Vienna Opera

Such is the beauty of experiential travel! How wonderful! My big splurge for my visit to Vienna a few years ago was to buy a ticket to the opera. I picked a night in which they were performing “La Noce de Figaro”. To be at the the Wiener Staatsoper for such a performance in which I had spent months listening to the opera so I knew it backwards and forwards was a dream come true.

That’s wonderful - both spontaneous and a great opportunity! We attended a ballet at the Wiener Staatsoper one year, and both the performers and the orchestra were fantastic! I love classical music & ballet, so it was a very special evening!

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I always look at what's on stage when I travel. Sometimes it's a gamble (I actually walked out of an opera in Vienna), and sometimes it's sublime, but it's always an opportunity to have a richer experience as a tourist.

Just got back last week, and while in Vienna we attended The Barber of Seville (30 Sep perf). We're not 'opera buffs' but when in Rome, etc... Highly recommend seeing a performance at this amazing venue. Staatsoper was a lot smaller (more intimate) than I had envisioned it would be, having worked up some grandiose scale expectation after hearing about legacy for years. The close proximity of audience to the performers (and the Philharmonic in pit) was exceptional, and made the experience truly memorable.

After the performance, walked to a nearby würstelstand and had a Käsekrainer (with senf) with the locals. What a great city !!

Glad you got to do this. The Vienna Opera is great. Saw a performance there in 2015. Did a tour of the facility (also worthwhile) in May of this year; it was cool to see how the stage works.

My wife and I have similar experiences throughout Europe, i.e., unexpected musicals, religious celebrations, cultural events. My favorite was when we left a restaurant in Lukerbad, Switzerland, and found ourselves in the town square where a 20 piece horn orchestra was playing. This impromptu concert lasted at least an hour. It was a weeknight and dark . . . but could find no other reasons for this treat. Good travels.

I saw Rigoletto at the Vienna Opera, a wonderful experience. We rode the tram from our hotel and were seated next to several older couples dressed very nicely with their grandchildren. You wouldn’t see this in Atlanta. For one thing, Americans in general don’t do mass transit and, in general, again, don’t value culture like Europeans seem to do. In any case, I loved Vienna.

there are also places you can go to see non-full-length performances of classical music in historic settings, if you're not up to an entire opera