining cinemas had a mere 32 feature films in stock to last during the Occupation. The Opera House and Wests arranged an alternating programme between themselves, so that a week of cinema was followed by a week of stage performance and that when the Opera House was