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In September 2002, the ensemble of the Slovenian National Theatre – the Opera and Ballet of Ljubljana celebrated its 110th season. Apart from regular seasonal novelties, Slovenia's main repertory musical theatre also boasts a wide and varied repertoire of contemporary and classical opera, ballet and concert pieces.
Every season, the ensemble gives around 150 performances to subscription and non-subscription audiences home and abroad. The highlight of the season 2004/05 was the world premiere of Offenbach's opera The Rhine Nymphs, which received enthusiastic acclaim from critics and public alike.
The neo-Renaissance building of Ljubljana Opera House (Opera), originally the building of the Provincial Theatre (Deželno gledališce), was built by the Czech architects Jan V. Hrasky and Anton Hruby between the years 1890 and 1892. Before the German Theatre (Nemško gledališce – the current Drama theatre) was built in 1911, the Ljubljana Opera House hosted productions both in Slovenian and German, and afterwards only those in Slovenian.
The two niches on the façade are adorned with Alojz Gangl's allegorical statues of Tragedy and Comedy. The building's characteristic appearance is mainly due to the richly adorned front façade with Ionic columns supporting a majestic tympanum above the entrance. The sculptures in the tympanum represent Poetry and Glory, and the figure with a torch above them – another work by Alojzij Gangl – an allegory of Genius. The stone pedestals in front of the building support the busts of the Slovenian theatre artists Anton Verovšek and Ignacij Borštnik sculpted by France Kralj in 1921, and the pedestal by the side of the building the portrait sculpture of Julij Betetto by Stojan Batic.
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