The origins of the Riga City Theatre date back to 1782, when the 500-seat Riga City Theatre House, designed by Haberland, was opened, its director Otto Hermann von Füttinghoff-Schöll maintained a large symphony orchestra of 24 musicians at his own expense, and when the Muses Society bought the building in 1815, the building became known as the Muses House. In 1837-1839,
Richard Wagner was the theatre's
Kapellmeister. In 1860-1863, a new theatre building was built in Riga with almost 2000 seats, which opened with productions of
Friedrich Schiller's Wallenstein's Camp and
Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio. Designed by the architect Ludwig Bonstet (1822-1885) as a Hellenised
Classical building, the building was rebuilt in 1882-1887 to a design by the city architect
Reinhold Schmeling after it burnt down in a fire. The theatre was closed down during the
First World War and only reopened as the Deutsches Stadttheater after the German troops entered Riga in 1917. during
World War I era On 23 January 1919, by order of
Andrejs Upītis, the head of the Art Department of the Education Commissariat of the LSPR, the Latvian Opera moved into the Riga City German Theatre building, and on 9 February the Latvian Opera was renamed the "Soviet Latvian Opera". From May to August 1919, the German theatre company was again active in the building of the 1st City Theatre in Riga, after which the Latvian Opera moved back in.On 23 September 1919, the
Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia adopted the "Regulations on the National Opera", and on 2 December the Latvian National Opera staged a performance of Richard Wagner's opera "
Tannhäuser", which was celebrated as the day of the establishment of the Latvian National Opera. After the occupation of Latvia, it was renamed the "State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Latvian SSR", and during the
German occupation of Latvia during World War II (1941-1944) the "Riga Opera Theatre", after which the former name was restored. On 24 April 1989, the 70th anniversary of the Latvian National Opera was celebrated and the name was changed back to the name used during the
interwar period. == Theatre managers and artistic directors ==