The building is considered to be a prime example of "Dresden-Baroque" architecture. It is situated on the Theater Square in central Dresden on the bank of the Elbe River. On top of the portal there is a Panther quadriga with a statue of Dionysos. The interior was created by such famous architects of the time as Johannes Schilling. Monuments on the portal depict famous artists such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Molière and Euripides. The building also features work by Ernst Rietschel and Ernst Julius Hähnel.[6]
In the pre-war years, the building premiered many of the works of Richard Strauss.
During the last weeks of World War II in 1945 the building was destroyed again - this time by Allied bombing and the subsequent fire storms. Exactly 40 years later, on February 13, 1985 the opera was rebuilt almost the same as it was before the war.[7] It reopened with the same opera that was performed last before the destruction in 1945: Weber's Der Freischütz.[8]
During the flood of the Elbe in 2002 the building suffered heavy water damage. With substantial help from around the world, it reopened in December 2002
