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 Simmering-Graz-Pauker Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG (SGP), founded as "Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG für Maschinen-, Kessel- und Waggonbau", was an important Austrian machine and engine factory, manufacturing: machinery, boilers and rail vehicles. It was established in 1941 through the merger of Simmering machinery and rolling stock company with the Graz machine and rolling stock company and the Paukerwerkstraße Corporation from Vienna. After the Second World War the company was majority owned by the state and had a wide network of international offices and subsidiaries in Asia, South America and Europe with several thousand employees. The company experienced rapid growth until the mid-1980s. In the early