If you look at the building from the Opernring, i.e. from the front, you will see the historical part that has been preserved from the original 1869 building. The façades are in the Renaissance arch style and the loggia on the Ringstrasse side is intended to emphasise the public character of the building.
The two equestrian depictions above the main façade of the loggia were not erected until 1876. They were created by Ernst Julius Hähnel and depict two winged horses led by Harmony and the Muse of Poetry (Erato).
The five bronze statues (from left to right: Heroism, Melpomene, Fantasy, Thalia and Love), which stand on pedestals in the arcade arches of the loggia, are also by Hähnel.
To the right and left of the house are two fountains by Josef Gasser. They represent opposing worlds.
Left: "Music, dance, joy, frivolity"
Right: "Loreley, sorrow, love, revenge".
The rear part of the two-part building is significantly wider and contains the stage and the associated rooms, while the narrower front part contains the auditorium and the side rooms accessible to the public. The different roof shapes are noteworthy: the vaulted roof on all sides over the core building of the complex, consisting of the auditorium and stage, the hipped roofs of the transverse wings, the gabled roofs of the two-storey connecting buildings between the transverse wings and the French roofs of the corner towers.
The transverse wings perpendicular to the main wing originally served as carriage entrances. The coats of arms of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy can be found on the transverse wing fronts.