Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is an opera house in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It serves as the national opera building of the country.
The history of opera in Slovenia goes back to G. C. Bonomi's Il Tamerlano in 1732. The national opera company is now a subsection of the Slovene National Theatre (Slovensko narodno gledališce, SNG) as the Slovene National Opera and Ballet Company.[1]
It was previously the home of the Provincial Theatre (Slovene: Deželno gledališče) which was built between 1890 and 1892 in the Neo-Renaissance style by the Czech architects Jan Vladimír Hráský and Anton Hruby. Before the construction of the German Theatre (the present Slovene National Theatre (SNG) on Erjavčeva 1) in 1911, the building served as a venue for productions in both Slovenian and German, and afterwards only in Slovenian.
The facade of the Opera House has Ionic columns supporting a tympanum above the entrance and has two niches at the side adorned with allegorical statues of Tragedy and Comedy by sculptor Alojzij Gangl (1859-1935). The Ljubljana Opera House is located between the Slovenian Parliament building, the National Museum and the National Gallery.