The Oper am Brühl 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.
Sketch of the opera house
Title page of Telemann's opera Germanicus
Cover of the Musicalische Rüstkammer
View of the Leipzig exhibition on Baroque opera in March 2013
The Opernhaus vorm Salztor was an opera house in Naumburg, then Saxe-Zeitz, that opened in 1701. The house was built during the regency of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz, on his behalf. In 1716, it burned down and was not rebuilt. In the 15 years of its existence, at least 14 different operas and one play were performed there. One of them survived, Johann David Heinichen's Der glückliche Liebeswechsel oder Paris und Helena, and was revived in 2012 in a concert performance.
Cover of the libretto of Olimpia Vendicata by Heinichen, performed in 1709
The Salztor in Naumburg in the 18th century; between the gate and the ledge on the right was the opera house behind the wall
Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz
Georg Caspar Schürmann