Theater an der Wien

Wikipedia article - Theater an der Wien       The Opera House's Official website

The Theater an der Wien is a historic theater in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district.  Completed in 1801, the theater has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theater, opera, and symphonic music.  Since 2006, it has served primarily as an opera house, hosting its own company.

Although "Wien" is German for "Vienna", the "Wien" in the name of the theater is actually the name of the Wien River, which once flowed by the theater site; "an der Wien" means "on the banks of the Wien." In modern times, the river has been covered over in this location and the covered riverbed now houses the Naschmarkt, an open-air market.

The theater was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute (1791). Schikaneder's troupe had already been successfully performing for several years in Vienna in the smaller Theater auf der Wieden and this is where The Magic Flute had premiered. As the troupe's performances often emphasized spectacle and scenery, the librettist felt ready to move to a larger and better equipped venue.

He had already been granted an imperial licence to build a new theatre in 1786, but it was only in 1798 that he felt ready to act on this authorization. The building was designed by the architect Franz Jäger in Empire style (it has since been remodeled). Construction was completed in 1801. The theatre has been described as "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age."

The theater opened on 13 June 1801 with a prologue written by Schikaneder followed by a performance of the opera Alexander by Franz Teyber. The new theatre proved to be a sensation. Adolf Bäurle, a local critic, wrote "if Schikaneder and [his partner] Zitterbarth had had the idea ... to charge admission simply for looking at the glories of their Theater an der Wien, Schikaneder would certainly have been able to take in vast sums of money without giving one single performance." The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung called it the "most comfortable and satisfactory in the whole of Germany" (which meant at the time, "all German-speaking lands").


Beethoven premiers in Theatre an der Wien:

1803 (April 5)    Second Symphony, Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives

1805 (April 7)    Third Symphony (Eroica)

1805 (Nov. 20)   The first version of Leonore (Fidelio)

1806 (Dec. 23)   Violin Concerto

1808 (Dec. 22)   Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Choral Fantasy, Piano Concerto No. 4.


Wikipedia Entry - Beethoven's December 22, 1808 concert