Venue: Oper am Brühl
Town: Leipzig, DE

The Oper am Brühl (also Barockoper Leipzig) was the first opera house in Leipzig. It existed from 1693 to 1720 and was the second municipal music theatre in Germany, after the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. It was initiated by Nicolaus Adam Strungk who saw a potential audience during the three annual trade fairs in Leipzig. An opera house was built, and opened on 8 May 1693. The house flourished when Georg Philipp Telemann directed the opera from 1703 to 1705. Among his operas for the house is Germanicus, premiered in 1704. A collection of 100 excerpts from the operas, Musicalische Rüstkammer, has been explored for background. The building was found in a dangerous state in 1719, was closed in 1720 and demolished in 1729. The opera house at Brühl was located almost at the eastern end of the street and bordered the city wall to the north. After the construction of the Georgenhaus in 1701, it was its neighbouring building. According to Leipzig council records, the building was a three-storey wooden house with a gable roof, 47 metres long, 15 metres wide and 10 metres high. The facade was structured by eight pilasters, and ornaments decorated the entrance portal. The semicircular auditorium had fifty boxes on five triforiums. The stage featured 15 pairs of scenery. Kapellmeister Nicolaus Adam Strungk (1640-1700) from the Dresden court had realised that at least at the three Leipzig Trade Fairs, around New Year's Day, Easter and Michaelis in September, there was an audience in Leipzig interested in opera performances and ready to pay for them. He therefore sought a licence for opera performances, which was granted to him in 1692 by the Saxon Elector Johann Georg IV for ten years, in each case for the fair times and at his own expense. The opera house was the second municipal music theatre in Germany, after the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. Together with the Italian architect Girolamo Sartorio, who had built the Hamburg opera house in 1678, Strungk leased the property in