Venue Opera House

The architects Kunz Nierade and Kurt Hemmerling were commissioned to build the new opera house on Augustusplatz in 1954. The facade is made of light Pirna sandstone. It has a 350-metre-long parapet railing. Above the ground floor windows is a base relief showing theatre symbols and state emblems of the GDR. The entrance area consists of a two story loggia. The building has the shape of a stepped pyramid measuring 115 x 85 metres; from the foundation to the top there are 52 metres in seven storys. The building appears dull by day; however, at night, when everything is illuminated, the building appears festive and glassy through the large window fronts. Today, the Opera House is one of the most beautiful buildings in Germany in the architectural style of the late 1950s.

Characteristic of the interior is the heightened spatial sequence of the foyers. One enters the opera through the vestibule, the box office hall, which is decorated with blue-black diabase flooring and which, like the adjoining cloakroom hall, is kept low. The walls are partly covered with handmade tiles of Meissen porcelain. Then one reaches the bright, double-flight main and parquet staircases. The brass handrails, staircase railings artfully forged by Fritz Kühn, the colour of the walls, the sconces, ornaments made of gold leaf and the wine-red carpet are typical of the period in which they were built. The colour selection consists mainly of the components white gold, gold and wine red. The walls and the square columns of the parquet foyer are clad in Swiss pear wood. The polychrome ceiling consists partly of figurative and partly of painted ornaments and contrasts with the austere wall structure. The concert foyer in the mezzanine is decorated in discreet pastel colours. Round columns divide the space into two halves. To the side of both foyers are two refreshment rooms.

The shape of the luminaires throughout the building follow a dandelion aesthetic. The lamps in the cloakroom hall resemble flower buds. When you reach the stalls foyer, the buds have blossomed and the lamps resemble the large umbels of a dandelion. When you reach the rank foyer, the umbrellas on the large chandeliers fly away. If you go back down the stairs, the seed pods are in the banisters.

The trapezoidal auditorium in the form of a single-tier theatre offers 1273 seats (1,247 in the stalls and tier, 20 box seats and six wheelchair seats). It impresses with its excellent acoustics. There are outstanding views from every seat. The folded walls are covered with curly maple. The hall is spanned by a coffered ceiling. Furthermore, there are two lodges in the hall - the Intendant's Lodge and the City Lodge. These have separate entrances and reception rooms.

2022
For 2022, the Oper Leipzig plans to stage all of Richard Wagner's operas in a period of three weeks. This is currently a one of a kind occurence in the world.
2019
The Education Department was transferred to the fourth division JUNGE OPER LEIPZIG.
2018
The Oper Leipzig celebrated its 325th anniversary in June with a performance of Alban Berg's opera "Lulu". A few months earlier, the Gewandhaus Orchestra celebrated its 275th anniversary.
2017
200 years ago, the Opera Chorus was founded as a professional choir. The choir presented itself in its current formation in a festive concert with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of artistic director and GMD Ulf Schirmer.
2016
Wagner fans from all over the world came to Leipzig for the first cyclical performance of Richard Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung". Over 40% of the guests alone were from non-German-speaking countries.
2015
From July to October, the revolving stage in the opera house was extensively renovated. The opera and the Leipzig Ballet started the 2015/16 season in an opera tent on Augustusplatz.
2014
The performance of Richard Strauss' "Frau ohne Schatten" under the musical direction of Ulf Schirmer and directed by Balázs Kovalik established the second central pillar of the repertoire, the works of Richard Strauss.
2013
To mark the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth, the Oper Leipzig, in cooperation with the Bayreuth Festival (BF Medien), brought out the composer's three rarely performed early works. In addition, after more than forty years, the starting signal was given for a new production of the "Ring des Nibelungen". The anniversary year marked the beginning of a real Wagner renaissance in Leipzig.
2012
In the early days of Prof. Ulf Schirmer's directorship, the focus was on building up a core opera repertoire and on cultural participation for children and young people. To emphasise the importance of cultural education, Prof. Ulf Schirmer established the Education Department in 2012. It includes the Children's and Youth Choir with its more than 200 members as well as the entire area of theatre education.

2011
With the appointment of Ulf Schirmer as artistic director of the Oper Leipzig, the artistic cooperation between the opera and the Gewandhaus Orchestra received new impetus.
2009 
Ulf Schirmer has been General Music Director of the Oper Leipzig since the 2009/10 season. Under his musical direction, the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss in particular have moved to the centre of the repertoire.
2007
From 2007 to 2011, Executive Director Alexander von Maravic took over the duties of the artistic directorship on an interim basis. During his tenure, Peter Konwitschny was engaged as chief director. During these years, numerous productions by Konwitschny could be seen at the Oper Leipzig. New productions for Leipzig included "Alkestis" and "Iphigenie in Aulis" by Gluck as well as a cycle of staged Bach cantatas.
The foyer areas of the opera house were extensively renovated in accordance with the requirements of the preservation order. Since then, the opera house has had 1267 seats. In addition to the ensemble of singers, the opera choir and the Leipzig Ballet, the Oper Leipzig also includes the Musikalische Komödie with its own venue in Leipzig Lindenau. The large repertoire, with around 300 performances per season in all venues, ranges from the Baroque to the present day.
2001
With the directorship of Henri Maier (2001-2007), works by Berlioz ("La Damnation de Faust" and "Les Troyens") were added to the repertoire for the first time.

1991

Uwe Scholz took up his position as ballet director and chief choreographer and developed the Leipzig Ballet into one of the first companies in Germany.

1990

Udo Zimmermann took over the opera directorship and gave the opera a spectacular boost.

1960

Re-opening: the new opera house was built on the same site from 1956 to 1960, with a hint of the late classical forms of the previous building. The festive opening took place with "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" (director: Joachim Herz). In the following years, the repertoire was characterised by important Wagner performances and the revival of neglected works.

1943

In December 1943, the New Theatre is destroyed by a World War II bombing raid.

1930

In the 1920s, the Oper Leipzig opened up to contemporary works in a special way. Among the many important first and world premieres was Brecht/Weill's "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" (1930).

1878

Richard Wagner's "Ring" tetralogy was performed for the first time outside the Bayreuth Festival Theatre in Leipzig in 1878. Outstanding conductors until 1890 were Artur Seidl, Arthur Nikisch and Gustav Mahler.

1868

Opening of the New Theatre on Augustusplatz, which was used for opera and drama. In addition to works by Mozart, Weber and Gluck, the cultivation of the Wagner repertoire has been a special focus ever since.

1766

For the first time, opera and musicians of the then "Great Concert" demonstrably cooperated in a musical theatre production. In the same year, the "Komödienhaus", later known as the "Altes Theater", was inaugurated. For a good century it was the scene of important German opera tradition.

1693

Opening of the first opera house at Brühl, making it the third bourgeois musical theatre in Europe after Venice and Hamburg.

Main stage width 25 m - depth 22 m
Portal width 16 m
Portal height 8 m - 9.80 m
Backstage 16 m x 11 m with wagons
Side stage left 19 m x 11 m with trolley
Side stage right 19 m x 11 m
Recessed revolving stage 17.60 m diameter
with 4 plateau recesses 12 m x 12 m
with 2 recesses of 12 m x 4 m each
and lifting heights from + 4 m/+ 2,50 m to - 2,00/- 3,50 m
as well as 2 countersinks a 12 m x 2 m
with lifting heights from + 2 m to - 3,50 m
all countersinks 8% inclination adjustable
programmable machine system
with 37 machine hoists (500 kg)
19 manual hoists (300 kg)
24 point hoists (500 kg)/ travel height 24 m
Orchestra pit 22 m x 7 m from +/ - 0 to - 2,67 m height