Vienna Volksoper

Leading the Volksoper premieres in autumn 2011 will be Johann Strauss's "Wiener Blut". This operetta comprised of Strauss dances is as biting and ironic as the best of its genre. The Austrian actor Wolfgang Böck, known from television as the Viennese policeman Trautmann, will be performing in his first operetta.

The next premiere is Richard Strauss's opera "Salome" on October 15th. 100 years ago, when the composer Strauss himself conducted his "Salome" in the Volksoper, its sensuality was considered shocking.

On December 17th, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway show "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" will be performed for the first time at the Volksoper. The performance features top artists with Volksoper director Robert Meyer and Sigrid Hauser. A musical by Leonard Bernstein will also be seen on the stage of the Volksoper, although the performance of "Candide" will be given concertante (starting January 22nd, 2012).

The Vienna State Ballet can be seen dancing to Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" starting on March 2nd.

A highly anticipated operetta production will premier on June 8th in the form of "Madame Pompadour" by Leo Fall. The lead role in the brazen, satirical piece about the mistress of the French King Ludwig XV will be played by no less than the opera star Annette Dasch.

The present-day Vienna Volksoper was opened in 1898 as the "Kaiser-Jubiläums-Stadttheater" and was initially a theater for the spoken word only. Operas and musical plays were subsequently added to the program in 1903. World-famous singers such as Maria Jeritza, Leo Slezak and Richard Tauber performed here, while Alexander Zemlinsky worked as conductor on stage.

At selected operettas and musicals, subtitles in English bring the show's action a bit closer to non-German speaking visitors; after all, "The whole world loves operettas...!"