Neue Oper Wien - Neue Oper Wien

Founded in 1990, the Neue Oper Wien specialises in contemporary opera and musical theatre, and has given it a new lease of life in Austria. Since 1994, its programme has consisted exclusively of works of the 20th and 21st centuries. The team at Neue Oper Wien is dedicated not only to world premieres, but also to the rediscovery of chamber opera works that have disappeared from the repertoire over the years.

It was the Neue Oper Wien, which presented Billy Budd for the first time in Austria in 1996, that made Austrian music lovers so enthusiastic about Britten. The first stage adaptation of Lachenmann's The Little Match Girl was produced by Neue Oper Wien in 2003, before becoming an international success.

With no fixed venue and no fixed musical ensemble, Neue Oper Wien aims to remain free and flexible. Its credo is both the conquest of new sonic worlds and the search for innovative scenic devices, with a constant concern to find the venue that best suits the work, showing that spaces, sets and acoustics are an integral part of scenography.

Under the direction of Walter Kobéra, Neue Oper Wien demonstrates that innovation goes hand in hand with public recognition and that, far from alienating music lovers, contemporary opera and innovative stagings are, on the contrary, an invitation to reflect. Neue Oper Wien sees opera and music theatre as a forum for socio-political debate. The company also runs a workshop for new music in which composers, librettists and producers work closely together.