Staatsoper, the Vienna Opera - Austria

The Staatsoper was the first of Vienna's big projects around the Ring and was built from 1861 to 1869. The architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll designed the building according to a neo-renaissance style. The work was subjected to violent critiques including the emperor François-Joseph. Van der Null committed suicide and Sicardsburg died of a heart attack ten weeks later, which prevented the duo from seeing the finished building. The new opera was inaugurated in 1869 with ?Don Giovanni? by Mozart. First monument of the Ring commissioned by François-Joseph after the destruction of the ramparts, the opera of Vienna, one of the most prestigious in the world, was one of the first lyrical stages of Europe. This remarkable edifice also boasts a room of 1700 seats. Under the leadership of Gustav Mahler, followed by Richard Strauss, the opera has known the golden age of opera. Closed in 1944, the pera was destroyed by bombings the following year. Rebuilt as the exact copy of the original design by Erich Boltenstern, the opera reopened ten years later, which followed the treatise that gave Austria its independence. In honour of the occasion, Karl Böhm directed Beethoven's "Fidelio". The most well known and most expensive ball is also held at the opera. Unrivalled summit of the season, international and glamorous, the Opernball at the beginning of the year, kicks off under the paparazzi's watchful cameras. © Photo : Carlos Rodrigues

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