The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in 1962, after extensive refurbishments, which houses the largest stage in Switzerland.

Under the influence of Voltaire opera began to flourish at La Grange aux Etrangers and its successor theatre, the Théâtre de Neuve, both of which were located outside the walls of the city.

After a long period of uninterrupted activity, the Théâtre de Neuve was pulled down in 1880 to be replaced by a new theatre, better suited to the quality and space needed by Geneva's growing population.

Funds for the new theatre project were provided by Charles II, Duke of Brunswick's legacy to the city in 1873, out of which CHF 1.2 million were earmarked to build Geneva's future temple of operatic art.

The municipal government voted to begin construction of the new theatre in 1874, on a 3,000 square metre plot granted by the State of Geneva and formerly occupied by the moats of the ancient city wall, according to plans drawn up by the architect Jacques-Élysée Goss.

The new building, placed between the Musée Rath and the Conservatory of Music, was rated among the ten best opera houses in Europe, close behind the recently completed Palais Garnier in Paris, from which it drew considerable architectural inspiration, in its Second Empire style.

On the main façade, eight large pillars of Jura limestone alternate with six smaller ones, of red granite found in the bed of a mountain river in the Bernese Oberland.

A spacious perron leads to the front building, where marble statues representing Drama, Dance, Music, and Comedy balance the central façade.

They represent important composers of the time: Rossini, Boieldieu, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, Weber, Mozart, and Donizetti and the famous writer—and occasionally composer—Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The two flights of stairs leading to the foyer and the upper tiers were decorated with six large-scale paintings by Léon Gaud representing six types of music : military, pastoral, religious, light, Orphic and Dionysian.

On 1 May 1951 at 12:08 pm, while stagehands were preparing a set for the third act of Wagner's Die Walküre, a terrible fire broke out, destroying the stage, fly loft, grid and gangways and their mechanical and electric machinery.

The safety curtain collapsed and the fire spread to the house, burning everything from the orchestra seats to the third tier, along with the painted panels and medallions in the ceiling and above the proscenium arch.

The only parts of the theatre to escape the flames were the foyer and its external landing, the main entrance and vestibule, and the exterior façades, including those of the stage house.

The reconstruction was finally conducted between 1958 and 1962 by two architects, Charles Schapfer from Geneva, and Marcello Zavelani-Rossi from Milan, with a Polish artist, Jacek Stryjenski, responsible for the decoration of the house.

Since this revival, several renowned directors have managed the Geneva opera house: in chronological order, Marcel Lamy (1962–1965), Herbert Graf (1965–1973), Jean-Claude Riber (1973–1980), Hugues Gall (1980–1995), Renée Auphan (1995–2001), Jean-Marie Blanchard (2001–2009), and Tobias Richter (2009–2019).

The fly loft machinery operates on a high-pressure hydraulic motor system, allowing sets to be changed silently and with great speed (1.5 metres per second (4.9 ft/s)).

With the new computerised system, fifteen motors can be run simultaneously from a single control panel, operating the battens, the light deck and proscenium curtain, which reveals or hides the stage during intermissions and can be used in different opening styles (Austrian, Venetian, pleated or tableau).

Manoeuvring the gigantic mechanical elements with an unautomated electro-hydraulic system required important staff resources in order to guarantee minimum security.