Living Room Session - Nationale Opera & Ballet

Muziektheater Amsterdam stands on the bank of the Amstel at Waterlooplein, in one of the oldest parts of the city. It is the opera and ballet half of the building complex known as the Stopera, which also contains the Amsterdam city hall. The idea of combining an opera house and a city hall in one complex first came up in 1915, but it took until 1981 for the city council to decide to go ahead. The architect Cees Dam designed the music theatre, working alongside the Austrian architect Wilhelm Holzbauer, who was responsible for the city hall. The theatre opened in 1986, and the council moved into its new city hall two years later. The nickname Stopera has a rougher origin than it might suggest. When the first piles were finally driven into the ground, riots broke out, and the protesters turned the project's name into "Stop the opera". Locals still use the nickname today, even though the building was rebranded in 2014. That year the Muziektheater merged with the two companies that lived in it, De Nederlandse Opera, later known as Dutch National Opera, and Dutch National Ballet. The result was a single artistic organisation, and the venue is now generally referred to by the name Dutch National Opera and Ballet. The building is the home of Dutch National Opera, Dutch National Ballet and the Ballet Orchestra, and it is regarded as the most important venue for these art forms in the Netherlands. The companies do more than present finished productions here, since they also make their work in the building. Visitors sometimes confuse it with the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, a separate contemporary music hall on the waterfront near Central Station, which is a different venue entirely.