Performances in the warmer months have sometimes been shown on a huge screen outside the opera house.The Staatsoper offers a live streaming service with broadcasts of selected performances.See my advice on getting tickets, including the inexpensive option of standing space, where a night at the opera can cost little more than a morning coffee.Īside from a ticket or tour, you have a couple of other ways to experience the joys of the building or a live performance: So if anyone asks you what connects Callas and Cruise, you now have the answer. You can spot it in more recent productions, too, like the Jack Ryan TV series or the Sachertorte movie. The Staatsoper hosts the world-famous Opernball (Vienna Opera Ball) in February, for example, and it even played a central role in one of the Mission Impossible films.

It’s not just the prestigious operatic history that contributes to the opera house’s fame. (The raised area next to the Albertina Museum make an ideal spot for taking photos of the Staatsoper) Guest performers, conductors, directors and others from the crème de la crème of the operatic universe complement the Staatsoper’s own team for selected productions.Ĭlaudio Abbado, Luciano Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso, Joan Sutherland, Anna Netrebko, Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Gustav Mahler, José Carreras, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Riccardo Muti, and Herbert von Karajan are just some of the names who’ve worked at (or with) the Staatsoper. (Not to mention the occasional ballet thrown in for good measure: the Staatsoper opera also houses the Vienna State Ballet.)Īround 200 stagehands, vast numbers of costumes, swathes of scenery, and a whole lot of storage space combine to ensure sets can be switched in and out quickly, as required by the changing performance.Ī permanent in-house ensemble also helps make such a dynamic schedule possible. Puccini’s Madame Butterfly might pine for a lost lover on Thursday, Strauss’s Salome do the dance of the seven veils on Friday, and Bottom make an ass of himself on Saturday in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The playing schedule varies daily, so you won”t find continuous runs of any one particular production. As noted earlier, the Staatsoper sits at the high table of world culture.

Dress code for vienna opera house