Editing Vienna State Opera (section)

===Ballet companies merge===
At the beginning of the 2005–2006 season, the ballet companies of the Staatsoper and the [[Vienna Volksoper]] were merged under the direction of Gyula Harangozó, which led to a reduction in the number of performers in the resulting ensemble. This has resulted in an increase in the number of guest stars engaged to work in the ballet. The practice of combining the two ballet companies proved an artistic failure, and Harangozó left when his contract expired in 2010.

From the 2010–2011 season a new company was formed called ''Wiener Staatsballet'', [[Vienna State Ballet]], under the direction of former [[Paris Opera Ballet]] principal dancer [[Manuel Legris]]. Legris eliminated Harangozós's policy of presenting nothing but traditional [[narrative ballet]]s with guest artists in the leading roles, concentrated on establishing a strong in-house ensemble and restored evenings of mixed bill programs, featuring works of [[George Balanchine]], [[Jerome Robbins]], [[Jiří Kylián]], [[William Forsythe (choreographer)|William Forsythe]], and many contemporary choreographers, as well as a reduced schedule of the classic ballets.