Graz Opera Graz Opera Graz Opera (German: Oper Graz) is an Austria opera house and opera company based in Graz. The orchestra of the opera house also performs concerts as the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra ("Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester"). Opera had been performed in Graz since the 17th century, originally in a converted coach house on the Habsburg royal estates. The National Theatre (Schauspielhaus Graz), constructed in 1776, saw many early performances of Mozart's operas, although today (after many reconstructions) it is devoted to the performances of plays. The city's first dedicated opera house and the immediate predecessor of the Graz Opera was the
Simmering-Graz-Pauker (trams, metro ("Silver Arrow" and "V-wagon"), trains). During the 1950s Simmering-Graz-Pauker A.G. developed the SGP M-222 Flamingo, their first aircraft. It was a conventional twin engine monoplane, smaller than many but seating four in two rows. The first prototype flew for the first time on 15 May 1959 but was lost in a fatal crash during single engine tests on 2 August 1959. Development work continued on a second aircraft which first flew in 1960 and a third followed in 1962. The fourth aircraft, now renamed the "Simmering-Graz-Pauker SGP.222" was intended as a production prototype and demonstrator and appeared at