Close to the central train station and the monumental modern building of the old parliament, the State Opera seems a little lost behind the barrage of cars clogging up the highway.
However, this prestigious New Town building is home to one of the capital's historic opera houses, where Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler performed.
Built by the tireless Viennese architects Helmer and Fellner, a famous duo whose monumental works can be found in many Central European cities, the neo-Renaissance building was constructed in 1886-1887.
In response to the opening of the National Theatre dedicated to Czech repertoire, this new opera house was commissioned and financed by Prague's wealthy German community, with the aim of presenting major works in the German language. Inaugurated in 1888 with Richard Wagner's “The Master Singers”, it played an important role in spreading the music of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler in Bohemia. Mahler, who conducted many concerts here, had a close relationship with the theater's orchestra. It was also here that the inhabitants of Prague later discovered the works of Arnold Schoenberg, Hindemith and Shostakovich, whose opera Katerina Izmailova was performed here for the first time outside the Soviet Union in 1936.
Its vast neo-Rococo auditorium remains one of the capital's leading opera houses. The repertoire includes mainly Italian opera (Rigoletto, Nabucco, Aida, La Traviata by Verdi, La Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Turandot by Puccini), as well as works by Dvořák (Rusalka), Bizet (Carmen) and Strauss. Ballets also feature prominently, with regular performances of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Prokofiev's Cinderella.
