The Volksoper Wien is Europe´s leading operetta House
and Vienna's largest theatre for opera, musical and dance
- offering quality musical entertainment. Along with 18th,
19th and 20th century operas we offer more than 100 performances
of (Viennese) operettas per year, as well as classical musical
and contemporary dance.
In September 2003, Rudolf Berger - former Opera Director in
Strasbourg - became Director of this 1,400 seat repertory
theatre.
When
it first started out, today's Volksoper Wien was neither a
state-run theatre nor an opera house. It opened in 1898 as
the "Kaiser's Jubilee Civic Theatre" and was initially
run as a conventional stage for drama. Standard and comic
singspiel operas had to wait until 1903 before they were incorporated
into the repertoire: and Vienna's Civic Theatre gradually
metamorphosed into the present day Volksoper Wien.
"Tosca"
(1907) and "Salome" (1910) were first performed
in Wien at the Volksoper Vienna; world famous singers such
as Maria Jeritza, Leo Slezak or Richard Tauber would appear
at the Volksoper Wien at the very outset of their careers;
this was where Alexander Zemlinsky worked as a conductor and
became first kapellmeister in 1906. Although the Volksoper
Wien managed to attain a position as Vienna's second prestige
opera house in the wake of the First World War, after 1929
it reverted to being a "New Viennese Theatre" with
a repertoire focusing on light opera.
After
the Second World War, the Volksoper Wien acted as the preferred
alternative venue to the devastated Wiener Staatsoper.
With
the re-opening of the Staatsoper in 1955, the Volksoper Wien
again became an independent musical theatre featuring opera,
operetta, and musicals. Ever since then, directors Franz Salmhofer
(1955-63), Albert Moser (1963-73), Karl Dönch (1973-86),
Eberhard Waechter (1987-92) Ioan Holender (1992-96) Klaus
Bachler (1996-99) and Dominique Mentha (1999 - 2003) have
helped to make the Volksoper Wien what it is today.
