Morettisches Opernhaus

In the middle of the 18th century, the impresario Pietro Moretti, who was a guest in Dresden, was granted the privilege of building a "standing theatre" here.

This was then built in 1754/55, initially by Julius Heinrich Schwarze and court room, mechanical engineering and theatre builder Christian Gottlieb Reuß, of half-timbering and wood on the site of the Italienisches Dörfchen [de] (where the north-east side of the Theaterplatz at the Semper Opera is today).

In 1761, after Moretti had made an interim guest appearance in Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, it was rebuilt in stone.

The Moretti Theatre had a floor plan of about 40×17 metres and had three tiers with initially 350 seats; in 1783 it was expanded to accommodate an audience of about 800.

[1] After the new Königliches Hoftheater Dresden was opened on 13 April 1841, after only three years of construction, Weber's Jubel-Ouvertüre and Goethe's play Torquato Tasso had been inaugurated, the Morettisches Opernhaus was demolished.