Cuvilliéstheater

This guide to the Cuvilliéstheater in Munich follows Francois Cuvillies, once kept as a court jester for his stature before his instinct for architecture won him a trip to study in Paris. It traces the gilded rococo opera house he built for the Bavarian elector in the early 1750s, its January 1781 premiere of Mozart's Idomeneo, and the March 1944 night Allied bombs reduced it to an empty shell. Best heard while looking closely at the gilded boxes and carvings around you.