Neues Theater

Year 1887.
Year 1888.
2,000 seats.
Neues Stadttheater.
Augustusplatz No. 12
Director Max Staegemann (1843-1905).

Also: New Municipal Theater, Neues Stadt-Theater, Neue theater, Neuen theater, Leipzig Opera House, Leipzig Opernhaus, Oper Leipzig, Opera Leipzig.

It was built in 1868 by Carl Ferdinand Langhans on the north side of the Augustusplatz. Detailed planning and construction management was in the hands of the Leipzig architect Otto Brückwald. At the opening on January 28, 1868, Goethe’s Iphigenie was given to Tauris. The New Theater had 1700 seats and 300 standing seats and was intended for drama, opera and ballet. Since the house proved to be an excellent place for the opera, but the theater was unsuitable, the drama moved into the Alte Theater at the Fleischerplatz (Theaterplatz, today Richard-Wagner-Platz), while the Neue Theater advanced to Leipzig’s opera.

The Neues theater had no own orchestra; the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (LGO) played here.

Generalmusikdirectoren (GMD)

Between 1935 and 1938 the auditorium, stage and orchestra pit were rebuilt. In the Second World War, on December 4, 1943, an allied air attack destroyed the building. Until the day before the destruction, the stage had still been played. The ruin was dismantled in 1950 and, after several competitions and pre-projects from 1956 to 1960, the new opera was built, which, although built in the time, was reminiscent of the New Theater.

Neues Theater.