About the NEST
After numerous efforts to offer the young audience adequate space, such as a tent on the terrace, a rented basement theater or the touring opera in the intermission rooms of the Vienna State Opera, a suitable location was found in the Künstlerhaus on Karlsplatz. The result was an opera house with 252 seats, an orchestra pit and a laced floor, which opened on December 7 with the premiere and first performance of the children's opera Sagt der Walfisch zum Thunfisch. The new venue was made possible by a sponsorship from the Haselsteiner Family Private Foundation and a sponsorship from STRABAG SE as well as a one-off grant from the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.
Numerous world premieres and a diverse program for young audiences
The diverse program of the new house offers, among other things World premieres of operas for children and young people as well as ballet, quiz shows, more experimental productions such as the immersive opera Nesterval's Götterdämmerung, discussion events, creative introductions to works and a wide range of workshops to take part in.
The new venue is also the place where the young artistic collectives of the Haus am Ring - the opera school, the opera studio, the ballet academy and the youth company - can perform. In the very first season, around 100 events are scheduled on the stage, as well as numerous workshops.
»Theater braucht ein Zuhause – jetzt haben wir endlich ein permanentes Zuhause, ein perfektes kleines Theater für all die Ideen, die bisher im Haupthaus nicht umsetzbar waren. Näher kann man der Musik nicht kommen. Die Bedeutung des jungen Publikums für die Zukunft eines Hauses muss man ja nicht groß erklären. Aber dieses Publikum hat jetzt schon ein Recht auf sein eigenes Programm, und zwar ohne Kompromisse bei der Qualität.«
The house within the house: modern opera hall in a historic building shell
For STRABAG, which was involved in the project not only as a sponsor but also as a construction company, the address Karlsplatz 5 was not unfamiliar territory. The construction group had already revitalized the main premises of the Künstlerhaus, now the Albertina Modern, between 2017 and 2020. The so-called "French Hall" was the second major stage of the refurbishment and now houses NEST. In order to preserve the architectural identity of Vienna's Ringstrasse, a conscious decision was made not to build a new building, but to build in the existing structure.
