Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera opened in 1869 as the first of the grand public buildings completed along Vienna's Ringstrasse boulevard, the ring of monumental construction that replaced the city's demolished medieval fortifications. Designed by the architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null in a Neo-Renaissance style, the building was harshly criticized by the Viennese public at the time of its opening, a reception so severe that both architects died, one by suicide, before the opera house's inaugural performance. Allied bombing raids in March 1945 destroyed much of the auditorium and stage, though the entrance hall, main staircase and several state rooms survived largely intact, and the opera house was rebuilt over the following decade, reopening in 1955 with a new interior behind its restored historic facade. It remains one of the leading opera houses in the world, presenting a different opera or ballet on almost every night of its long performance season, a scheduling practice unusual among major opera companies.