Anna Netrebko is singing L'Elisir while we are in Paris this fall, but the Bastille website shows all the performances as being sold out.

I know where I would look for tickets here in the states, but where should I look in Paris? FNAC? A grand magasin? Stand on the corner on a performance night with a wad of money in my hand?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Both FNAC and Virgin have a ticket selling service, you can try, but I think they are both online, anyway (FNAC definitely is, I think Virgin's inhouse service is really run by another company and I forget its name right now). But if the website says there are none, I wouldn't expect to get any at FNAC or Virgin. They don't operate one of those services where they buy tickets and then mark them up a lot to sell them, they only sell regularly priced tickets with a small service charge. They do have some ticket brokers in Paris they do that kind of thing, but I don't know their names. Do you have a concierge at a hotel who could help you? I suppose you can hang around the building on performance night, I've definitely seen that at performances, but don't know the legality of that if you want to risk doing it.

I checked and I am not sure Virgin actually sells Bastille opera tickets, as I don't see any (I think they are ticketnet.fr).

However, FNAC seems to be willing to sell those tickets, at least they offered some for sell (I only checked 10/23 date). Of course they are not cheap, I think they are about 10 euro higher than the Opera itself www.fnac.fr

YOu can always try at the box office when you get there, also, I've gotten some tickets to a ballet on-site, a few days before performance, when the website said it was sold out.

I should think that tickets to hear Netrebko in Paris, particularly in L'Elisir, would be as scarce as hen's teeth. If any are available, it would most likely be through knowledgeable and relatively quite resources such as a concierge. If your hotel has a concierge service I should recommend contacting them immediately.

Bastille's standing-room tickets go on sale the morning of the performance if you're willing to do that.

No personal experience, but perhaps you can call Bastille's box office and ask them about returned tickets?

I have done this last year with the ROH for a performance with Juan Diego Florez. They were all sold out, but the box office person told me to keep checking their website, because if tickets are returned, they are released on the website for reselling. I basically checked ROH's website about 5x a day for 1 week, and suddenly about 40 tickets became available at all price range.

I've also heard/read that many tickets are scooped up by travel agencies or sold as hotel packages. If those packages get unsold, the hotels and agencies will return the opera tickets back to the opera house which will then sell them. This usually happens a few weeks before the performance. Good luck!

M Fifi, apart from standing room tickets, does Bastille hold back X number of seated tickets to be sold on the day of performance, like the ROH? I believe the ROH has 100 (or is it 300) seated tickets held back each day to be sold at 10:00am.

yk, it looks like the last minute tickets are only available to youths (under 28), seniors, and unemployed.

I was mistaken about standing room sales-- it goes on sale 1 1/2 hours before the show, not in the morning.

http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/liv...x.php?&lang=en

Another thing-- some of the cheapest seats (partial-view?) are not sold online, only at the box office. Maybe some of those are sections are still available.

http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/liv...s.php?&lang=en

M Fifi posted another link on a different thread, showing the booking opening dates:
http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/liv...s.php?&lang=en

I'm wondering if only X # of tickets are sold via internet; and they set aside Y # of tickets for sale via phone (Aug 11) and Z # of tickets at box office (Sept 11) for L'Elisir?