Drottningholm Palace Theatre

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The Drottningholm Palace Theatre is an opera house located at Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the few 18th century theatres in Europe that is still used as a theatre with its original stage machinery.Currently, the reinvigorated theatre has acquired a growing international reputation as a summer opera festival theatre by focusing on works by Haydn, Handel, Gluck and Mozart and emphasis on authentic performance. The theatre has also had guest performances by the Royal Swedish Opera.HistoryThe first theatre to be built on the Drottningholm site was designed by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and completed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. The interior was decorated between 1665 and 1703, at first in a heavy, sumptuous baroque style, but later increasingly refined to French patterns. The theatre opened in 1754 and hosted a new troupe of French actors, the Du Londel Troupe (1753-1771), that had been engaged by the court a year earlier. The troupe used the theatre in the summer months to show French and Italian opera for Queen Lovisa Ulrika and her court.