Wiener Staatsoper

The Vienna State Opera opened on the new Ringstrasse on 25 May 1869, fittingly with Mozart's Don Giovanni. Its architects, August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, never saw that night: mocked as a "sunken box" because the street level had been raised, the building drove van der Nüll to suicide, and Sicardsburg died only weeks later. On 12 March 1945 bombs left little standing beyond the facade, the grand staircase and the Schwind foyer. Ten years of rebuilding followed, and on 5 November 1955 the house reopened with Fidelio under Karl Böhm, the 1869 shell now wrapped around a modern auditorium.

No city owns Die Zauberflöte like Vienna, where the opera had its world premiere at the suburban Theater auf der Wieden in 1791, with Mozart himself conducting. The Staatsoper keeps the work in constant repertory and has built a beloved ritual around it: the day after the Opera Ball, the festive hall hosts Die Zauberflöte für Kinder, a free short version performed for thousands of schoolchildren.

architect: August Sicard von Sicardsburg

On stage here

Performance dates

Data: open sources (opera houses, ticketing platforms, Wikidata). Part of the worldwide Die Zauberflöte map.