The Vienna State Opera is one of the most important opera companies in the world. Until 1920 it was called the "Opera House of the Imperial and Royal Court of Vienna". It is the nerve centre of Viennese musical life, and one of the poles of attraction in the musical world.

The original State Opera House, a neo-Renaissance building much criticised by the Viennese when it was built between 1861 and 1869 to a design by Viennese architects Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg. Both architects died before the building was completed (van der Nüll committed suicide and his partner Sicardsburg died shortly afterwards of a heart attack). Other renowned artists were involved in the interior decoration, notably the painter Moritz von Schwind, who painted the famous frescoes in the foyer and on the terrace. The theatre was inaugurated on 25 May 1869 with Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.

During the Second World War, the building was bombed by the air force on 12 March 1945, and subsequently a fire completely destroyed the stage and the auditorium. Almost the entire set for more than 120 operas with about 150,000 costumes was destroyed. Only the main façade, the grand staircase and the foyer with Schwind's frescoes were saved. The State Opera was temporarily housed in the Theater an der Wien and the Volksoper.

Immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, it was announced that reconstruction work would begin immediately. The project called for the reconstruction of the hall in a design similar to the original, but with decoration more in keeping with the design trends of the time, although the traditional colours of red, gold and ivory were retained. The entire hall was covered in wood in order to restore the original brilliant acoustics. The number of seats in the stalls was reduced and the fourth floor was restructured to eliminate the columns, which reduced visibility. Schwind's façade, foyer and foyer were restored to their original style.

The reconstructed theatre, with 2284 seats (instead of the original 2881), reopened on 5 November 1955, shortly after the signing of the treaty re-establishing Austria as an independent state, with a performance of Beethoven's opera Fidelio conducted by Karl Böhm.

Between 1991 and 1993, the entire stage area was completely renovated, with state-of-the-art hydraulic platforms, new power supply, heating, ventilation and fire protection installations throughout the building. A new stage rehearsal room, called the "Carlos Kleiber Hall", was also built. Among the special features of the building is the Orgelsaal (organ hall) on the sixth floor, which contains a large 2500-pipe organ (the largest in the world among those housed in opera houses), the sound of which is transmitted directly into the auditorium. The same room is sometimes used for other acoustic effects, such as the sound of the anvils in Richard Wagner's Rhine Gold.

Since 1877, the Opera House has been the venue for the Opera Ball for decades.

During the Nazi years in Austria between 1938 and 1945, many members of the company were persecuted for political or racial reasons, while many operas in the repertoire were banned. After the destruction of the theatre in March 1945, the company moved to the Volksoper theatre, where it gave a performance of The Marriage of Figaro the following 1 May, and another of Fidelio on 6 October in the Theater an der Wien, once the rapid restoration of that theatre was completed. For the next ten years, the company was housed in these two venues.

The reopening of the theatre in 1955 constituted a historic opera festival, in which seven significant titles from the company's repertoire were performed in succession, beginning on 5 November with Fidelio conducted by Karl Böhm, followed by Don Giovanni (also conducted by Böhm), Aida (Rafael Kubelík), The Master Singers of Nuremberg (Fritz Reiner), Wozzeck (Böhm), Der Rosenkavalier (Hans Knappertsbusch) and The Woman Without a Shadow (Böhm). In addition, Bruno Walter (who declined the invitation to conduct Don Giovanni, having already retired from conducting opera) conducted a concert with Bruckner's Te Deum and Beethoven's Ninth. Until Herbert von Karajan took over as conductor, Vienna maintained a permanent ensemble. Von Karajan introduced the policy of hiring guest singers. The exceptional group of singers of that era formed a celebrated cast with performers such as Lotte Lehmann, Maria Jeritza, Sena Jurinac or Irmgard Seefried, among others.

The Vienna State Opera is closely linked to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which is an independent society, but whose members are recruited from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera after a probationary period and several auditions.

Today, the Vienna Staatsoper is one of the most important, prestigious and traditional opera houses in the world. The programming follows the "repertory" system, in which the resident company, supported by the world's leading opera singers, performs a number of works from the company's repertoire, which are rotated or alternated throughout a season, in which up to 300 performances of opera, ballet and children's opera can be staged from the beginning of September to the end of June.1 In a single season, around 53 opera and 9 ballet titles can be alternated, of which around eight will be premieres of new productions.

The company has a very large cast of opera singers, around 200, most of whom spend most of the season singing in the theatre's productions, while the rest are the greatest international singing stars who regularly visit Vienna to take part in productions. Of these, the most important and most appreciated by the public and the theatre receive the honorary title of "Österreichischer Kammersänger" (Austrian Chamber Singer) or "Ehrenmitglied" (honorary member) of the Vienna State Opera.

Since September 2010, the Vienna State Opera's ballet company has been called the Wiener Staatsballet, following its merger with the Volksoper Ballet. The company also has a strong tradition, and the names of the most prestigious dancers and choreographers appear in its history. The company is currently led by the French dancer Manuel Legris.

An important part of the annual season at the State Opera is the performance of children's operas, for which a permanent tent was erected on the upper terrace of the building for several years. Since autumn 2015, the Staatsoper has been using the stage in the Stadttheater Walfischgasse, located just a few metres from the Ringtheater, for educational performances as well as lectures, discussions and other parallel events. Opera performances specially prepared for children are staged here throughout the season. In addition to these performances, there is an educational project with children's schools, a children's opera school and a ballet school.

A distinctive feature of the State Opera's performances is the standing tickets (Stehplätze), of which there can be more than 500 at each performance, and which are sold at very low prices at a special box office only 90 minutes before the start of the performance. Some of these seats are located in privileged places in the auditorium, namely at the back of the stalls, just below the former imperial box.

Since 1998, the Vienna State Opera, in cooperation with the Museum in Progress initiative, has decorated the fire curtain at the stage entrance with works by contemporary artists, which change every season. The fire curtain has a surface area of 176 square metres and thus becomes a dynamic exhibition space and an international showcase for young artists, who are chosen each year by an international jury. Parallel to the presence of the work on the curtain, a special edition of reproductions of the work is produced during the season in which it is on display. Each year, the initiative is sponsored by a company or institution.

Since 2010, the Vienna State Opera has been a pioneer in the live transmission of its performances via the internet. Through a subscription-based video-on-demand system, the theatre offers up to 45 performances (opera and ballet) per season, via internet browsers, or different apps for playback devices.

In May 2019, the Staatsoper celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Ringstrasse building with a series of commemorative events and exhibitions in the building, culminating in the premiere of a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten on 25 May, and a large open-air concert outside the theatre on 26 May.