Semperoper Dresden
Dresden's opera house bears the name of its architect, Gottfried Semper, whose first theatre on this site opened in 1841. When fire destroyed it in 1869, the citizens insisted that Semper design the replacement, although he was living in exile after the 1849 uprising. He supplied the plans and his son Manfred supervised the construction; the Neo-Renaissance house opened in 1878. Musical history was made here early. Wagner's Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman had their premieres in Dresden, and Ernst von Schuch later conducted the first performances of Strauss's Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier, three of the nine Strauss operas born in the city.
In February 1945 Allied bombing gutted the building, and its shell waited decades for reconstruction. The reopening on 13 February 1985 came exactly forty years after the destruction, with the same opera that had closed the house in 1945, Weber's Der Freischütz. Today the Semperoper is home to the Saxon State Opera, and Die Zauberflöte holds a firm place in its repertoire, returning season after season.
architect: Gottfried Semper
On stage here
19 dates
Performance dates
Video
TRAILER Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart »Die Zauberflöte« // Semperoper Dresden
Data: open sources (opera houses, ticketing platforms, Wikidata). Part of the worldwide Die Zauberflöte map.