Early draft - to be greatly expanded

Imperial Glory and the Age of Mahler

Built as the Royal and Imperial Court Opera..ch...... by emperor Franz Josef in ....... The centre of the social and cultural life of the city, always a home to controversy. One architect killed himself and the other died, soon after, weakened by the controversy. Golden age while Mahler (link) was director, 1897-1907.

The New Republic and the Age of Richard Strauss

When Austria lost its empire in 1919, the renamed State Opera continued its central position in Viennese life, with Richard Strauss (link) among its directors.

Decline and Disaster

When the Nazis arrived, many of the stars left for England and America, and the stage and auditorium were destroyed by a bomb in March 1945 (footnote - it is widely believed that an American bomber pilot mistook it for a railway station).

Postwar Renaissance

Rebuilt on the same plan (including all the poor sightlines in the tiers of boxes). Re-opened with Beethoven's Fidelio (link) as a celebration of freedom.

One important musical feature of the Vienna State Opera is that its orchestra is the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic. Unusually, the State Opera keeps a large number of operas in production, 45 or 50 through a ten-month season. To support this, it has the highest level of subsidy of any opera house in the world, but the Austrians regard their opera as a matter of national pride, and are prepared to pay for it.

One final relic of the great days of Imperial Vienna is the Opera Ball, when a false floor over the stalls converts the whole interior into a giant ballroom.