This is where Richard Wagner’s first public reading of the complete Ring oeuvre took place on 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th February 1853. The hotel was venue and meeting place of the Wagner circle for over seven years. The club Baur au Lac has been an intellectual centre of the Limmat town until today.

On 22 October 1865 Wagner himself sang parts of Siegmund and Hunding from the first act of “Walküre” in an improvised performance. Wagner was a tenor. Emilie Heim was sang Sieglinde, accompanied by Franz Liszt on grand piano.

Wagner directed numerous subscription concerts of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft (AMG) from 1850 to 1855, amongst others Beethoven’s symphonies, works of Weber, Mozart and Gluck.

The old stock theatre burned down in 1890 and was demolished afterward. Today the Obergericht Zurich can be found in its place. Wagner directed many opera performances in the “Aktientheater”, for example Beethoven’s Fidelio (1850/51), Weber’s Freischütz (1850/51), and performances of his own works (Der Fliegende Holländer, 1853 / Tannhäuser, 1855). In 1851, Wagner offered suggestions for the reorganisation of the Zurich Theatre in the reform-oriented paper “Ein Theater in Zürich”.