The Vienna Volksoper (Volksoper or Vienna People's Opera) is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual season which runs from September through June.
The Volksoper was built in 1898 as the Kaiserjubiläum-Stadttheater (Kaiser's Jubilee Civic Theatre), originally producing only plays. Because of the very brief construction period (10 months) the first director Adam Müller-Gutenbrunn had to start with debts of 160,000 florins. After this inauspicious startup the Kaiserjubiläum-Stadttheater had to declare bankruptcy five years later in 1903.
On 1 September 1903, Rainer Simons took over the house and renamed it the Kaiserjubiläum-Stadttheater - Volksoper (public opera). His intention was to continue the production of plays but also establish series of opera and operetta. The first Viennese performances of Tosca and Salome were given at the Volksoper in 1907 and 1910 respectively. World-famous singers such as Maria Jeritza, Leo Slezak and Richard Tauber appeared there; the conductor Alexander Zemlinsky became the first bandmaster in 1906.
In the years up to and through the First World War the Volksoper attained a position as Vienna's second prestige opera house. In 1919, Felix Weingartner became artistic director and principal conductor. Hugo Gruder-Guntram succeeded Weingartner as artistic director. After 1929, it focused on light opera, and under Gruder-Guntram undertook a number of summer tours to Abbazia in 1935, Cairo and Alexandria in 1937 and throughout Italy in 1938, with guest appearances from Richard Tauber. After the Second World War, the Vienna Volksoper became the alternative venue to the devastated Vienna State Opera. In 1955 the Volksoper returned to its former role of presenting opera, operetta, and musicals.
In 1987, the Volksoper was shown in the James Bond movie The Living Daylights, doubling for a fictional "Ľudové konzervatorium" ("People's Conservatory" - direct translation of "Volksoper" into Slovak) in Bratislava, as Czechoslovakia was still under Communist rule at the time; the interior was however filmed at Sofiensaal. In the movie, KGB General Koskov, who is defecting to the West, is attending a performance, and Bond and his handler Saunders cover him from an apartment across the street (in real life across Währingerstraße, the building is a confectionery store "Zum süßen Eck"). [1] [2]
From September 1991 to June 1996, the Vienna Volksoper was under a collective leadership with the Vienna State Opera. In 1999, the Volksoper became a 100% subsidiary of the Bundestheater-Holding.
From 2007 to 2022, Robert Meyer headed the Volksoper as artistic director, together with the business manager Christoph Ladstätter. In October 2020, the company announced the appointment of Lotte de Beer as its next artistic director, the first woman ever named to the post, effective 1 September 2022, with an initial contract of 5 years. [3] In December 2020, the company announced the appointment of Omer Meir Wellber as its next music director, effective 1 September 2022, with an initial contract of 5 years. [4] In September 2023, the company announced simultaneously the scheduled departure of Omer Meir Wellber as its music director on 31 December 2023, and the appointment of Ben Glassberg as its new music director effective 1 January 2024. [5]
On three different levels there are 1261 seats and 72 standing room places as well as two places for wheelchairs.
| Season | Performances | spectators | avg. utilisation | avg. employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004/2005 | 287 | 293,695 | 75,41% | unknown |
| 2005/2006 | 276 | 280,520 | 74,77% | 524 |
| 2006/2007 | 281 | 289,721 | 78,34% | 523 |
| 2007/2008 | 291 | 325,491 | 85,77% | 526 |
The orchestra pit is equipped with two electrically driven stage lifts, with a loading capacity of 500 kg/m2. It is adjustable in height from 0 to 2.65 meters below stage level.
The red velvet house curtain is hydraulically drawn and liftable. The gather velocity is 0.15 to 3.0 m/s, the lift velocity can be up to 2.0 m/s.
The stage is 17.2 meters wide and 19 meters deep and has a mechanic load capacity of 500 kg/m2. In the middle of the stage is a turnable and liftable circular platform, around which is a turnable ring platform with an external diameter of 15 meters. There are also 3 hand-operated person trap mechanisms.
Since 1999 the Volksoper Vienna is a 100% subsidiary of the Bundestheater Holding AG (Federal theater holding AG) along with the Vienna State Opera and the Burgtheater (en: (Imperial) Court Theatre). The Bundestheater Holding AG is owned by the Republic of Austria. The Holding also holds 51.1% of the Theaterservice Gmbh, which offers services in design and administrational matters. The remaining 48.9% are shared equally among the three theater houses (16.3% each).
Richard Tauber was an Austrian lyric Tenor and film actor. He sang the tenor role in number of operas, including Don Giovanni by Mozart and Da Ponte.
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II. It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe, renowned for its perfect acoustics.
Heinrich Conried was an Austrian and naturalized American theatrical manager and director. Beginning his career as an actor in Vienna, he took his first post as theater director at the Stadttheater Bremen in 1876. In 1878 he relocated to New York City where he remained for the rest of his career, serving initially as director of the Germania Theatre (1878-1881), followed by posts at the Thalia Theatre (1881-1882), New York Concert Company (1882-1883), and the Irving Place Theatre (1883-1903) In 1903 he became director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, a post he remained in until his retirement in 1908.
Franz Salmhofer was an Austrian composer, clarinetist and conductor. He studied the clarinet, composition and musicology in Vienna. Salmhofer served successively as Kapellmeister of the Burgtheater, Director of the Vienna State Opera and Director of the Vienna Volksoper and composed a number of works, few of which are played today.
Ioan Holender is a Romanian born Austrian opera baritone and administrator.
Martin Kušej is an Austrian theatre and opera director, and is director of the Burgtheater Vienna. According to German news magazine Focus, Kušej belongs to the ten most important theatre directors who have emerged in the German-speaking world since the millennium. He is considered one of the most important directors working today, acclaimed for his dark and incisive productions.
Lena Belkina is a Ukrainian mezzo-soprano.
Omer Meir Wellber is an Israeli conductor and composer.
Eytan Pessen is a pianist and voice teacher, currently at the Opera houses of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna (Volksoper), Zürich and international festivals. He was former opera director of the Semperoper in Dresden, artistic advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and former casting director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart.
Nikolaus Bachler, is an Austrian theater and opera director and actor.
Lotte de Beer is a Dutch opera director.
Therese von Braunecker-Schäfer was an Austrian theatre actress, singer (soprano) and dancer.
Peter Minich was an Austrian stage actor who became a tenor performing in operas, operettas and musical films. He was for decades the lead tenor of the Volksoper in Vienna, focused on Viennese operetta.
Hans Duhan was an Austrian operatic baritone. He belonged to the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera for 26 years and was the first Count Almaviva and the first Papageno of the Salzburg Festival.
Marie Charlotte Cäcilie Geistinger (1836–1903) was a celebrated Austrian actress and operatic soprano, known as the "Queen of Operetta". She frequently appeared in works by Jacques Offenbach, Johann Strauss II and Franz von Suppé. She achieved particular acclaim for performing Rosalinda in the première of Die Fledermaus at the Theater an der Wien in 1874. In 1881, her debut at the Thalia Theatre in New York was well received.
Heinz "Honzo" Holecek was an Austrian bass-baritone, known as an opera and operetta singer as well as a lied interpreter, was also a Viennese "all-round artist" – actor, parodist, and entertainer.
Guido Mancusi is an Austrian-Italian conductor and composer.
Olivier Tambosi is an Austrian opera and operetta director.
Adolf Rott was a German theatre director, theatre artistic director, and theatre manager. From 1954 to 1959, he was director of the Vienna Burgtheater.
The Ronacher theater, originally Etablissement Ronacher, is a theater in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria.
