Built by Knobelsdorff from 1740 to 1743, the Staatsoper is the only part of the great urban project of Frederick II ever to be completed (a palace and Fine Arts Academy were also planned). Rebuilt after the fire of 1843, then destroyed again during the Second World War, the opera house was then radically rebuilt once again in the 1950s. The institution which founded the musical tradition of Berlin maintains its excellent reputation today with the renowned conductor, Daniel Barenboïm.