Vienna State Opera, opera house and company in Vienna, Austria, founded in 1869 as an expansion of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). Destroyed by wartime bombing in 1945, the elegant building's reconstruction was completed in 1955. In the interim, performances were held at the Vienna Volksoper and the Theater an der Wien. The company is known especially for its presentations of works by Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Among its storied conductors have been Gustav Mahler (1897–1907), Bruno Walter (1936–38), Karl Böhm (1943–45, 1954–56), Herbert von Karajan (1956–64), Lorin Maazel (1982–84), Claudio Abbado (1986–91), and Seiji Ozawa (2002–10). Dominique Meyer is the current general director.
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