Germany's first public opera house was founded by a group of merchants in Hamburg in 1678. Up to that time, opera was performed only for the aristocracy and nobility. The first production was entitled "Adam and Eve, or The Created, Fallen, and Redeemed Man" by Johann Theile. It soon became the leading venue for Baroque opera. The works of Georg Friedrich Handel and Georg Philipp Teleman, among others, were presented here.