Bavarian State Opera (German: Bayerische Staatsoper) is an opera company based in Munich, Germany. Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.
The opera company which was founded under Electress consort Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653, when Giovanni Battista Maccioni's L'arpa festante was performed in the court theatre. In 1753 the Residence Theatre (Cuvilliés Theatre) was opened as a major stage. While opera performances were also held in the Prinzregententheater (completed in 1901), the company's home base is the National Theatre Munich on Max-Joseph-Platz.
In 1875, the Munich Opera Festival took place for the first time which nowadays can be viewed as one of the most important opera festivals worldwide.
Sir Peter Jonas became the Staatsoper Staatsintendant (General Director) in 1993, the first British Intendant of any major German speaking opera house. In 2008, Nikolaus Bachler became General Director of the opera company. The current Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the company is Kirill Petrenko, since 2013. In October 2015, the company announced the extensions of the current respective contracts of Bachler and of Petrenko through August 2021. Petrenko is scheduled to work as a guest conductor with the company in the final year of his current contract, the 2020-2021 season.