The opera in the St. Margarethen quarry was founded at the suggestion of Marcel Prawy under the name Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen. From the outset, the opera festival had the intention of offering so-called "faithful" productions and took place for the first time in 1996. Since then, there have been opera performances and concerts with classical and pop music on the open -air natural stage every year in the summer months of July and August . From 2001, as part of the opera festival, a children 's opera was also staged every year in the neighboring quarry "Papagenos Opernwelt" in St. Margarethen. The stage was in the disused part of the Roman quarry . founder andThe director of the festival was the Austrian Wolfgang Werner until mid-2014 .