Who designed the Vienna State Opera House?
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.
Leopold Hager
A frequent conductor at the Vienna State Opera, Leopold Hager has worked with such orchestras as the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Munich Philharmonic, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Bamberger Symphoniker, North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre national de Lille and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.
Yerevan Opera Theatre
Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after Alexander Spendiaryan (, "Aleksandr Spendiaryani anvan operayi yev baleti azgayin akademiakan tatron", or simply known by locals as Օպերա, "Opera") in Yerevan was officially opened on 20 January 1933, with Alexander Spendiaryan's Almast opera performance. The opera building was designed by the Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian. It consists of two concert halls: the Aram Khatchaturian concert hall with 1,400 seats and the Alexander Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet National Theatre with 1,200 seats.
Graz Opera
Designed by Ferdinand Fellner and Herman Helmer in the neo-baroque style, the Graz Opera was inaugurated in 1899 with a performance of Schiller's play "William Tell", followed a few days later by Wagner's opera "Lohengrin". The building suffered damage during World War II bombings but was repaired and re-opened after the war. Between 1983 and 1985, it underwent a $15 million renovation which saw the installation of modern equipment and facilities without significantly changing the original exterior and interior of the building.
History of Austria
With the reign of Franz Joseph (1848–1916) came a new era of grandeur, typified by the Belle Époque style, with extensive building and the construction of the Ringstrasse in Vienna with its monumental buildings (officially opened 1 May 1865, after seven years). Architects of the period included Heinrich Ferstel (Votivkirche, Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien), Friedrich von Schmidt (Rathaus), Theophil Hansen (Parliament), Gottfried Semper (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Burgtheater), Eduard van der Nüll (Opera) and August Sicardsburg (Opera).
Musikverein
The plans were designed by Danish architect Theophil Hansen in the Neoclassical style of an ancient Greek temple, including a concert hall and a smaller chamber music hall. The building was inaugurated on 6 January 1870. A major donor was Nikolaus Dumba, industrialist and liberal politician of Greek descent, whose name the Austrian government gave to one of the streets surrounding the .
The (Great Hall), or (Golden Hall), is about long, wide, and high. It has 1,744 seats and standing room for 300. The Skandalkonzert of 1913 was given there, and it is the venue for the annual Vienna New Year's Concert.
Cologne Opera
The company's Music directors from 1904, when it officially became the Oper der Stadt Köln, have been:The current Oper der Stadt Köln was designed by the German architect, Wilhelm Riphahn. It was inaugurated on 8 May 1957 in the presence of Konrad Adenauer, then the Chancellor of Germany and a former mayor of Cologne. The first opera to be performed there was Carl Maria von Weber's "Oberon". In June of that year the house saw its first world premiere, Wolfgang Fortner's "Die Bluthochzeit". The following month the opera company of La Scala appeared there on tour with Maria Callas in "La sonnambula".
The Cologne Opera House occasionally hosts solo recitals and special events; one remarkable such event was concert by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in 1975 which was recorded and became one of the most popular solo jazz piano recordings of all time, known as The Köln Concert.
Timothy O'Brien (theatre designer)
He designed his first opera, Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman", in 1958 for Sadler's Wells and has since designed operas for Covent Garden, ENO, the Vienna State Opera, the Kirov in Leningrad, La Scala, Milan, and opera houses in Berlin, Adelaide, Sydney, Cologne, Oslo, Amsterdam, Geneva and Lisbon. The best known of these have been Michael Tippett’s "The Knot Garden", directed by Peter Hall; "The Bassarids", directed by Hans Werner Henze; "Peter Grimes" and "Wozzeck", directed by Elijah Moshinsky; "Lulu", directed by Gotz Friedrich and Luciano Berio’s "Outis" and Wagner’s Ring Cycle, directed by Graham Vick.
Vienna Mozart Orchestra
A number of musicians from famous Viennese orchestras and ensembles collaborate with the Vienna Mozart Orchestra as soloists and conductors, among them members of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony orchestras. In addition, singers from world-famous opera houses, principally from the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper, perform with the Vienna Mozart Orchestra.
War Memorial Opera House
In 1927, $4 million in municipal bonds were issued to finance the design and construction of the first municipally owned opera house in the United States. The architects of the building complex were Arthur Brown Jr., who had also designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall between 1912 and 1916, and G. Albert Lansburgh, a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Tobias Hoheisel
At Glyndebourne he designed productions of Janáček's "Káťa Kabanová", "The Makropulos Affair" and "Jenůfa", as well as Benjamin Britten's "Death in Venice" and Smetana's "The Bartered Bride". He has designed productions for the English National Opera, The Royal Opera (Hans Werner Henze's "Boulevard Solitude" won the 2001 Laurence Olivier Award for best opera production), Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Scottish Opera. He has designed for many UK theatre companies including the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company ("Julius Caesar", "Richard III"), the Almeida ("Ivanov", with Ralph Fiennes) and the Royal Court. He has created productions at the Vienna State Opera, Burgtheater (including the world premiere of Peter Handke's "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other"), Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (the German premiere of Yasmina Reza's "'Art'"), Cologne Opera, Nationale Reisopera in Enschede, Paris Opera, Gran Teatro Liceu, La Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and New York City Opera, as well as the festivals at Drottningholm, Graz, Vienna, Munich, Glimmerglass, Florence and Santa Fe.
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is closely linked to the Vienna Philharmonic, which is an incorporated society of its own, but whose members are recruited from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera.
Vienna New Year's Concert
The concert programmes always include pieces from the Strauss family—Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss. On occasion, music principally of other Austrian composers, including Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Joseph Lanner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Otto Nicolai (the Vienna Philharmonic's founder), Emil von Reznicek, Franz Schubert, Franz von Suppé, and Karl Michael Ziehrer has featured in the programmes. In 2009, music by Joseph Haydn was played for the first time, where the 4th movement of his "Farewell" Symphony marked the 200th anniversary of his death. Other European composers such as Hans Christian Lumbye, Jacques Offenbach, Emile Waldteufel, Richard Strauss, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky have been featured in recent programmes.
Zürich
The Zürich Opera House (German: "Zürcher Opernhaus") is one of the principal opera houses in Europe. Built in 1834, it was the first permanent theatre in the heart of Zürich and was at the time, the main seat of Richard Wagner's activities. Later in 1890, the theatre was re-built as an ornate building with a neo-classical architecture. The portico is made of white and grey stone ornamented with the busts of Wagner, Weber and Mozart. Later, busts of Schiller, Shakespeare and Goethe were also added. The auditorium is designed in the rococo style. Once a year, it hosts the "Zürcher Opernball" with the President of the Swiss Confederation and the economic and cultural élite of Switzerland. The Ballet Zürich performs at the opera house.
Vienna International Centre
The VIC, designed by Austrian architect Johann Staber, was built between 1973 and 1979 just north of the river Danube.
The initial idea of setting up an international organization in Vienna came from the Chancellor of Austria Dr. Bruno Kreisky.
Haus der Musik
The Haus der Musik is located in the Palace of Archduke Charles, where Otto Nicolai, founder of the Vienna Philharmonic, lived around 150 years ago. Its honorary president is the Indian conductor Zubin Mehta. In 2009 it was the 19th most popular attraction in Vienna, with 205,000 visitors.
Vienna Volksoper
Since 1999 the Volksoper Vienna is a 100% subsidiary of the Bundestheater Holding AG (Federal theater holding AG) along with the Vienna State Opera and the Burgtheater (en: (Imperial) Court Theatre). The Bundestheater Holding AG is owned by the Republic of Austria.
The Holding also holds 51.1% of the Theaterservice Gmbh, which offers services in design and administrational matters. The remaining 48.9% are shared equally among the three theater houses (16.3% each).
Hungarian State Opera House
It is a richly decorated building and is considered one of the architect's masterpieces. It was built in neo-Renaissance style, with elements of Baroque. Ornamentation includes paintings and sculptures by leading figures of Hungarian art including Bertalan Székely, Mór Than and Károly Lotz. Although in size and capacity it is not among the greatest, in beauty and the quality of acoustics the Budapest Opera House is considered to be amongst the finest opera houses in the world.
Vienna Philharmonic
Nicolai and the orchestra gave only 11 concerts in the ensuing five years, and when Nicolai left Vienna in 1847, the orchestra nearly folded ("New Grove" notes the disruption caused by the Revolution of 1848 as a hindrance). Between 1854 and 1857, Karl Eckert – the first permanent conductor of the Vienna Court Opera ("Wiener Hofoper")– led the (associated) Vienna Philharmonic in a few concerts. In 1857, Eckert was made Director of the "Hofoper" – the first musician to have been given the post; in 1860, he conducted four subscription concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. Since that time,
writes Vienna Philharmonic violinist and president Clemens Hellsberg, "the 'Philharmonic Concerts' have been staged without interruption."
Vienna Residence Orchestra
The orchestra plays works of the First Viennese School in various large orchestrations. The focus is on compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Johann Strauss II family as well as works of classical Viennese operetta.
Berislav Klobučar
Berislav Klobučar (28 August 192413 June 2014) was a Croatian opera conductor. He conducted the Vienna State Opera for more than four decades, and guest conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.
Born in Zagreb on 28 August 1924, Klobučar was a student of conductor Lovro von Matačić. He started his career with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted the Graz Opera in Austria, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Sweden, La Scala in Milan, Italy, the Orchestre philharmonique de Nice and the Opéra de Nice in France, and guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, United States. During his forty-year tenure at the Vienna State Opera that began in 1952, he conducted 53 operas in 1,133 performances.
Opernhaus am Zwinger
The (Opera house at the Zwinger) was a theatre in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, opened in 1719. The architect of the Zwinger, Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, was also responsible for the opera house situated next to its south-western pavilion. The building replaced the first opera house of Dresden, the Opernhaus am Taschenberg, which was transformed to a church.
Vienna's English Theatre
It was founded in 1963 by the Austrian director Franz Schafranek and his American wife, Ruth Brinkmann, an actress and graduate of the Yale University School of Drama. Originally intended as a summer theatre for English-speaking tourists, it won immediate acceptance by the Viennese public and extended its initial season to offer a year-round programme. After opening in a 99-seat playhouse in the Erzherzog Karl Palace in central Vienna, the theatre moved several times over the next ten years to accommodate its growing audience. During this time, most of the productions were directed by Franz Schafranek while Ruth Brinkmann demonstrated her acting talent and versatility in numerous roles. By 1974 the theatre had gained the support of the City of Vienna in finding its permanent home in the Josefsgasse.
Neil Shicoff
Due to his personal friendship with the Austrian Federal Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, Shicoff was widely expected to follow Ioan Holender as director of the Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper) in 2010. In a surprise decision and in defiance of Gusenbauer's publicly stated wish, Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmidt, however, appointed Dominique Meyer as director and Franz Welser-Möst as musical director on June 6, 2007.
Vienna
From the late 19th century to 1938, the city remained a centre of high culture and modernism. A world capital of music, the city played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School, the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913, Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few miles of each other in central Vienna, some of them being regulars at the same coffeehouses. Within Austria, Vienna was seen as a centre of socialist politics, for which it was sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna". The city was a stage to the Austrian Civil War of 1934, when Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing occupied by the socialist militia.
Waagner-Biro
In 1906, the company provided the Vienna State Opera with stage equipment. Forty years later, the company rebuilt the opera house's roof. Other roof projects include Vienna's Stephansdom in 1948, the Munich Olympic facilities in 1969, the Prater Stadium in Vienna in 1985, and the Reichstag dome in Berlin, for which the company won a European Steel Design award in 1999. Waagner-Biro won another award in 2003 for the British Museum's Queen Elizabeth II Great Court.
Palais Epstein
Palais Epstein is a in Vienna, Austria. It was built for the industrialist and banker Gustav Ritter von Epstein. The architect was Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, who also designed the adjacent Austrian Parliament Building. Unlike traditional Baroque noble palaces in Vienna, Palais Epstein was built in the late 19th century and is therefore considered a . It is up to five storeys high and built in the neo-renaissance style typical of its time.
Music in Berlin
Frederick, an ardent opera enthusiast, was determined to turn Berlin into an international center for opera, one that could compete with the splendid opera house in Dresden. To this end, Frederick commissioned two opera stages from his architect George Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. The first in the King's residence, the "Berliner Stadtschloß", the second as a completely new opera house, located "Unter den Linden", the main artery of Berlin which featured all of the representational buildings of the time. The stage in the "Stadtschloß" was inaugurated with a performance of Graun's "Rodelinda" on December 13, 1741. The construction of the new opera house started in 1741 and although not fully completed yet the first performance took place on December 7, 1742 with Graun’s "Cleopatra e Cesare". In preparation of the two premieres, Frederick sent Graun to Italy and France in order to recruit singers and dancers respectively. The "Königliche Opernhaus", as the new opera house was called, remained the main opera house of Berlin throughout the century and the repertoire given there consisted mainly of Italian opera seria.
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Ballet, "Wiener Staatsballett", is considered one of the world's top ballet companies. It was formerly named the Vienna State Opera Ballet as it is based at the Vienna State Opera building. In 2005 the ballets of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper were merged under the name "Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper" and Gyula Harangozo became the artistic director. The further name change, on September 1, 2010, was accompanied by a change in leadership. Manuel Legris, a former principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, succeeded as the artistic director.
Sterling Opera House
On April 2, 1889 the doors of the Sterling Opera House were opened to the public. It was designed by Italianate Victorian style architect H. Edwards Ficken, who also was co-designer of the famous Carnegie Hall located in Manhattan, NY. It was built to serve both political and entertainment needs. The lower two levels and the basement were actually the town's City Hall and police station from when it opened up until 1965. The auditorium was used for hundreds of shows and live musical performances in its day. In fact, many world-famous performers such as Harry Houdini and Red Skelton took the stage at Sterling. Shows were held up until 1945 when the curtain closed for the last time. The Sterling Opera House was also later recognized as a historic place with historic value when it became the first building in CT to be added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 8, 1968.
Hungarian State Opera House
The Hungarian State Opera House () is a neo-Renaissance opera house located in central Budapest, on Andrássy út. Originally known as the Hungarian Royal Opera House, it was designed by Miklós Ybl, a major figure of 19th-century Hungarian architecture. Construction began in 1875, funded by the city of Budapest and by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, and the new house opened to the public on the 27 September 1884. Before the closure of the "Népszínház" in Budapest, it was the third largest opera building in the city; today it is the second largest opera house in Budapest and in Hungary.
Ljubljana Opera House
The building was originally named the Provincial Theatre () and was built between 1890 and 1892 in the Neo-Renaissance style by the Czech architects Jan Vladimír Hráský and Anton Hruby. Before the construction of the German Theatre (the present Ljubljana National Drama Theatre (SNG) at 1 Erjavec Street) in 1911, the building served as a venue for productions in both Slovene and German, and afterwards only in Slovene.
Chicago Opera House
The idea for the Chicago Opera House came from Scottish-born newspaperman and financier David Henderson. Henderson "planned the scheme and the stock – 550,000 – was subscribed in six weeks. Thus Chicago had the first fireproof, steel constructed, electric lighted theatre in the country." The construction of the Chicago Opera House was one of the earliest examples of general contracting, run by George A. Fuller. Upon completion, the masonry-clad building was 10 stories and tall.
New Opera House (Charles Town, West Virginia)
The Old Opera House is located in the Shenandoah Valley in Charles Town, West Virginia, once known as the Old Opera House or simply The Opera House, is a restored theater, designed by T.A. Mullett of Washington, D.C., son of architect Alfred B. Mullett. The theater opened in 1911, bringing minstrel shows, vaudeville, touring theater groups, circuses and wild west shows to Charles Town. By the 1930s a projection machine was installed, but the theater closed in 1948. It has since re-opened as a community-supported performance space.
Vienna State Opera
The opera house also has an opera school for boys and girls between the ages of eight and fourteen, which takes place in the afternoons after regular school. The children are introduced to music theatre and the prospect of becoming opera singers. The company recruits singers for children's roles in its productions from this opera school. Twice every season there is a special matinée performance of the opera school. In 2006, the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, they performed a 20-minute miniature opera "Der kleine Friedrich" arranged from songs of Mozart by Janko Kastelic and Claudia Toman.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The company's history goes back to the "Deutsches Opernhaus" built by the then independent city of Charlottenburg—the "richest town of Prussia"—according to plans designed by Heinrich Seeling from 1911. It opened on November 7, 1912 with a performance of Beethoven's "Fidelio", conducted by Ignatz Waghalter. In 1925, after the incorporation of Charlottenburg by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, the name of the resident building was changed to "Städtische Oper" (Municipal Opera).
With the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, the opera was under control of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Minister Joseph Goebbels had the name changed back to "Deutsches Opernhaus", competing with the Berlin State Opera in Mitte controlled by his rival, the Prussian minister-president Hermann Göring. In 1935, the building was remodeled by Paul Baumgarten and the seating reduced from 2300 to 2098. Carl Ebert, the pre-World War II general manager, chose to emigrate from Germany rather than endorse the Nazi view of music, and went on to co-found the Glyndebourne opera festival in England. He was replaced by Max von Schillings, who acceded to enact works of "unalloyed German character". Several artists, like the conductor Fritz Stiedry and the singer Alexander Kipnis, followed Ebert into emigration. The opera house was destroyed by a RAF air raid on 23 November 1943. Performances continued at the Admiralspalast in Mitte until 1945. Ebert returned as general manager after the war.
Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini
Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636 – 12 December 1707) was an Italian architect and stage designer. Born in Mantua, he studied architecture under his father Giovanni and followed him to Vienna in 1650. There he became the chief architect and stage designer to the court of Emperor Leopold I and his successor Joseph I, a position he held for the rest if his life. His principal architectural work was the new court theatre in Vienna inaugurated in 1668 and destroyed in 1683, but he was also involved in the extensive rebuilding and expansion of the Leopold's Laxenburg castles and in the reconstruction of buildings damaged during the Battle of Vienna as well as crearing the original designs for the Pestsäule monument. His work as a stage designer for the lavish entertainments at Leopold's court is preserved in numerous engravings.
Latvian National Opera
The National Opera House was constructed in 1863 by the St. Petersburg architect Ludwig Bohnstedt (interiors made by the firm of August Volz), for the then German-speaking City Theatre, and has been refurbished several times; 1882–1887 (following a fire in 1882), 1957–1958, 1991–1995 (following independence). A modern annex was added in 2001 with a 300-seat New Hall.
Hotel Metropole, Vienna
The hotel was built for the Vienna World Exhibition and was designed by Carl Schumann and Ludwig Tischler. The four-story building was richly decorated with Corinthian columns, caryatids and atlases. The inner court was glassed over and had a richly decorated dining hall.
Konzerthaus, Vienna
In 1890, the first ideas for a "Haus für Musikfeste" (House for music festivals) came about. The idea of the new multi-purpose building was to be more interesting to the broader public than the traditional Vienna Musikverein. In addition to the concert hall, the first drawings by Ludwig Baumann for the "Olympion" included an ice-skating area and a bicycle club. In an attached open air area, 40,000 visitors would be able to attend events. The drawings were not accepted. However, today an ice skating area is situated right next to the building.
Belvedere, Vienna
The Lower Belvedere and the Orangery have been specially adapted to stage special exhibitions. After winning an invitation-only competition, architect Susanne Zottl turned the Orangery into a modern exhibition hall whilst still preserving the building’s original Baroque fabric. This venue opened in March 2007 with the exhibition "Gartenlust: Der Garten in der Kunst" ("Garden Pleasures: The Garden in Art"). A few months later the Lower Belvedere reopened with the show Vienna – Paris. The redesign of the building was carried out by the Berlin architect Wilfried Kuehn, who moved the entrance back to its place in the cour d’honneur, thereby once more freeing up the original line of vision from the main gate of the Lower Belvedere via the Marble Hall to the garden facade of the Upper Belvedere. The various sections of the original orangeries annexed to the Marble Hall were returned to their original condition and now provide space for the new exhibition rooms. The magnificent Baroque state rooms – the Marble Gallery, the Golden Room, and the Hall of Grotesques – remain unchanged and are open to the public.
Seiji Ozawa
In 2001, Ozawa was recognized by the Japanese government as a Person of Cultural Merit. In 2002, he became principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera. He continues to play a key role as a teacher and administrator at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer music home that has programs for young professionals and high school students. On New Year's Day 2002, Ozawa conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert. In 2005, he founded and conducted its production of Richard Strauss's "Elektra". On February 1, 2006, the Vienna State Opera announced that he had to cancel all his 2006 conducting engagements because of illness, including pneumonia and shingles. He returned to conducting in March 2007 at the Tokyo Opera Nomori. Ozawa stepped down from his post at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, to be succeeded by Franz Welser-Möst.
Theater in der Leopoldstadt
The Theater in der Leopoldstadt (also: Leopoldstädter Theater) was an opera house in Vienna, founded in 1781 by Karl von Marinelli, following the "Schauspielfreiheit" (ending of the court's monopoly on entertainment) by Joseph II in 1776. The 19th-century summer stage called the Thaliatheater was also managed by the Leopoldstadt.
Vienna State Opera
The Ministry of the Interior had commissioned a number of reports into the availability of certain building materials, with the result that stones long not seen in Vienna were used, such as Wöllersdorfer Stein, for plinths and free-standing, simply-divided buttresses, the famously hard stone from Kaisersteinbruch, whose colour was more appropriate than that of Kelheimerstein, for more lushly decorated parts. The somewhat coarser-grained Kelheimerstein (also known as Solnhof Plattenstein) was intended as the main stone to be used in the building of the opera house, but the necessary quantity was not deliverable. Breitenbrunner stone was suggested as a substitute for the Kelheimer stone, and stone from Jois was used as a cheaper alternative to the Kaiserstein. The staircases were constructed from polished Kaiserstein, while most of the rest of the interior was decorated with varieties of marble.
Opera House Theatre, Blackpool
The theatre was soon deemed too small and in November 1910 was closed for reconstruction. The new and larger building, by architects Mangnall and Littlewood, formally opened just nine months later. However, in 1938 the second Opera House was demolished and the present 3,000-seat theatre opened in 1939. It was designed in a modernist style with a sweepingly curved proscenium. A Wurlitzer organ was installed to the design of Horace Finch and he and Reginald Dixon played on the opening night. It was the last new Wurlitzer organ to be installed in the UK and it is still in regular use today. The new Opera House was opened on 14 July 1939 by actress Jessie Matthews and her husband, actor and director Sonnie Hale. The first performance followed - the revue "Turned Out Nice Again", starring George Formby.
Carltheater
It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his Theater an der Wien until 1845. Two years later, the building was partially demolished and rebuilt following the plans of architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, who would later design the Vienna State Opera.
Großes Festspielhaus
The Großes Festspielhaus (Large Festival House) was designed by architect Clemens Holzmeister in 1956 for the Salzburg Festival in 
Austria. It was inaugurated on 26 July 1960 with a performance of Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" conducted by Herbert von Karajan, who also worked with Holzmeister on aspects of the building's design. The Large Festival House includes office space and tunneling into the Mönchsberg as well as a 2,179-seat performance space adaptable for both scenic and non-scenic events and acoustically scalable down for piano and song recitals. The stage is one of the widest in the world, at . The auditorium is square. Access from the street to the lobby is through five bronze doors, above which is inscribed a Latin motto by Thomas Michels: SACRA CAMENAE DOMUS / CONCITIS CARMINE PATET / QUO NOS ATTONITOS / NUMEN AD AURAS FERAT (The Muse's holy house is open to those moved by song / divine power bears us up who are inspired).
Vienna State Opera
Lengthy discussion took place about whether the opera house should be restored to its original state on its original site, or whether it should be completely demolished and rebuilt, either on the same location or on a different site. Eventually the decision was made to rebuild the opera house as it had been, and the main restoration experts involved were Ernst Kolb (1948–1952) and Udo Illig (1953–1956).
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.
Konzerthaus, Vienna
The building is about 70×40 meters and had originally three halls, in which there can be simultaneous concerts, since they are sound-proofed. The original Art Nouveau building was partly destroyed during renovations and adaptions, but the building was reconstructed from original sketches in the 1970s. A historic organ was installed in the Konzerthaus by the Austrian firm Rieger in 1913. Between 1997 and 2000 the house was completely renovated.The Konzerthaus has the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Wiener Singakademie and the Klangforum Wien in residence. Several subscriptions also include concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic and other organizations.
Guangzhou Opera House
The structure was designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. It is conceived as two rocks washed away by the Pearl River. Its freestanding concrete auditorium set within an exposed granite and glass-clad steel frame took over five years to build, and was praised upon opening by architectural critic Jonathan Glancey in "The Guardian", who called it "at once highly theatrical and insistently subtle."
Jørn Utzon
The Opera House was finally completed, and opened in 1973 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The architect was not invited to the ceremony, nor was his name even mentioned during any of the speeches. He was, however, to be recognised later when he was asked to design updates to the interior of the opera house. The Utzon Room, overlooking Sydney Harbour, was officially dedicated in October 2004. In a statement at the time Utzon wrote: "The fact that I'm mentioned in such a marvellous way, it gives me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction. I don't think you can give me more joy as the architect. It supersedes any medal of any kind that I could get and have got." Furthermore, Frank Gehry, one of the Pritzker Prize judges, commented: "Utzon made a building well ahead of its time, far ahead of available technology, and he persevered through extraordinarily malicious publicity and negative criticism to build a building that changed the image of an entire country."
Hungarian State Opera House
In front of the building are statues of Ferenc Erkel and Franz Liszt. Liszt is the best known Hungarian composer. Erkel composed the Hungarian national anthem, and was the first music director of the Opera House; he was also founder of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra.
Adolf Hoch
He was the architect of the Opernpassage in Vienna, a pedestrian underpass of the most busy crossroads of the city near the opera house. It was built in 1955 and opened on 4 November 1955, one day before the reopening of the Vienna State Opera after World War II. Since then it has been a symbol of the modern spirit in architecture and urban planning in Vienna. Cooperating with the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments in Austria the City of Vienna undertook a complete restoration of the structure, which was reopened on 17 September 2013.
Philadelphia Opera Company
In 1907 Oscar Hammerstein I hired architect William H. McElfatrick of the firm J.B. McElfatrick & Son to design a new opera house for the city of Philadelphia. The plans were approved and in 1908 the Philadelphia Opera House was built over the course of just a few months at 858 North Broad Street. The structure was built specifically for Hammerstein's latest artistic venture, his new opera company, the Philadelphia Opera Company (POC).
Metropolitan Opera House (Grand Forks, North Dakota)
The building was designed by prominent Minneapolis architect Warren B. Dunnell in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. 
It went through an extensive renovation/restoration by JLG Architects in 2005 and 2006.
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
The new construction was architecturally integrated with the former Baden-Baden railway station - today encompassing the box office, Festspielhaus restaurant “Aida” and Children’s Music World “Toccarion” by the Sigmund Kiener Foundation - and was opened on 18 April 1998.
Wilhelm Holzbauer of Vienna was the architect of the new construction. Following initial public start-up funding, the Festspielhaus successfully converted to become the first privately financed European opera and concert company. This had been the original objective.
Vienna State Opera
The decision was made to use dimension stone for the exterior of the building. Due to the monumental demand for stone, stone from Sóskút, widely used in Budapest, was also used. Three Viennese masonry companies were employed to supply enough masonry labour: Eduard Hauser (still in existence today), Anton Wasserburger and Moritz Pranter. The foundation stone was laid on 20 May 1863.
Architecture of Philadelphia
Philadelphia's most prominent Victorian architect was Frank Furness, who designed more than 600 buildings and influenced the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. Furness brought a bold muscularity to his works, shunned historical imitation, and was an innovator in the use of iron and glass. Among his major buildings are the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1876) (designed with George Hewitt), Knowlton Mansion (1882), the First Unitarian Church (1885), and the University of Pennsylvania Library (1891). Others, such as the Provident Life & Trust Company (1879), the B. & O. Railroad's 24th Street Station (1888), and the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broad Street Station (1893), were demolished in the mid-20th century.
Designed by John McArthur, Jr. in the Second Empire style, and influenced by the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre, Philadelphia City Hall is one of the world's largest all-masonry, load-bearing structures without a steel frame. Construction began in 1871 and wasn't completed until 1901. City Hall is a square doughnut of a building that occupies a 4-block site at the center of the downtown. In the middle of each side is an arched portal leading into the central courtyard, and its north side includes a 548 ft clock tower. Until 1987, this tower was the tallest structure in the city.
In 1908, Oscar Hammerstein I (grandfather of the lyricist) built the Metropolitan Opera House (originally known as the Philadelphia Opera House) to be the home of his then new opera company, the Philadelphia Opera Company. Seating more than 4,000 people, it was the largest building of its kind in the world when it was built. The Metropolitan Opera of New York City bought the Philadelphia opera house in 1910 which was used by the company for its touring productions to Philadelphia for roughly the next decade. In the 1920s, the theatre became a venue for the cinema and in the 1930s it became a ballroom. In the 1940s, a sports promoter bought the venue, covering the orchestra pit with flooring so basketball, wrestling, and boxing could take place. This venture closed after attendance waned following a decline in the quality of the opera house's neighborhood. The building was sold to Reverend Thea Jones for use as a church in 1954. The church's congregation eventually decreased and the church was unable to afford to maintain the rapidly deteriorating building. In 1994 the building was declared by the city to be dangerous and was to be demolished. Reverend Mark Hatcher and his church purchased the building in 1996 with the intention of repairing the building. In partnership with the North Philadelphia Community Development Corporation, the church plans to continue with further historic restoration in the future. In 2009 the opera house was the focal point of the Hidden City Festival, a festival dedicated to promoting lesser known historical sites in the Philadelphia area.
Vienna State Opera
Towards the end of World War II, on March 12, 1945, the opera was set alight by an American bombardment. The front section, which had been walled off as a precaution, remained intact including the foyer, with frescoes by Moritz von Schwind, the main stairways, the vestibule and the tea room. The auditorium and stage were, however, destroyed by flames as well as almost the entire décor and props for more than 120 operas with around 150,000 costumes. The State Opera was temporarily housed at the Theater an der Wien and at the Vienna Volksoper.
National Opera of Ukraine
After the fire, the City Council had announced the international competition to design a new building for the Opera Theatre in Kyiv. The winning proposal was by Victor Schröter. The exterior was designed in Neo-Renaissance style and had accounted for the needs of the actors and the spectators. The interior was redesigned in a classical style and called "Viennese Modern". However, his greatest achievement is considered to be the stage - one of the largest in Europe designed to the latest engineering standards.
Vienna
Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).
Theater Kiel
The Kiel Opera House () is the city's major venue for opera, ballet, and orchestral performances. It was designed by architect Heinrich Seeling and built from 1905 to 1907. Aerial bombings destroyed much of the original structure in 1942 and 1943, and architects Henry Hansen and Guido Widmann were later brought in to restore the theatre from 1952 to 1953.
Victoria State Opera
As the VSO designed their productions for the State Theatre, a 2077-seat theatre with one of the largest stages in the world, they were able to make full use of the facilities i.e. revolving stage, hydraulic stages and were able to create imaginative and exciting effects in their productions. Their first opera in the State Theatre was the new John Copley production of Verdi's "Don Carlos" in 1984. The curtains remained open during set changes so the audience could marvel at the machinery.The company decided to agree to a merger with the Australian Opera. In that merger Richard Divall was appointed Principal Resident Conductor of Opera Australia from 1996 until 2001, Lindy Hume was appointed Associate Artistic Director with overall control, remaining in Sydney with Moffatt Oxenbould. That merger, which was to cover opera in New South Wales and Victoria, was not a success, and the newly named Opera Australia cut back the staff in Melbourne, and, while retaining an office in Melbourne, returned the great majority of its operations to Sydney.
Wiener Kammeroper
Wiener Kammeroper is an opera theatre and opera company founded by conductor Hans Gabor. As early as 1948 he initiated the "Vienna Opera Studio" - a company without a theatre of its own. The new name of the company, "Wiener Kammeroper" (Vienna Chamber Opera), reminiscent of chamber music and society plays in an intimate setting, was first used officially in 1953.
Royal Opera House (Mumbai)
The Opera House is built in a baroque design featuring a blend of European and Indian architectural styles. The design was conceived in 1908 by Maurice Bandmann, an entertainer from Kolkata and his partner Jehangir Framji Karaka, who was the head of a firm of coal brokers. It was built with exquisite Italian marble on a leased land close to the Kennedy and Sandhurst bridges. Although the work was completed in 1912, several additions were made until 1915. The pediment figure at the pinnacle was substituted with three cherubs. A pair of unique crystal chandeliers, called the ‘Sans Souci’ were donated by the David Sassoon family. The chandeliers, which were earlier located in the Sassoon mansion, were shifted to the foyer of the opera house. At the main entrance, the dome is segmented into eight different parts "as a tribute to poets, dramatists, novelists, literati and people from art and culture." The original interior of the opera house consisted of orchestra stalls with cosy cane chairs. Behind the stalls were 26 rows of boxes with couches. The seating enabled a clear view of the stage to all the people seated in the stalls and in the Dress Circle. The acoustics were of the opera house were created by shaping the ceiling in a manner that permitted distinct audibility that allowed the audience seated in the gallery to hear every word or song from the stage. The entrance was originally designed with a frontage for carriages to drive in.
Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)
As chief architect again for the development of Lincoln Center, Harrison was chosen to design the new opera house, to be built as the centerpiece of the new performing arts complex- a twenty-five acre, eighteen block site on the Upper West Side, chosen by Robert Moses as a major urban renewal and slum clearance project. After a long process of redesigns, revisions and opposing interests (provided by the Met wanting a more traditional design for its home, and the conflicting wishes of the architects of the other Lincoln Center venues), construction of Harrison's forty-third design of the Metropolitan Opera House began in the winter of 1963, the last of the three major Lincoln Center venues to be completed. Construction delays due to the finishing of the neighboring New York State Theatre (in time with the opening of the 1964 World's Fair), resulted in the massive excavation site being nicknamed "Lake Bing" after then-Met General Manager Rudolf Bing.
Opernpassage
Designed by architect Adolf Hoch it has been a symbol of a modern spirit in architecture and urban planning. After more than 50 years the City of Vienna undertook a complete restoration of the structure, advised by the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments in Austria. The passage was reopened on 17 September 2013. It shows the original design of the round columns, the curved glass of the shop windows, and the chequerboard pattern of the floor.
Vienna State Opera
In the meantime, the opera company, which had at first been performing in the Volksoper, had moved rehearsals and performances to Theater an der Wien, where, on May 1, 1945, after the liberation and re-independence of Austria from the Nazis, the first performances were given. In 1947, the company went on tour to London.
Vienna Boys' Choir
Gerald Wirth became the choir's artistic director in 2001. However, since then, the choir has come under pressure to modernize and has faced criticism of their musical standards, leading to a split with the Vienna State Opera. The choir has for the first time had to advertise for recruits after a rival choir school was established by Ioan Holender, director of the opera company. He complained of both falling standards and poor communication with the choir. He said that the State Opera sometimes trained boys for particular stage roles, only to find out on the day of performance that they were unavailable as they had gone on tour with the choir. Some boys were attracted to the rival choir school by the prospect of a more relaxed atmosphere and of performance fees being paid directly to them.
State Opera (Prague)
The history of the theatre currently known as the Prague State Opera dates back to the late 19th Century. While often overshadowed by the more prominent National Theatre of Prague, the company has its own distinct history. The birth of a magnificent Czech Theatre, the National Theatre, in 1883 indirectly created a longing among the Prague German community for a German-speaking opera house of its own. At that time the Czech lands were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and there was a large German minority living in Prague. On 4 February 1883 the Deutscher Theaterverein was founded with the goal of raising funds for the new theatre. The plans were developed by the well-known Viennese firm Fellner & Helmer along with Karl Hasenauer, architect of the Burgtheater in Vienna. The resulting Neues deutsches Theater (New German Theatre) was designed by the Prague architect Alfons Wertmüller and built within 20 months. With its spacious auditorium and elaborate neo-rococo décor, the theater was one of the most beautiful in Europe.
Buxton Opera House
In 2011, "FT Magazine" featured an article on opera house design. In the section called "My favourite experiences", the writer praised the European opera houses "designed by the Viennese architectural firm of Fellner and Helmer (the Zurich Opera House is [an] example) ... [which] represent a near-ideal marriage of size, acoustic and decorative beauty. Their British equivalents are those designed by Frank Matcham – best of all the Buxton Opera House."
Philharmonia Zurich
In the Grosser Tonhalle-Saal, its new concert hall built in 1895, the orchestra achieved distinction under the direction of its first Chief Conductor, Friedrich Hegar and his friend Johannes Brahms. An intensive collaboration with the composer Ferruccio Busoni followed under Chief Conductor Volkmar Andreae. At the Stadttheater, built in 1891, artistic personalities like Richard Strauss and the young Wilhelm Furtwängler determined the orchestra's progress. Richard Strauss conducted and attended many performances of his own stage works in Zurich. Several first performances of works by composers ostracised in Germany and Austria by the Nazi regime took place in Zurich's Stadttheater, such as Alban Berg's Lulu (1927) and Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler (1938). Many other significant operatic works of the twentieth century were also premiered at the "Opernhaus Zürich", as it has been known since 1964. The Zurich Stadttheater was also one of the leading houses in the field of operetta, particularly during the period of discrimination against numerous Jewish composers of this genre, such as Ralph Benatzky, Oscar Straus, Paul Abraham and Emmerich Kálmán.
Metropolitan Opera House (Philadelphia)
The Metropolitan Opera House was built by Hammerstein to be the home of his then new opera company, the Philadelphia Opera Company (POC). Hammerstein hired architect William H. McElfatrick of the firm J.B. McElfatrick & Son to design the opera house in 1907, and construction began the following year. When it opened as the Philadelphia Opera House in 1908, it was the largest theater of its kind in the world, seating more than 4,000 people.
Theater an der Wien
He had already been granted an imperial licence to build a new theatre in 1786, but it was only in 1798 that he felt ready to act on this authorization. The building was designed by the architect Franz Jäger in Empire style (it has since been remodeled). Construction was completed in 1801. The theatre has been described as "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age.".
The theatre opened on 13 June 1801 with a prologue written by Schikaneder followed by a performance of the opera "Alexander" by Franz Teyber. The new theatre proved to be a sensation. Adolf Bäurle, a local critic, wrote "if Schikaneder and [his partner] Zitterbarth had had the idea ... to charge admission simply for looking at the glories of their , Schikaneder would certainly have been able to take in vast sums of money without giving one single performance." The "Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung" called it the "most comfortable and satisfactory in the whole of Germany" (which meant at the time, "all German-speaking lands").
Vienna Chamber Orchestra
The WKO was founded in 1946, and its first artistic directors were Franz Litschauer, Heinrich Hollreiser, Paul Angerer, and Carlo Zecchi. When he took over the position from 1976 to 1991, Philippe Entremont started a tradition of conductors playing a dual rôle, appearing as both conductor and soloist. Entremont has continued as the Orchestra's lifetime honorary conductor, leading it on tour and in its matinée subscription series at the Konzerthaus. In addition, the WKO has continued to invite dual-role artists, including Yehudi Menuhin, Heinz Holliger, Heinrich Schiff, and Ola Rudner.
Woodstock Opera House
The Woodstock Opera House is a historical venue for performing arts and receptions located in Woodstock, Illinois. It was built in 1889 and designed as a multi-use facility with space for city administration offices as well as police and fire departments. The building was planned by architect Smith Hoag and built by contractor Simon Brink for a cost of $25,000. Today, the City of Woodstock still owns the building, but the building is used exclusively as a performance space. Perhaps the most notable performer to grace the stage was Orson Welles, who grew up in Woodstock and to whom the stage was dedicated in 2013.
Vienna State Opera
Gustav Mahler was one of the many conductors who have worked in Vienna. During his tenure (1897–1907), Mahler cultivated a new generation of singers, such as Anna Bahr-Mildenburg and Selma Kurz, and recruited a stage designer who replaced the lavish historical stage decors with sparse stage scenery corresponding to modernistic, Jugendstil tastes. Mahler also introduced the practice of dimming the lighting in the theatre during performances, which was initially not appreciated by the audience. However, Mahler's reforms were maintained by his successors.
Vienna Museum
In 1953, the City Council of Vienna passed a resolution to honour Austrian president and former mayor Theodor Körner, on the occasion of his 80th birthday by making the museum building a reality. A design contest was organised, in which 13 architects were specifically invited to take part (including Clemens Holzmeister, Erich Boltenstern and Karl Schwanzer) but which was open to any other entrants. Designs were evaluated by a jury which was chaired by the architect Franz Schuster and whose other members were the architects Max Fellerer and Roland Rainer, the Vienna Director of Building, the Director of City Collections, Franz Glück, the Head of the City Department of Regulations and the Head of the Department of Architecture.
Willi Boskovsky
Willi Boskovsky was born in Vienna, and joined the Vienna Academy of music at the age of nine. He was the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1936 to 1979. He was also, from 1955, the conductor of the Vienna New Year's Concert, which is mostly devoted to the music of Johann Strauss II and his contemporaries. Along with the Vienna Philharmonic, he was also the chief conductor of the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester up until his death. A forerunner of this ensemble was the 19th-century Strauss Orchestra founded by Johann Strauss I in 1835. He died in Visp, Switzerland.
Woodstock Opera House
Erected in 1889, the Opera House was designed and constructed by Elgin-based architect Smith Hoag at a cost of $25,000. The construction materials are mostly of local origin including limestone, terra cotta, fieldstone, white brick, and sandstone. Its architectural style is a mixture of late Victorian-era tastes combined with Early American, Midwestern, Gothic, and even Moorish elements. The interior is modeled after the showboats of the time, with dimensions and decorations that imitate many of those grand floating theatres.
Robin Wagner (designer)
Wagner's other theatrical work ranges from off-Broadway and regional theatre productions to ballet and opera, including sets for the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and the New York City Ballet. 
Wagner has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design six times out of eleven nominations and the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design three times out of ten nominations.
Royal Opera House, Valletta
The design of the building was entrusted to Edward Middleton Barry, the architect of Covent Garden Theatre, and the classic design plan was completed by 1861. The original plans had to be altered because the sloping streets on the sides of the theatre had not been taken into consideration. This resulted in a terrace being added on the side of Strada Reale (nowadays Republic Street) designed by Maltese architects.
Sydney
Modern and International architecture came to Sydney from the 1940s. Since its completion in 1973 the city's Opera House has become a World Heritage Site and one of the world's most renowned pieces of Modern design. It was conceived by Jørn Utzon with contributions from Peter Hall, Lionel Todd, and David Littlemore. Utzon was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2003 for his work on the Opera House. Sydney is home to Australia's first building by renowned Canadian architect Frank Gehry, the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (2015), based on the design of a tree house. An entrance from The Goods Line–a pedestrian pathway and former railway line–is located on the eastern border of the site.
Royal Opera House (Mumbai)
The Royal Opera House was conceived in 1908 by Maurice Bandmann, a famous entertainer from Calcutta, and Jehangir Framji Karaka, who headed a coal brokers’ firm. A baroque design incorporating a blend of European and Indian detailing was chosen for the structure. A long frontage was created to let carriages drive up to the entrance. Twenty-six rows of boxes behind the stalls were put up for the best view of the stage. The ceiling was constructed to enable even those in the gallery to hear every word uttered by the performers.
Synchron Stage Vienna
From its construction in the early 1940s until the 1950s, the facility shared its history with the Rosenhuegel-Filmstudios. At that time the "Synchronhalle" hosted as many as ten large orchestra film score projects per year. A remnant of the building's designated use is the preserved "Lenkwil" cinema organ with three manuals that features not only various instrumental timbres but also sound effects such as rolling thunder, car horns, clopping horses, twittering birds and ocean waves. It is the only cinema organ in the world that is still housed in its original scoring stage. Because of this combination the Federal Monuments Office classified this building as a historical monument. In the mid 1960s, the complex was acquired by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), initializing an era of revival. Eminent classical artists such as Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Yehudi Menuhin, Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich discovered the exceptional acoustic properties and used the "Synchronhalle" for many legendary recordings. By the beginning of the 21st century, the hall had fallen into a state of disrepair but was still used as a rehearsal stage. In summer 2013, the Viennese sample library and music software developer Vienna Symphonic Library acquired and began refurbishing the facility. Synchron Stage Vienna with its acoustic design was nominated for 32nd TEC Award at NAMM Show in Anaheim.
Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)
In 1903, architects Carrère and Hastings extensively redesigned the interior of the opera house. The familiar golden auditorium with its sunburst chandelier, and curved proscenium inscribed with the names of six composers (Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Gounod and Verdi), dates from this time. The first of the Met's signature gold damask stage curtains was installed in 1906, completing the look that the old Metropolitan Opera House maintained until its closing.
In 1940, ownership of the opera house shifted from the wealthy families who occupied the theater's boxes to the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association. At this time the last major change to the auditorium's interior was completed. The second tier of privately held boxes (the "grand tier") was converted into standard row seating. This enlarged the seating capacity and left only the first tier of boxes from the "golden horseshoe" of the opera house's origins as a showplace for New York society.
Construction of Rockefeller Center
In 1926, the Metropolitan Opera (Met) started looking for locations to build a new opera house to replace its existing building at 39th Street and Broadway. This was not a new effort, as Otto Kahn, the Met's president, had been seeking to erect a new opera house since he assumed the position in 1908. However, the Met did not itself have money to fund the new facility, and Kahn's efforts to solicit funding from R. Fulton Cutting, the wealthy and influential Cooper Union president, were unsuccessful. Cutting did support the 1926 proposal for a new building, as did William Kissam Vanderbilt. By mid-1927, Kahn had hired architect Benjamin Wistar Morris and designer Joseph Urban to come up with designs for the opera house. They created three designs, all of which the Met rejected.
Copenhagen Opera House
The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation donated the Opera House to the Danish state in August 2000 (A.P. Møller was a co-founder of the company now known as Mærsk). Some politicians were offended by the private donation, in part because the full cost of the project would be tax deductible, thus virtually forcing the government to buy the building; but the Folketing and the government accepted it in the autumn of 2000. Architect Henning Larsen and engineers Ramboll and Buro Happold and Theatre Consultant Theatreplan designed the facility. The acoustics were designed by Arup Acoustics and Speirs and Major Associates designed the architectural lighting. A.P. Møller had the final say in the design of the building, however, adding steel to the glass front, among other things. Construction began in June 2001 and was completed on October 1, 2004. It opened on January 15, 2005, in the presence of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and Queen Margrethe II.
Vienna Philharmonic
The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating his or her capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board.
Vienna Museum
80 contestants took part and submitted a total of 96 designs. The jury awarded Oswald Haerdtl fourth place, but he was subsequently "off-handedly" contracted to design the building, which was executed in an unassuming contemporary modern style. Haertl was also responsible for the interior design, down to the furnishing of the director's office. The museum opened on 23 April 1959 as the first newly built museum of the Second Republic, and remained the only such for decades.
Reed Opera House and McCornack Block Addition
Construction on the Reed Opera House began in 1869 and was completed in 1870 with G. W. Rhodes as the architect. The opera house was built by Cyrus Adams Reed under a contract with the State of Oregon to provide space for the Oregon State Legislature, the Oregon Supreme Court, and the Oregon State Library. During construction, however, Oregon elected officials decided not to comply with the previous administration's contract. Since the building was already close to completion, Reed made some changes to the plan and had seven shops included on the ground floor, an opera house on the second and third floors, and a hotel in the unused space.
Vienna State Opera
From the 2010/2011 season a new company was formed called "Wiener Staatsballet", Vienna State Ballet, under the direction of former Paris Opera Ballet principal male dancer Manuel Legris. Legris eliminated Harangozós's policy of presenting nothing but traditional story ballets with guest artists in the leading roles, and is concentrating on establishing a strong in-house ensemble and has restored evenings of mixed bill programs, featuring works of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, and many contemporary choreographers, as well as a reduced schedule of the classic story ballets.
August Sicard von Sicardsburg
August Sicard von Sicardsburg (6 December 1813 – 11 June 1868) was an Austrian architect. He is best remembered as the co-architect of the Vienna State Opera, together with Eduard van der Nüll.
Theater Chemnitz
Located at Theaterplatz 2 the opera house () was designed by the German architect and built between 1906 and 1909. Following its destruction during World War II, it was reconstructed between 1947 and 1951. It was renovated again from 1988 to 1992,
Royal Swedish Opera
The original Stockholm Opera House, the work of architect Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz was commissioned by King Gustav III, a strong adherent of the ideal of an enlightened absolutism and as such was a great patron of the arts. The Swedish Opera company had first been located in Bollhuset, but there was a need to separate the Opera from the theatre and give them separate buildings. Construction began in 1775 and the theatre was inaugurated on 30 September 1782 with a performance of the German composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann's "Cora och Alonzo". 
It was also the place for public masquerade balls, events inspired from the famous opera-balls in Paris, which was open for everyone wearing a mask at a cheap cost and somewhat ill-reputed. 
The building was very imposing with its centre Corinthian tetrastyle portico supporting four statues and topped by the royal crown. The four-tiered auditorium was oval in shape, had excellent acoustics and sight lines. The sumptuous foyer contained neoclassic medallions and pilasters.
Opernhaus Düsseldorf
The original opera house was constructed between 1873 and 1875 as the municipal theatre, designed by Ernst Giese (1832-1903). y its inauguration day, 29 November 1875, it was only partially completed due to cost overruns, but it continued to the operated by the city authorities. By 1891 an electric lighting system had been installed.
Vienna State Opera
2009 marked the 140th anniversary of the Vienna Opera House. To celebrate this milestone an idea designed to reach out and embrace a new audience was conceived. A giant 50 sqm screen was placed on the side of the opera house facing Kärntnerstraße. In four months live broadcasts of over 60 famous operas were transmitted in this way, including performances of "Madama Butterfly", "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni". This successful venture brought a new wave of operatic excitement to the many tourists and locals who experienced this cultural event. During daytime the screen displays a replica of the Opera House's façade, as it obstructs a considerable part of the building, along with information about upcoming performances.
Vienna New Year's Concert
The Vienna Hofburg Orchestra's traditional New Year's Eve Concert takes place on 31 December in the halls of the Hofburg Palace. The program features the most famous waltz and operetta melodies by Johann Strauss, Emmerich Kálmán, Franz Lehár and opera arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Vienna State Opera
Herbert von Karajan introduced the practice of performing operas exclusively in their original language instead of being translated into German. He also strengthened the ensemble and regular principal singers and introduced the policy of predominantly engaging guest singers. He began a collaboration with La Scala in Milan, in which both productions and orchestrations were shared. This created an opening for the prominent members of the Viennese ensemble to appear in Milan, especially to perform works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss.
Ankara Opera House
The building was originally designed by the Turkish architect Şevki Balmumcu as an exhibition center, who came first in an international competition for the project in 1933. It was later converted into an opera house by the German architect Paul Bonatz, and started serving this function on April 2, 1948.