Franz Jäger designed the theater in the Empire style for the impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who received an imperial license in 1786 but did not act on it until 1798. It opened on June 13, 1801. The article calls it the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theaters of its age, but gives no capacity or dimensions.
The Papagenotor, a gate showing Papageno with the Three Boys as a memorial to Schikaneder, is the only part of the original building preserved. The article says the building has been remodeled but gives no details or dates. The theater takes its name from the covered Wien River bed beneath the nearby Naschmarkt.
It was a temporary home of the Vienna State Opera from 1945 to 1955. It closed in 1955 for safety reasons, and in the early 1960s it faced a threat of conversion to a parking garage. It became primarily an opera house in 2006.
Comments