Leipzig Opera House, Leipzig

The first opera – Singspiel – performances in Leipzig began as early as 1693. This effectively makes Leipzig the third oldest opera city in Europe after Venice, Italy (with its La Fenice theater) and Hamburg, Germany (with its State Opera).

Many early productions at the first opera house, the Oper am Brühl, were created by Georg Philipp Telemann, a self-taught German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. He directed the house from 1703 to 1705.

The first opera house on the present site, on Augustusplatz, the so-called Neues Theater (New Theater), was inaugurated in 1868. From 1886 to 1888, Gustav Mahler, an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation, served here as the second conductor. As a composer, Mahler went down in history as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century.

The Neues Theater, along with other theaters of Leipzig, was destroyed in an air raid on the night of December 3-4, 1943, as part of the Allied bombing of the city during World War II. For a while, after the war, the opera shows continued at Haus Dreilinden, presently known as the Musikalische Komödie.

In 1950, the Council of Ministers of the GDR decided to demolish what's left of the Neues Theater and build a new opera house in its place. After a series of design competitions and considerations, in 1954, the architects Kunz Nierade and Kurt Hemmerling were finally commissioned to do the job.

Construction of the modern opera house began in 1956. The theater was inaugurated on 8 October 1960 with a performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

In terms of stage equipment, the new Oper Leipzig (Leipzig Opera House) was one of the most advanced in Europe at the time. During the 1970s, it had a basement theater added (now closed) for the chamber drama-like productions, and in 1990 a small art gallery was integrated into the building.