Innenansicht des Burgtheaters in Wien - Anonymer Stich, veröffentlicht von Matthias Artaria, Wien, Anfang 19. Jh.

The court theatre "nächst der Burg" ("next to the castle") had been founded by Empress Maria Theresia in 1741. Almost twenty years later, the building was finally being constructed the way it looks today.

The court theatre was of special importance to Ludwig van Beethoven and his career in the Vienna musical life. It was in this theatre where the composer, who was then just under 30 years old, gave his first self-organized concert on April 2, in 1800. The event had been a great public success. Two weeks thereafter already, Beethoven presented his Sonata for Piano and Horn op. 17 in a concert of the then internationally famous French horn player Johann Wenzel Stich in this theatre for the first time in public. Also, the premiere of the music of Salvatore Viganò's ballet "Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus" ("The Creatures of Prometheus") took place on May 28, in 1801 in this court theatre. This production, too, in which Viganò himself, as well as his wife Maria Medina - a very talented ballerina - participated, was a resounding success with the Viennese audience. In 1810, the first performance of Beethoven's scene music of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's drama "Egmont" op. 84 also took place in this theatre.(S.B.)