The story of this place
Gottfried Semper's opera house opened in 1841 and staged the premieres of Wagner's 'Rienzi', 'The Flying Dutchman' and 'Tannhäuser', with Wagner himself as court conductor until he fled after the 1849 Dresden uprising. Fire destroyed the first house in 1869; Semper's son rebuilt it. The 1945 firestorm gutted it a second time, leaving a burnt shell that stood roofless for decades. The GDR rebuilt it to Semper's designs, and it reopened on 13 February 1985 — the fortieth anniversary of its destruction, to the day — with Weber's 'Der Freischütz', the same opera performed on its last night before the bombs. It remains one of Europe's most storied stages.