Theater am Kärntnertor
Theater am Kärntnertor or Kärntnertortheater was the most prestigious theater in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was built by Beduzzi in 1709 near the former Kärntnertor, opening with an Italian theatrical company. Both Italian and German plays were in its eighteenth-century repertory.
The first theatre burned in 1761 and was rebuilt by the court architect Nicolas Pacassi; two years later it reopened, as the Kaiserliches und Königliches Hoftheater zu Wien, the court theatre of Vienna. From the early nineteenth century ballets were added to the repertory, as well as Italian and German operas. From 1811 to 1814 Ignaz Franz Castelli served as Hoftheaterdichter. From 1821 the Italian impresario Domenico Barbaia added the theatre to the string of theatres under his management. In 1824 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony received its first performance here. In 1870 the former theatre was razed.
During its heyday several composers conducted the theatre orchestra during their youth: Franz Lachner
The list of famous operas first heard at the Kärntnertor would be a long one: Friedrich von Flotow's Martha (1847;
The name Neues Theater am Kärntnertor ("New Theatre am Kärntnertor") was adopted 1959-73 by the cabaret artist Gerhard Bronner, as a showcase for comedy, the predecessor of the current Stadttheater of Vienna.