The opera house peaked under the directorship of Mahler who revolutionised the genre by bringing in new styles of singing, music, direction and stage setups for which he took artists from the Vienna Secession under his wing. The adjoining Gustav Mahler Hall displays tapestries inspired by Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Always intended to be an intermission room, the 22-metre-long foyer is dedicated to the art form of the opera with 16 opera-themed oil paintings by Schwind and busts of famous composers and the opera house’s great former directors Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm and others. The Schwind Foyer-named after the painter Moritz von Schwind-is perhaps the most exquisite part of the building, a showpiece of the original structure. Coeval watercolour painting of the opening performance (Kunsthistorisches Museum) The ceilings and the walls of the Tea Salon, or the erstwhile Emperor’s Salon, dazzle in 22-carat gold leaf, with door handles made of ivory and wallpapers of yellow silk. The statues by Josef Gasser embody the seven liberal arts-architecture, sculpture, poetry, dance, musical art, drama and painting. Paintings and sculptures adorn the marble stairs, depicting the ballet, comic opera and tragic opera. For a layman, it is hard to distinguish the interiors of this public building from that of a palace. The main lobby, the central marble staircase, the Schwind Foyer with the attached veranda and the Tea Salon on the first floor have all been preserved in their original state. A guided tour of the building allows one to take in the baroque brilliance of its interiors, some of which have weathered the damages caused by the air raids during World War II. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper) to be later renamed as Vienna State Opera after the Habsburg monarchy was replaced by the First Republic of Austria. The imposing neo-Renaissance structure was the first building to be commissioned on the Wiener Ringstrasse, the architectural core of the city, built in the style of historicism back in the mid 19th century, during the reign of Emperor Franz Josef. Play bill for the opening event of todays Vienna State Opera, announcing the opening performance Don Juan on May 25, 1869. Ever since it opened to the public in 1869 with the premiere of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, it has been deemed a cultural signifier of the Austrian capital, one that also laid the foundation of the city’s other performance pillar-the Vienna Philharmonic. The Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper in German) is among the oldest and most prestigious opera houses in the world, whose walls have echoed with the immortal compositions of musical greats like Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Richard Strauss and many others for over 150 years since its inception. Serena Malfi, Ana María Martínez, Waltraud Meier, Liudmyla Monastyrska, Catherine Naglestad, Anna Netrebko, Kristīne Opolais, Elena Pankratova, Myrtò Papatanasiu, Adrianne Pieczonka, Sondra Radvanovsky, Marina Rebeka, Anne Schwanewilms, Tatiana Serjan, Albina Shagimuratova, Ekaterina Siurina, Anna Smirnova, Elza van den Heever, Iris Vermillion, Elena Zhidkova Carlos Álvarez, Marcelo Álvarez, Ain Anger, Aleksandrs Antonenko, René Barbera, Piotr Bezcala, Daniel Behle, Benjamin Bernheim, Pavol Breslik, Joseph Calleja, Marco Caria, Plácido Domingo, Norbert Ernst, Yusif Eyvazov, Riccardo Fassi, Roberto Frontali, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Matthias Goerne, Vittorio Grigolo, Günther Groissböck, Thomas Hampson, Bryn Hymel, Teodor Ilincai, Simon Keenlyside, Alfred Kim, Dmitry Korchak, Gregory Kunde, Yonghoon Lee, Ambrogio Maestri, Christopher Maltman, Alexey Markov, Markus Marquardt, Peter Matić, Peter Mattei, Francesco Meli, Evgeny Nikitin, Leo Nucci, Simon O’Neill, René Pape, Michele Pertusi, Simone Piazzola, Saimir Pirgu, Bernard Richter, Peter Rose, Fabio Sartori, Andreas Schager, Erwin Schrott, Peter Simonischek, Antonino Siragusa, Pietro Spagnoli, Falk Struckmann, Ludovic Tézier, Ramón Vargas, Christopher Ventris, Rolando Villazón, Marco Vratogna, Markus Werba, Lars Woldt, Kwangchul Youn.There is precious little in Vienna that does not invoke awe, but there is something about a monument that is built not just of opulence and grandeur, but an unparalleled musical legacy.
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