'Our revels now are ended': the old Burgtheater moves to its new premises on the Ring

The little theatre on Michaelerplatz stood in the way of a large-scale building project: the St Michael Wing of the Hofburg, for which Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach had drawn up plans back in 1725 as part of the designs for the Winter Riding School, was now finally to be built. The old Burgtheater had to go and was duly demolished.

The last performance in October 1888 – of Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris – was a melancholy occasion: the Viennese audiences loved the old wooden theatre despite its barn-like appearance. It seems that they were not bothered by its draughtiness or by its cramped dimensions which meant that the last of the 1,200 visitors who had squeezed into its auditorium were not able to leave until a good hour after the performance had ended.
The imperial family also had a special affection for this theatre. In keeping with courtly tradition, it had been built abutting the Hofburg on Michaelerplatz, and the members of the imperial family were thus able to enter the imperial box directly from their apartments. Empress Elisabeth was a frequent visitor to the theatre.

Before the old Burgtheater was demolished, the city of Vienna commissioned Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch to paint the auditorium. Klimt fulfilled this task conscientiously, adding 200 faithful miniature portraits, a veritable who's who of Vienna’s high society. Here one can see representatives of the highest court offices and members of the imperial government rubbing shoulders with society bigwigs, artists and nouveaux riches. Everybody wanted to be in the picture. When it was discovered that Karl Lueger, later mayor of the city, was missing, Klimt had to insert him afterwards.