ttickets for vienna opera

Hi Joni,
Years ago (42) we bought evening of performance tickets for the standing room area. It was my first opera (La Traviata), and I fell instantly in love with opera. You have a bar to lean against if they still do this. At the Royal Opera House in London I know they still have a standing room area, they are always way up in what we call the 'nose bleed' section! You could try emailing them to see if this is still the case. I don't know your budget, but I, who am not rich by any stretch, would pay up to 200 Euros to see an opera at the Vienna State Opera, very, very high quality, one of the best in the world. We routinely pay that and more to see opera and ballet in London, Milan, I think was a bit less. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for you! I have never used anything but the official sites for my tickets so can't help you there. I see on the Vienna State Opera web site, you can order Stand By tickets as well, then if anything comes available they sell to you. Good luck!

Only half jokingly i suggest you purchase tickets at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest. Take the train down (3.5 hours) spend the day, see some of the city, see the opera, have a splendid dinner, sleep over and take the morning train back. All together my guess is if you could get the same wonderful box seats in Vienna; 1st you would be surounded by tourists in Vienna while in Budapest you will be surrounded by Hungarians, 2nd the performance in Budapest will be as good if not better (because its for the locals and not the tourists), 3rd the opera house in Budapest is as beautiful as anything in Vienna, if not more so, 4th if you compare the whole experience dollar for dollar and if you include a very fine meal in that comparison despite the cost of the train tickets the total cost will be about the same. Okay, so i like the place....shoot me!

James - Give it up. She wants to do to the Opera in Vienna. We all know you hate Vienna and love Budapest but other people should be allowed to make plans to visit Vienna. They might even love it.
I don't have a CWP so don't worry - I won't shoot you. You have other endearing qualities that will save you.

Some how I knew that would get me a spanking. :-) I don't "Hate" Vienna. There are places I have enjoyed more. And now lets be fair. If you go back through my posts you will see me encouraging people not to miss Vienna because each to their own and they might get more out of it than i did. I suggest places other than Budapest more often than I do Budapest it's self; but I limit it to some place I have actually been and know a little about. If "the Opera" in Europe is a big deal for them then it might be a viable option with some side benefits. I went to Moscow last year because I wanted to see a ballet. But again, crazy stunts like that aren't the norm. There have been times in my life that if someone didn't mention an idea it would have never come to me on my own so, yes, sometimes i throw out a wild card; but that's not the same as arm twisting. But i think you understand me, and i liked the endearing comment, so we are all good.

Thanks for the info. One thing about opera, everyone has an opinion, seems to be the same for travelers. Vienna is our one choice because of the performers and performance - Carmen - with Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna so I think I will get on the stand by list and hope for the best. Travel well
Joni

Go for it, Joni! 45 years ago, my friend and I (having recently finished a year at the U of Madrid) walked up to the box office at the Vienna opera and somehow got tickets for that night, front row balcony, for "La Boheme." You just never know!

Small world, we saw Carmen in Budapest about 4 weeks ago. But to be honest we are novices. Might have been a great performance or possibly average but we enjoyed the evening.