Fancy intermission room

A special reception / intermission room, still done in old-style Baroque gold. The busts of a couple dozen famous opera composers sit in alcoves high on the walls—well, some like Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven are household names, while others are really only famous in Austria or in the rarefied, snobby circles of hardcore opera lovers.

These busts date to the time of the Habsburg monarchy, so you won’t find any recent composers here. And of course there are a bunch that were famous back in their day but the Habsburg emperors didn’t like—either out of personal taste, or their work got a bit too overtly political. As the guide explained, that didn’t mean their operas didn’t get played, they just didn’t get honoured in this room.