About this place
Facing Theaterplatz with its serene arcaded facade and the bronze quadriga of Dionysus above the entrance, the Semperoper is named for its architect Gottfried Semper and has long been the home of the Saxon State Opera. Its beauty conceals a hard twentieth century history. In 1933 the Nazi movement drove out its celebrated conductor Fritz Busch, an outspoken opponent of the regime, in an ugly staged scene that signalled how thoroughly the new order would seize even the world of music. Eleven years later, as Goebbels declared total war, the house was shuttered, and in the firestorm of February 1945 its interior was gutted, leaving only the outer walls standing. The people of Dresden waited four decades for its restoration, and when it finally reopened in 1985 it did so with the very opera that had last been performed here before the war.
Key facts
- 1933 year — SA men shouted conductor Fritz Busch off the podium, purging the opera of an anti-Nazi voice
- 40 years — The gutted house stood as a ruin before it reopened in 1985, exactly four decades after its destruction
- 1944 year — Der Freischütz was the last opera staged before the wartime closure, and the first at the 1985 reopening
📍 Theaterplatz 2, 01067, Dresden