I know that Verona is probably preferable to see an opera, but I will also be in Rome, Venice and Florence this August and would like to see an opera while I am there. Thanks for any suggestions.

My husband and I enjoy opera, and I came across this website in preparation for our upcoming trip. Hope it is useful to you. www.culturalitaly.com

This site has loads of links and information:

www.operabase.com

Of course, the summer is not regular opera season (except in Verona), but it is festival season, so you may have luck.

Another alternative is to e-mail the concierge in your upcoming hotels now and ask them what, if anything might be available..or if you already know ask them to book the tickets for you...they'll probably charge your CC and you can arrive knowing that you have the tickets/reservations. I've done this in the past and found the LOCAL person's recommendations invaluable in terms of what was "good" and what wasn't. Admittedly, you are relying on someone else's taste and judgement..but that's par for the course, I suppose, when one posts questions here as we do. Just a thought. Hope it all works out for you.

You can see the schedule and buy tickets for the opera in Verona online with a credit card. www.arena.it. I'm looking forward to seeing 'Carmen' on August 29, but they're also doing 'Aida' this season, and I think seeing 'Aida' in the 2000 year old Roman arena in Verona would be the ultimate opera experience.

There are opera festivals in Pisa and Rome. Try www.discoveritalia.com and search from there. We are going to the New Opera Fesival in Rome which takes place from June 21st to August 8th. Good luck.

My finace and i will be in Rome at the end of July for our honeymoon and we already purchased tickets for the "New Opera Festival" in Rome -outdoor performances in a church courtyard. Visit http://www.thecatseyes.com/show.asp?show_id=1143 We bought our tickets online through this site. We opted for this instead of Verona as we don't have enough time in Venice.

A couple of years ago we stayed in Venice and took the train into Verono for Aida in the open air arena. We spent the night in Verona and retunred to Venice on the train the next morning. We are doing it again next year but this time we will not stay in Verona.

What we discovered is that by the time the opera is over (1:00 a.m) the restaurants start serving main courses of dinner - and the trains leave for Venice at around 5:00. Se we will just rest up - go to the opera, have a late dinner and take the early train to Venice and take a nap.

BTW Aida under the stars in Verona is one fabulous treat

Just beware of ticket brokers on line. We bought opera Tickets from NWTIX for the sold out Paris Opera and paid $100.oo each for tickets that cost 10 Euros and were horrible seats that you had to lean over a railing to see anything. I was under the assumption that the tickets were being bought by a ticket broker in Paris only to find out that they were bought via a scalper right on the street in front of the opera house. never assume anything. So buyer beware. Expensive lesson to learn. Should you buy on-line find out where the seats are located or don't buy them. My clue should have been that we wouldn't know where the seats were until 15 minutes prior to the performance. Find out if in fact they are being bought by a legitimate european ticket broker-get the name!

We have have the concierge in our hotel take care of this for us, quite successfully when we are traveling independently..unless you have a very good travel agency that can do it for you as we did twice in Sydney. Plan ahead and give them PLENTY of time!

A ggod source for info and tickets is
www.charta.it
Many cultural events throughout Italy are listed.

just back from Italy and my wife and I attended an operea in Florence as part of the Music Festival, I got tickets on the festival internet site and the seats were wonderful. Check out the festival web sites. There are usually ticket buying links right through them.

this address: www.arena.it, is the official site of the opera theatre

Verona is the best, I saw Aida a couple of years ago, and several operas in the past, it is always a wonderful experience. Do not forget to bring a candle to lit up at the begin of the show. Buy the ticket on-line is the best and cheapest way to secure your space.
Enjoy it...