Franck Bohbot captures Vienna State Opera in silenceBefore audiences fill the auditorium and musicians take their places in the orchestra pit, Franck Bohbot documents the Vienna State Opera in his latest photographic reportage. The photographer captures the landmark without performers or spectators, shifting attention from opera as spectacle to the architecture that has framed generations of performances. Completed in 1869 on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, the Vienna State Opera was designed by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll as one of the boulevard’s first monumental public buildings. During the Second World War, much of the Vienna State Opera, including its auditorium and stage, was destroyed during Allied bombing in 1945. Seen through Bohbot’s lens, the Vienna State Opera becomes an architectural performance in its own right—one where marble, velvet, ornament, and light quietly take the leading roles.