The Bavarian State Opera is one of the world’s leading opera houses, with over 400 performances and 600,000 visitors yearly. Its history spans over three centuries and helped shape Munich as we know it today, a culture-savvy metropolis with unparalleled elegance and flair. Thanks to a controversial yet deep friendship with King Ludwig II, Richard Wagner himself premiered many of his music dramas (including The Valkyrie, The Master-Singers of Nuremberg, The Fairies, The Rhinegold, and Tristan and Isolde) at the Bavarian State Opera, which at the time – and arguably still is to this day – was considered the limelight of music in Europe. Nowadays, over 30 different operas, recitals, ballets, and concerts are staged every season in the splendid original Rococo Cuvilliés-Theater, the largest of its kind in Germany and perhaps the most spectacular in all of Europe. This is also where the Munich Opera Festival, the most important and acclaimed opera festival in the world, takes places.
