Vienna State Opera
The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese "city expansion fund". Work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect and contractor Josef Hlávka.
Franz Schalk
Born in Vienna, he studied under composer Anton Bruckner. From 1900, he was first kapellmeister of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). Between 1904 and 1921, he was head of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. In 1918 he became director of the Vienna State Opera (Staatsoper, successor to the Hofoper), but from 1919 shared the directorship with Richard Strauss, with the well-known composer considered "blatantly (though unofficially) the 'greater equal' of the pair" (despite Schalk's recorded renditions of the Beethoven and Schubert 8th Symphonies virtually as distinguished as Strauss' versions of the last three Mozart symphonies, Beethoven's 5th & 7th, and some of the best-known German overtures). Tensions resulting from unclear division of responsibility between the two men eventually led to Strauss's resignation.