Venue: Berlin State Opera
Town: Bezirk Mitte, DE

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden (lit. State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (German: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. Initially called the Königliche Oper (Royal Opera) or Berlin Hofoper (English: Berlin Court Opera), the opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from 1741 to 1743 according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in the Palladian style. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the former Royal Prussian Opera House was rebuilt from 1951 to 1955 as part of the Forum Fridericianum square in East Berlin. Nicknamed Lindenoper, it is "the world's oldest state opera" and "the first theater anywhere to be, by itself, a prominent, freestanding monumental building in a city." Originally called the Königliche Oper ('Royal Opera'), the company was renamed the Preußische Staatsoper ('Prussian State Opera') in 1919. After World War II it began operating as the national opera company for Communist East Germany, taking the name Deutsche Staatsoper ('German State Opera') in 1955. In the West and colloquially, however, people used the name Staatsoper Unter den Linden ('State Opera Unter den Linden') after the boulevard on which the theatre sits. This usage became more common after the collapse of East Germany in 1990, but, contrary to the company's website, it was not officially adopted until 1995 and the old name still appeared on new recordings issued by the company as late as the following year. King Frederick II of Prussia, shortly after his accession to the throne, commissioned the original building on the site. Though architecturally significant as an early example of the Palladian revival in Germany, the north and west façades are direct copies of Colen Campbell's elevations at Stourhead and Wanstead respectively. Construction work began in July 1741, with what was designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsd