query: Who designed the Vienna State Opera House?
passage: Vienna State Opera
The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese "city expansion fund". Work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect and contractor Josef Hlávka.
passage: Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini
Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636 – 12 December 1707) was an Italian architect and stage designer. Born in Mantua, he studied architecture under his father Giovanni and followed him to Vienna in 1650. There he became the chief architect and stage designer to the court of Emperor Leopold I and his successor Joseph I, a position he held for the rest if his life. His principal architectural work was the new court theatre in Vienna inaugurated in 1668 and destroyed in 1683, but he was also involved in the extensive rebuilding and expansion of the Leopold's Laxenburg castles and in the reconstruction of buildings damaged during the Battle of Vienna as well as crearing the original designs for the Pestsäule monument. His work as a stage designer for the lavish entertainments at Leopold's court is preserved in numerous engravings.