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During the 1860s, when the centre was rebuilt, an Opera House was also constructed; symbolically, the building faced west, overlooking Midan Opera and the modern city rather than Islamic Cairo. Although the opening night saw a lavish production of Rigoletto, it was surpassed a year later by the anniversary celebrations, when an opus that had been specially commissioned to have an imperial Egyptian theme was first performed - Verdi's Aida. An equestrian statue of Ibrahim Pasha, by Cordier, honours Ismail's father. Though still the sprucest bit of greenery in central Cairo, the square lost its namesake when the Opera House burned down in 1971; a multistorey car park now occupies the site. Almost a century after Ismail mortgaged Egypt to foreign creditors, anti-colonial resentments exploded here on " Black Saturday " (January 26, 1952). The morning after British troops had killed native policemen in Ismailiya, demonstrators were enraged to find an Egyptian police officer drinking on the terrace of Madame Badia's Opera Casino (where the Opera Cinema stands today). A scuffle began and the nightclub was wrecked; rioting spread quickly, encouraged by the indifference of Cairo's police force. As ordinary folk looted, activists sped around in jeeps torching foreign premises. Similarly, during the bread riots of 1977, nightclubs and boutiques were specifically targeted by the radical Islamic group Al-Taqfir w'al-Higrah (Repentance and Holy Flight).
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