The neo-Renaissance building was built in 1886-1887 by the famous and tireless Viennese pair of architects, Helmer and Fellner, who left their mark in numerous Central European cities in the form of monumental edifices.
As a response to the opening of the National Theater, which was devoted to the Czech repertoire, this new lyrical stage was commissioned and financed by the rich German community in Prague, to represent major works in the German language. For that matter it was inaugurated with Wagner’s Mastersingers in 1888, and has largely contributed to spreading the music of Richard Strauss and Gustave Mahler in Bohemia. Mahler, who conducted many concerts in the Opera house, had privileged relationships with the theater’s orchestra members. This is also the place where the Prague inhabitants later discovered compositions by Arnold Schoenberg, Hindemith and Shostakovitch, whose opera Katerina Izmailova was played, for the first time outside of the Soviet Union, in 1936.
The large auditorium with its neo-Rococo decoration remains one of Prague’s major lyrical stages. The repertoire includes mainly Italian operas (Rigoletto, Nabucco, Aida, Verdi’s La Traviata, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Puccini’s Turandot), but also works by Dvořák (Rusalka), Bizet (Carmen) or Strauss. Ballets are also given pride of place, namely with the regular performances of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Prokoviev’s Cinderella.
Address: Legerova 75
Prague 1- New Town
www.opera.cz
