Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Saxon State Opera Dresden (Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden) and the home of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden; the rebuilt house reopened on 13 February 1985, forty years after its destruction.
Diego Delso Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
What it is
It stands on Theaterplatz in Dresden. The ensembles based there are the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, which is the orchestra, the Saxon State Opera Chorus and the Semperoper Ballet.
History
Gottfried Semper designed the first opera house on the site, built from 1838 to 1841. It opened on 12 April 1841 with Weber's Jubilee Overture and Goethe's Torquato Tasso. The house burned down on 21 September 1869. A temporary theatre, nicknamed the “Bretterbude”, opened after the fire.
Semper again designed a second opera house, completed in 1878. It opened on 2 February 1878, and his son Manfred supervised its construction.
The Semperoper closed on 31 August 1944. The last performance was Weber's Der Freischütz. The bombing of Dresden on 13 and 14 February 1945 destroyed it. The rebuilt house reopened on 13 February 1985 with Weber's Der Freischütz. The Semperoper's own history page counts the present house as the third Semper opera house.
The rebuilding
The rebuilding followed the house as completed in 1878, with modern stage technology and new annex buildings. Wolfgang Hänsch was its chief architect.