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1. Museumsquartier
2. Musikverein
3. Raimundtheater
4. Theater an der Wien

1. Museumsquartier

Die ehemaligen kaiserlichen Hofstallungen wurden in den Jahren 1719-23 nach Plänen von Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach erbaut und bilden quasi den abschliessenden Teil des gesamten (unvollendeten) Kaiserforums. Entlang der Museumsstrasse zieht sich die ausgedehnte barocke Hauptfront der Stallungen dahin. In der Zeit von 1921 bis 1995 fanden in den ehemaligen Hofstallungen vorwiegend Messen und Ausstellungen statt. Als man plante, das riesige Areal in ein Kunst- und Kulturzentrum umzuwandeln, lancierte man 1991 einen Architekturwettbewerb. Der Gewinner sah als Hauptbestandteil des neuen Zentrums eine Veranstaltungshalle vor und zahlreiche weitere kunstbezogene und museale Einrichtungen.

Mit dem gross angelegten Umbau des Komplexes wurde im April 1998 begonnen. Es entstand mitunter das Leopoldmuseum, welches hauptsächlich Kunstwerke aus der Zeit der Jahrhundertwende und der klassischen Moderne zeigt. Es beherbergt zudem die weltweit grösste Sammlung von Kunstwerken Egon Schieles. Die Stiftung Ludwig hingegen umfasst ausschliesslich moderne Kunst. Weitere Räumlichkeiten werden genutzt vom Wiener Architekturzentrum, dem Tanzquartier Wien und vom ZOOM Kindermuseum. Ein Trakt steht zudem kleineren Künstlergruppen zur Verfügung.

Mit seinen sagenhaften 60'000 m² Grundfläche ist das im Jahre 2001 eröffnete Wiener Museumsquartier eines der grössten Kulturzentren der Welt, dessen Umbau rund 2 Milliarden Euro gekostet hat.

Anlass zur Diskussion mag das Museum für moderne Kunst sein, denn es ist dies ein dunkelgrauer Kubus aus Stein, welcher schräg mitten in den barocken Gebäudekomplex gestellt wurde, als hätte man ihn hier versehentlich fallen und einfach stehen gelassen - geschmacklos einerseits, ein interessanter Kontrast zu den verzierten Barockfassaden andererseits.

Bei angenehmen Wetterverhältnissen trifft sich die junge Wiener Gesellschaft im Hof des Museumsquartiers zum gemütlichen Beisammensein. Es gibt hier Freiluftcafés, Bars und jede Menge Sitz- und Liegegelegenheiten zum Ausruhen oder Arbeiten. Mittlerweile ist der ganze Hof mit einem öffentlichen wireless Internet-Anschluss ausgestattet und erlaubt den Besuchern das Surfen im Internet.

2. Musikverein

The Musikverein in Vienna, Austria was opened on January 6, 1870, and is famous for its acoustics. It is considered to be one of the three finest concert halls in the world, along with Boston's Symphony Hall and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and is home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert hall was built by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) which had been given the land by Emperor Franz Joseph. The building soon came to be known simply as the Musikverein ("music club").

The building is forty-eight metres long, nineteen metres wide, and eighteen metres high. It has 1,744 seats, and standing room for 300. Every year on January 1 the Vienna New Year's Concert is held here.Since 2001 the building has been undergoing renovation, and several new rehearsal and concert halls have been installed.

3. Raimundtheater

The Raimundtheater is a theatre in the Mariahilf district of Vienna, Austria. Named after the Austrian dramatist Ferdinand Raimund, the theatre was built by an association of Viennese citizens and opened on 28 November 1893 with Raimund's play Die gefesselte Phantasie. The theatre mainly presented German folk dramas and plays. In 1908 it turned to operetta, with Johann Strauss' The Gypsy Baron. Other premieres included Robert Stolz's Das Glücksmädel and Dreimäderlhaus, set to various pieces of music by Franz Schubert; this was performed more than 1200 times between 1916 and 1927. As the theatre was spared bombing damage during the war, the theatre re-opened promptly on 25 April 1945 with Dreimäderlhaus.

In 1948, Rudolf Marik took over as director for almost 30 years, transforming it into an internationally recognised theatre of the German-speaking world exclusively staging operettas with stars such as Johannes Heesters, Marika Rökk, and others.

Many well-known actors started their careers at the Raimundtheater, including Hansi Niese, Paula Wessely, Attila Hörbiger, and Karl Skraup. After 1976 the theatre was occasionally used for musicals, such as Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark.

In 1985 the theatre was renovated, re-opening with the gala Seinerzeit; since March 1987 it has formed part of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien. A Chorus Line was followed by Les Misérables in 1988 and Phantom of the Opera in 1990, which transferred from the Theater an der Wien.

In 1993, on the anniversary of its opening, the German-language version of Kiss of the Spider Woman was premiered. This was followed by the Austrian premiere of Grease in 1994 and the European premiere of Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1995. Autumn 1997 saw the world premiere of Dance of the Vampires in Roman Polanski's production.

After Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and a new production of Hair in September, 2002, Wake Up was premiered, being the first musical by Rainhard Fendrich and Harold Faltermeyer.

On March 11, 2004 Dave Stewart's rock musical Barbarella had its world premiere. This was followed in 2005 by the German-language version of Romeo & Julia, a musical by Gérard Presgurvic based on Shakespeare.

In September 2006, the new musical Rebecca, by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay, will be premiered at the theatre.

4. Theater an der Wien

The theatre was the brainchild of the Vienna theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is otherwise best known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera Die Zauberflöte (1791). Schikaneder had been granted an imperial licence in 1786 to build a new theatre, but it was only in 1798 that he felt ready to act on this authorization. The building was designed by the architect Franz Jäger; construction was completed in 1801. The theater opened on June 13 of that year with a prologue written by Schikaneder, followed by a performance of the opera "Alexander" by Alexander Teyber. According to the New Grove, it was "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age."

Although "Wien" is German for "Vienna", the "Wien" in the name of the theatre is actually the name of the Wien River (Wienfluss), which once flowed by the theater site; "an der Wien" means "on the banks of the Wien". Today the river is covered over in this location, and the spot houses the Naschmarkt, an open-air market

The Theater an der Wien was designed in Empire style. Only a part of the original building is preserved: the "Papageno gate" is a memorial to Schikaneder, who is depicted playing the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute, a role he wrote for himself to perform. He is shown with his three children, playing the Three Boys in the same opera. As a prominent theatre in an artistically vital city, the Theater an der Wien has been the location for the premieres of many works of theatre and music that endure to this day. The theatre experienced a golden age during the flourishing of Viennese operetta, and from 1945 to 1955, it was one of the temporary homes of the Vienna State Opera, whose own building had been destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II.

In 1955, the Theater an der Wien was closed for safety reasons. It languished unused for several years, and by the early 1960s, the threat had emerged that it would be converted to a parking garage (this was the same era of "urban renewal" that in America nearly destroyed Carnegie Hall). Fortunately, in 1962 the theater found a new and successful role for itself as a venue for contemporary musical theater. Many English-language musicals have had their German premieres there. In 1992, the musical Elisabeth (about Franz Joseph's wife, Elisabeth of Bavaria aka Sissi), premiered there.

Text Source    : Wikipedia

Picture Source : Planet Vienna