people, die Zauberflöte für Kinder on the day after the opera ball and the project ‘Oper live am Platz’ (transmitting opera and ballet performances to a screen on Karajan-Platz) are additional highlights of his directorship. In 2010, Dominique Meyer was appointed director of the Staatsoper. His aim was to systematically expand the repertoire and to improve the conditions for rehearsals and studies at the Wiener Staatsoper. Milestones of his directorship include increasing the importance of the ballet, the return of baroque operas to the House, the introduction of Staatsoper streams, an extensive restoration of the vestibule, the Schwind Foyer and the Loggia, an expansion of the opera repertoire for children, expanding the ensemble, the young members of which Dominique Meyer has often engaged straight from contests for which he acted as a member of the jury. The Wiener Staatsoper has always been and still is one of the most important opera houses worldwide, and above all it is the opera with the largest repertoire. Every season the programm includes some 50 different operas and ten ballets – no other opera house is capable of offering such great variety to such a high standard. In addition to the international guest singers and dancers performing at the Wiener Staatsoper, the permanent members of the singing ensemble and the ballet company as well as the Staatsopernorchester (the musicians are identical with those of the Vienna Philharmonic) and the Staatsopernchor deserve a special mention as they are the pillars of this unique artistic establishment. In May 2019, the House on the Ring will celebrate its 150th anniversary with the premiere of Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten which was performed for the very first time at the Staatsoper exactly 100 years ago. Thus tradition and the present, history and the future merge at the Wiener Staatsoper which is as unique as the artists. Oliver Láng
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