BOSTON (AP) – The 75-year-old Opera House is set to reopen in June after a $40 million restoration project, a decade after the city declared it one of the most endangered historic places in the country.

The Opera House’s grand ceiling has been redone by 35 artisans working six days a week for four months with hundreds of gallons of plaster and 14,000 square feet of bronze leaf.

“You know what it is? It’s magical,” director of construction, Stephen Marinelli, told The Boston Globe. “This is going to be one of the top musical theater venues in the country.”

The theater’s original design, modeled after the Paris Opera House, has been preserved, with sprinkler heads hidden within bronzed flower buds and Italian muses on murals recreated from yellowed photographs.

Workers scraped away at layers of floor and wall coverings to reveal the original decor and brought in matching custom-milled burgundy silk wall fabric and brown-and-gold carpeting. “This is the difference between renovation and restoration,” Marinelli said.

In the next six months before the June reopening, about half a dozen lounges still have to be restored, along with a VIP reception area, a writing alcove, a hospital room and the huge lobby and sculpture gallery.

The Opera House, built in 1928 as one of the great vaudeville theaters of its time, boasted marble fireplaces from Italy, mirrored French doors and a dozen gigantic hand-blown chandeliers. The ornate design by New York architect Thomas Lamb included Baroque, Venetian, French Rococo and Renaissance elements.

The theater opened as the Keith Memorial, dedicated to B.F. Keith, creator of the largest American vaudeville circuit. When movies brought an end to live performances, the Keith became the Savoy movie theater.

In 1978, Sarah Caldwell and the Opera Company of Boston bought the theater and renamed it the Opera House. For 12 seasons, it staged performances by opera greats like Shirley Verrett, Magda Olivera and Beverly Sills.

“It was a wonderful building,” Caldwell said. “It had marvelous acoustics.”

But the Opera House, which had started falling into disrepair even before Caldwell bought it, became a rat-infested, waterlogged ruin with crumbling frescos falling from the 110-foot ceiling onto tattered seats.

“It was a magnificent ruin when she got it, and it pretty much stayed that way,” said Christopher Purdy, who worked at the theater as a teenager. “It was always falling apart.”

He recalled writing numbers on the seats with a felt-tip pen, because there was no money for engraving or plaques.

In 1991, the city declared the property a public safety hazard and closed it down after Caldwell fell behind in mortgage payments.

In 1995, Mayor Thomas M. Menino had the site declared one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the country. A year later, Caldwell optioned the property to Houston-based Theatre Management Group, now part of Clear Channel Entertainment, that planned to restore it with the backing of the city. A long battle with neighbors over noise and expansion plans delayed restoration for years, but in November 2002, a judge ended the dispute siding with the theater.

Marinelli says he’s helping resurrect history.

“It’s not only the performers, it’s the space,” Marinelli said, looking at the scalloped balconies and the gleaming ceiling. “It’s the accomplishment of my whole career.”

AP-ES-12-27-03 0504EST