Royal Swedish Opera
Sweden's national opera and ballet company, in an 1898 house facing the royal palace.
The Royal Swedish Opera is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet, tracing its institutional history to the company Gustav III founded in 1773. Its resident orchestra, the Kungliga Hovkapellet, is one of the oldest ensembles in the world and marks its 500th anniversary in 2026. The Royal Swedish Ballet, also founded in 1773, shares the house and performs both the nineteenth-century classics and new choreography.
The present building faces Gustav Adolfs torg across the water from the Royal Palace. Designed by Axel Johan Anderberg in a neoclassical manner that echoes the earlier Gustavian opera house demolished in 1892, it was inaugurated on 19 September 1898. The auditorium seats around 1,100 in horseshoe tiers, and the gilded Gold Foyer with its ceiling paintings by Carl Larsson is among the grandest interiors in Stockholm. A major rebuilding, adding a new entrance and a second stage, begins after the 2026 season.
Highlights
- Neoclassical house by Axel Johan Anderberg, inaugurated in 1898
- Horseshoe auditorium seating about 1,100
- Gold Foyer with ceiling paintings by Carl Larsson
- Home of the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Kungliga Hovkapellet orchestra
