The opera building is too short – a secular building steals the show. The Ringstraße that swallowed up the rubble of the fortress walls is suddenly raised. The plinth is atrophied. Following a short public campaign, hounded by relentless derisive criticism, the architect hangs himself. Barely ten weeks later his business partner suffers a fatal heart attack. A civic drama. The gruesome finale of this theatre horrifies the emperor. It is said that from then on he says of every new build, in what has since degenerated into the hackneyed phrase, “It was very nice, I was really delighted with it.” Small forgotten catastrophes of representation..