March 2024

We are planning, building, organising and coordinating, writing texts, discussing logo designs and realising ideas big and small. Details about the name and programming are still top secret - but not for long! Before the summer vacations, we will reveal many of our secrets and reveal the name of the new venue, which productions are on the program and when tickets go on sale. So there are two dates to mark in your diary: in June 2024 we will present the name of the new venue and publish the program, and in December 2024 the house will be officially opened with the world premiere of an opera for children aged 6 and up.

February 2024

Things are progressing at the new venue on Karlsplatz. In February, we reached a major milestone: the completion of the shell of the building was celebrated with the topping-out ceremony. The construction of the new venue is therefore on schedule and nothing stands in the way of the opening of the house in December 2024 with a new opera for children! The complex construction method and extensive technology require a lot of manual work and patience from the entire construction site team - even for an experienced company like Strabag, building an opera house is not routine. The construction is also a matter close to our hearts, as the aim is to create a place where the enthusiasm for opera as an art form and the magic of musical theater can be passed on to younger generations.

January 2024

Preparations for the artistic program are in full swing: the first rehearsals will take place on the stage of the new venue in October 2024! Concepts are already being presented, set designs handed over to the workshops, roles cast and conductors assigned. The new venue will then be officially opened on December 7, 2024, with a brand new children's opera production!

In the meantime, the new venue is still a real construction site: the shell of the building (including two new basement levels, where the wardrobe and make-up rooms and the orchestra pit are located) is complete, and now the interior work begins. The stage machinery, which will create great theatrical magic with the performers, is already being installed. We can already guess from the photos what this new artistic home will soon look like and can hardly wait to move in!

October 2023

A lot happened on the artistic side in the summer: the score with which the house will open in winter 2024 is taking shape...

Every year in July and August, the Staatsoper is on a season break. This should not obscure the fact that all sorts of things happen in and around the building during the summer months: Overhaul work, maintenance measures, the renovation of the façade... none of this can take place while the theater is open.

There was no talk of a summer break on the building site at the Künstlerhaus either: construction of the new venue is progressing rapidly. The walls on the ground floor and the staircase are already under construction and the ceilings on the ground floor and first floor are being installed. Installation of the technical systems can begin as early as November, and the shell of the building should be completed by the end of this year!

September 2023

Among other things, the building will have two basement floors to ensure that the theater can operate at the cutting edge of technology. However, this should not hide the fact that a lot of theater has already been performed at the same location, the Künstlerhaus on Karlsplatz! In addition to many other institutions (most recently the "Brut"), the State Opera itself has already been a guest in the Französischer Saal: in the 1980s, the question of a second venue also arose, as even then the space available in the House on the Ring was limited. During Drese's directorship, the French Hall was made available to the State Opera and from the 1986/87 season it was used as the "State Opera in the Künstlerhaustheater". Claus Helmut Drese wanted to establish the Künstlerhaustheater as a "cell and seed for later works to grow in the big house" and opened the new venue on January 27, 1987 with the Austrian premiere of the chamber opera Die weiße Rose by Udo Zimmermann. In January 1988, Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm was newly produced; this production was also the last performance (for the time being) of the Staatsoper at the Künstlerhaus in November 1988.