I'm going to be in Italy in late April/early May and would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to catch an opera at La Scala. The problem I'm encountering is that tickets don't go on sale until February for the dates I'll be there and I want to firm up my itinerary before that. Does anyone have experience with puchasing La Scala tickets? If I call on the day they go on sale am I likely to get a ticket to the performance I want? Thanks! Erica

Erica, I'm doing this now. We are in the process of trying to get tickets for Lucia di Lammermoor. They go on sale January 23rd. It looks like you want tickets for Tosca? Perhaps we should e-mail each other directly to assist each other. I am not sure of the interest level of others on this site. Also, it may make it easier to communicate. This last monday, I called the Scala box office, Charta(the folks who handle online reservations), and the reservation line for Lucia. It was a hoot. My wife was on the other line listening to the process, and we are still cracking up over it.

We closely watched the last opera sale and are trying to learn the process. The tickets went very quickly, but we have not lost hope for our attempt. There are a few opera sales before you must purchase, and plenty of time to prepare for your attempt.

We live in Washington state, and will have to be up at midnight in order to go for tickets when they go on sale January 23rd. If we are not successful, we will alter our final plans to spend a little more time in Switzerland, before flying out of Zurich.

When we go for La Scala tickets, my wife and I are going to try online and over the phone simultaneously.

The phone goes directly to the Teatro alla Scala system, and the number is different than the box office. The fellow at the box office gave me the number to call for Lucia: 011 39 02.86.0775
It is an automated system, and appears easy to use. Note: When it asks for your country code, put in your Passport number.

Charta is a service that handles the online reservations. They told me that I will have to be quick and adept at using their service in order to get reservations. When I contacted them about their service, a performance had sold out that morning within 20 minutes.

A way to be quick and adept is to have all your info in their system when you go for your tickets. At that time, when you enter your Passport number, all the rest of your info automatically fills in. You can get all your info into their system by reserving tickets at their website and then just not paying for that venue. When you make that preliminary reservation, don't do it for a performance at Teatro alla Scalla, as Scala will only allow two unpaid reservation cancellations. There are plenty of other places to make a practice reservation on the Charta site. You have 24 hours to confirm the reservation with a credit card, or the reservation is lost but your personal info is retained.

Viaggio,
I'm in Bellingham, Washington...where are you? Great suggestions, by the way! Erica

Erica - Our daughter is in her last year at Western; we are in Wenatchee. 509-679-3880

Viaggio sempre, I recently had a great conversation with an Italian opera house which shall remain nameless. I telephoned during the box office opening hours specified on the website and the conversation went:

Box office: "Hello, this is the box office"

Me: "Hello, could I buy a ticket"

Box officequot;No, we are closed"

Well, if they couldn't see the logical flaw there it'd probably be a losing battle to argue it. So I let it pass.

Mequot;Um, OK, when will you be open?"

Box Officequot;In six weeks"

Mequot;If I call back in six weeks will opera X be on sale?"

Box Office: "I DON'T KNOW" - in a tone which made it very clear that I was being seriously unreasonable in expecting a box office to provide any information about tickets.

After a similarly painful attempt to find out whether I'd do any better on their website I gave up and decided to use charta, who were much more efficient. Do let us know how you get on!

(It wasn't La Scala by the way, so I'm not warning anyone off their box office!)

papagena, it might as well have been La Scala. I called to talk to the box office TWICE The second time, when he recognized my voice and before I could ask my next question, he said:
“I talked to you already!”,
“I told you!”
“We can’t help you anymore!”
(I am sure he uses a headset, as I could see his hands gesture up in the air with every exclamation)

Is this the way it is going to be in Italy, or did you and I have the rare experience?

papagena - I am having too much fun reading what you wrote. I like to add an Italian inflection and some extra emphasis, and I can feel your pain. My wife was listening on the other phone when I called both times, so we get to share a great laugh about it.

This thread is so funny! Well not for ebchar and viaggio_sempre and papagena obviously!

"Is this the way it is going to be in Italy" asks viaggio.

Well possibly viaggio!

For example, my SIL who was born and raised in Italy needed to go to the Italian Consulate in SF to renew his Italian passport. Due to his work hours I told him I would call the consultate to set up an appointment for him.

All information indicated that they answered their phones from 9:00am to noon. Sooo, I called at 9:30am. Yes, the message said you had to call between Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00am to noon. But noooo, there was no person to talk to. Leaving a message, no they didn't accept messages. After about three or four days of this I talked to my SIL and said "I am so frustrated and went into great detail about the problem". He looked at me and said "well what are your frustrated about, I think they do not want to answer the phone". Well, LOL, obviously he was correct!! It seemed very logical to him.

He did manage to call one day and "somehow" left a message in Italian and got a return phone call the very next evening!! Go figure!

But my point Viaggio is that not once did my Italian SIL think it was "strange" that although the instructions said to call in the morning that it was impossible to talk to anyone etc. Sooo, that is the Italian way of doing business! But the food, the wine, the beauty of Italy does make up for all the frustrations.

And I sure hope that everyone gets their opera tickets. I have never been successful!

LoveItaly - To get tickets without having to go through someone else would be such a great thing. I love this stuff -- the whole adventure of planning our trip, dreaming of the extras like La Scalla, learning the system... I'll let you know how I feel after we find out if we can get them. There was someone else on this site that got tickets - I believe I remember a thread where she tried online and it crashed and after a couple of hours she tried the phone and somehow there were tickets and they had them.

I love this relationship with Italians, too. There is a long story about my wife ciao_ciao and her friend that lives near us, who grew up in Camogli. I am sure that Alesandra thinks of my wife as her good friend, but my wife feels like it is so one-sided, and if she didn't keep up the relationship it wouldn't exist. No big deal to Alesandra. I am sure my wife could explain it better. We do understand though, that this is how Alesandra is and it is how she defines relationship. We are looking forward to Italy, so that we can understand it better, too. You know, just like when you travel to a country of your own ancestry, so that you can better understnd yourself. Well, don't we all want to travel to Italy because there is some part of ourselves that we want to explore?

LoveItaly - I have read your story three times now, just for the simple fun of it. That is an experience that gets lost in the routine of life, but here, it is opening up a window on "what it is like to...". I can't wait 'til tomorrow so my wife can have her smile and chuckle. Thanks :-"

Okay, I just read it for the fourth time. I think I like it so much because it not only defines some Italians, but it defines your SIL, you, me, papagena, and so on. Thanks

Topping for ebchar

Hi viaggio, I am glad you enjoyed the small story I shared. At the time I wanted to bang my head against the wall, LOL. My saving grace was that I have lived and been around Italians all my life. I love them! In fact I adore them! I understand them! But do I get frustrated? Oh yes, LOL.

This LaScala thread (and the other one) has had me laughing so much as it is so typical of the "Italian way".
Have a lovely trip..you will!! Best wishes to you two. And don't forget to give us a trip report, please!!

LoveItaly, you are so nice. Thanks quot;>