Sweden - Stockholm
Kungliga Teatern Stockholm - The Royal Theatre

In 1773, Gustavus III, cultural patron and playwright, built an opera house to debut the first opera in Swedish, Thetis and Pelée by Francesco Uttini. Almost ten years later, in 1782, a new opera house was built, designed by Carl Frederik Adelcrantz. It has been described, as one of Europe’s most beautiful. Its premiere performance was J.G. Naumann’s Cora and Alonzo.

The theatre stood for more than one hundred years and was demolished in 1891. On that site, Axel Anderberg designed a new opera house in a solid neo-Classical style. The first opera specially written for it was Halléns Waldemarsskatten, performed in 1899. The 19th century produced some of Sweden’s most distinguished composers, among them Franz Berwald and many notable singers including his pupil, Christine Nilsson, and Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale”.

Stockholm’s first Ring cycle in 1907 ushered in a period of Wagner productions and the emergence of many fine Wagnerian singers including Set Svanholm, Nanny Larsen-Todsen, Birgit Nilsson, Berit Lindholm, and Helge Brilioth.

Former singers traditionally became directors of the opera 1952, when the remarkable director Göran Gentele took control.

The opera house is home to the country’s oldest and largest orchestra – the Royal Orchestra – as well as the Royal Opera Chorus and the Royal Opera Ballet. As an ensemble company, it maintains some forty resident soloists and continue to nurture native talent and set a high standard in production of old and new works.