The opera house, which opened in 1685, continued the courtly music culture established by the dukes around 1654 in Halle an der Saale.
The boxes for the duke and duchess were a prominent feature of the auditorium’s architectural design. In 1736 they featured red wall fabric, greenish gold leather wallpaper, and an iron stove – the only heating device in the entire theatre. Guests are said to have dined at semicircular tables in these boxes.
The architectural ornamentation of the boxes is not documented, but we do know that two Hercules figures stood in the theatre in 1754. The visualization shown here recreates the basic spatial structure of the boxes.