The birdcatcher above the gate

The theatre you're standing in front of was built by Emanuel Schikaneder, the man of the stage who wrote the libretto for The Magic Flute and played the birdcatcher Papageno himself at its premiere. When the money from that success let him put up a new theatre in 1801, he had himself placed above the side gate on the Millöckergasse in that very role, and there he still stands today.

 

Four years later Fidelio premiered here, the only opera Beethoven ever finished and one he reworked for so long that three versions of it exist.

 

Around 1900 this house was the home of operetta, a genre that swept across half of Europe and was so beloved in Vienna that audiences would go out for it several nights a week. The biggest hit of those years opened here in 1905, the story of a wealthy widow, and the street behind the theatre is named after the man who composed it.

 

Two streets further along stands the building where a group of young artists made it clear they wanted nothing to do with this kind of entertainment.