Munich’s Nationaltheater

Opened in 1818, the Nationaltheater is the main venue of the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsballett and the Bayerische Staatsorchester. The Neoclassicist theatre provides seats for a total of 2,101 visitors. With 2,500 m², the stage rebuilt after the Second World War is one of the world’s biggest opera stages. Works such as Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde or Die Walküre have celebrated their world premiere here.

Visitors have the opportunity to visit the Nationaltheater almost daily on one of our numerous tours. 

A Nationaltheater tour is of course also possible in combination with an opera, ballet or concert visit. Please note our programme for this. An hour before the performance begins, the house opens for performance guests and offers the option of strolling through the magnificent halls and rooms or viewing the curated portrait gallery, where important performers and leaders of the institution have been immortalized in paintings and works of art.

You can also find further information on the history of the Bayerische Staatsoper here. 

You can find all the information you need for your visit here.

VISIT THE NATIONALTHEATER VIRTUALLY
You can also visit our house virtually with your smartphone, tablet or PC via Google Arts & Culture. The 360° recordings not only provide new perspectives and surprises in the rooms and spaces of the Nationaltheater – they are also enriched with exciting historical background elements.

Online exhibitions also provide a multimedia insight into the history of the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Bavarian State Ballet, and are always well worth a visit!

PORTRAIT GALLERY
The portrait gallery in the Nationaltheater’s corridors and admission areas is an authentic piece of and testament to (Munich’s) opera history. It is a wonderful archive of the performers connected with the Bayerische Staatsoper and ranges back to artists of the 18th century, who were posthumously portrayed one hundred years after their time in Munich when General Manager Ernst von Possart founded the collection in 1899 as the “Künstlerahnengalerie des Königlichen Hoftheaters zu München”.

As part of the “Wie man wird, was man ist” (how we become what we are) research project, in which the Bayerische Staatsoper critically comes to terms with its history between 1933 and 1963, 23 audio biographies on important Staatsoper personalities were produced, and can now also be found in the portrait gallery.
Nationaltheater visitors can borrow audio guides before performances and during the intermissions for a deposit (driver’s license or 50 euro) in the opera shop in the stalls and listen to the biographies with music examples as they view the respective paintings.