The Opera House

One of the most spectacular buildings in Vienna is the Opera House, also called the Vienna State Opera House.  It is beautiful both inside and out and sits in the center of Vienna.  The building dates from the mid-19th century.  There are no performances in August, so the stage was silent while we were there.  But we did take the public tour of the building, which was really interesting.  The tours started at a particular time and the crowd was separates by language, German, Spanish, and English.  It was very busy that day we visited and we were lucky to get a place.

Included on the tour was a peek backstage, and that was really amazing.  The stage the audience sees is only a small part of what is actually there.  The stage floor drops down in sections to the level below, allowing fast set changes.  The floor is dropped to the lower level, stage hands push everything off to the sides. The stage returns to the performance level, and new sets are pushed on from behind or the sides at that level.  There are also rails in the floor to assist and align the sets.  It is all very well designed and impressive.

The history of the building is very interesting and you can read more at The Vienna State Opera House.  There are also some very nice photos in the Photo Albums section.