About this place
Standing on Theaterplatz with its back to the Zwinger, the Semperoper is Dresden's temple to music and one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe. Gottfried Semper designed the first building in a warm blend of late Classical and Italian Renaissance forms, and it opened in 1841. A fire gutted it in 1869, and Semper, then living in political exile, drew fresh plans that his son Manfred completed in 1878. The Allied firestorm of February 1945 left only the outer shell standing, yet Dresden rebuilt it once more, reopening in 1985. Today it is the stage of the Saxon State Opera and the home of the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the oldest orchestras in the world, crowned by a bronze chariot drawn by four panthers.
Key facts
- 1841 year — Gottfried Semper's first opera house opened here with a work by Carl Maria von Weber
- 1985 year — The rebuilt house reopened, forty years to the day after wartime bombs gutted it
- 1548 year — The resident Staatskapelle Dresden orchestra was founded, among the oldest on earth
📍 Theaterplatz 2, 01067, Dresden