Volksoper

Opened in 1898 as the Kaiserjubiläums-Stadttheater, the house on the Währinger Gürtel began with spoken drama and turned to music within a few years, taking the name Volksoper in 1903 under the direction of Rainer Simons. It gave Vienna its first Tosca and, in 1910, its first Salome — a work the court opera could not then stage. Between 1945 and 1955, while the Staatsoper lay in ruins, the Volksoper was one of the two theatres in which that company continued to work. Today it is above all Vienna's home of operetta, the repertory in which its orchestra and ensemble are most at ease, though the season also carries opera, musical and ballet, much of it sung in German and priced for a broad public.