The modern-looking one of Berlin's two opera houses Celebrated postwar opera house opened in 1961 in the spirit of West Berlin, and marked by none of the neoclassical features that defined its previous 1912 incarnation, which was destroyed in 1943 by an RAF air raid. The opera company's bourgeois origins and ethos were partly a response to the aristocratic bent of the Staatsoper, and the top ticket prices here are decidedly cheaper than in other world-class opera houses. Designed by Fritz Bornemann, the current rectangular concrete-and-glass structure features an accoustically excellent auditorium and an expansive foyer space for interval perambulations (and possible light cruising). Also the home of the Berlin State Ballet. Previous names include Deutsches Opernhaus and Städtische Oper. Berlin's oldest opera house, the afore-mentioned Staatsoper [see entry], is temporarily based just down the road at Bismarckstraße 110 (Schiller Theater) while its home in Mitte gets a major facelift. U-Bahns: Deutsche Oper and Bismarckstraße.