Opera in Italy?
 

My fiance and I are going to Italy for our honeymoon in October. We're not positive where all we will be going, yet, but we will be there for two weeks. We want to see an opera, and I'm looking for sugestions on where to go. Obviously there is La Scala in Milan, but are there any others that you would suggest? How far in advance should I book tickets? Do you have any contact info for them? Thanks so much for any advice!

I enjoyed an opera at Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Opened in 1737 it was once the largest opera house in the world. Faded glory and all of that.

The Teatro la Fenice has been reopened in Venice after the fire.

Seems like I went to the opera in Bologna or Modena too, someone else will know if there are venues there.

Let us know what you deide, it is so wonderful to attend an opera in Italy.

I'm sure you can google for all the major opera houses in Italy: Teatro alla Scala (Milan), La Fenice (Venice), Opera di Roma, Teatro San Carlo (Naples). Some may sell tickets on line from their own Web sites or through an agency such as www.vivaticket.it.

Be aware that many performances are sold as part of subscription series and may have only a very limited number of seats, if any, for individual sale.

www.charta.it will show you what is playing in all the cities you plan to visit. I went to the opera in Rome last Sept and used this site.

Actually, unless it's a really hot ticket, you can generally get a same-day ticket by going to the box office when it opens on the day of the performance and inquiring what the policy is on same-day tickets. I've had no problem getting into performances at La Scala this way. Even when there's a hot ticket opera, (say, Verdi's Rigoletto or any Mozart opera) there will be ticket brokers who may have tickets at very premium prices, or scalpers outside the ticket office a few hours before the performance. If you really want to see an opera in one of the great houses in Italy, I'd say your chances are quite good, but it is highly dependent on what night, which performance, and how much you're willing to pay for it. Doing some research in advance on the opera websites is key.

I should say too that even operas that are not typically hot tickets can be very enjoyable-I just saw Donizetti's La Favorite in Vienna's Staatsoper a month ago, which engrossed me more than I thought it would initially (even though this opera starts out slowly the fourth act will blow you away-worth the other three acts together). I bought my ticket last minute, just an hour before the performance for 5 Euro-a pretty good bargain (and one of the few you'll find in Vienna, btw!)

There's outdoor opera in the Roman amphitheater in Verona.

The Arena in Verona only runs Opera in the summer season, until the end of August, so it wouldn't be available to the posters in October.

I agree with Spygirl. We've had much better luck buying at the theatre box office for the same day or even a day or two later. In some theatres, the sightlines can be really limited (like La Scala) and if you order on line, you may not get a good view seat. Our last trip, from which we just returned, had available good orchestra seats for same day "Tosca". Turn backs for good seats are usually available 1 hr. before the performance. Just make a list of the performances you could attend and try to line up tickets on the day you arrive at any city, giving you the best chance to see something.

For La Scala, same-day are available 2 HOURS before curtain at the box office all the way to the left-hand side of the theater.

We got ours for The Barber of Seville last fall on the same day and the seats were terrific for a sold-out show.

BTW, that is one heck of a grand opera house. Slightly high-tech with a small digitized translation screen at the back of each seats.

this site may help:
http://www.initaly.com/regions/opera.htm

Be aware that online ticket services will sell at marked-up prices unless it is an online service of the actual theatre's own ticket office. That mark-up, just like it is in New York and London, can be huge - you pay for a service.

WK

Where is poster, operaman when we need him?

To begin, I would research the individual opera house websites to establish what they are offering and what you favor to see in your time frame.

If you are interested in tickets for La Scala, search with that name on this site. There are detailed instructions on how to obtain tickets for this opera house that I posted following our experience. We are going to La Scala in July after purchasing tickets on-line.

VS

See, Bill Boy? That's the way to do it. I've not been in La Scala since the renovation-that's one of my must-dos.

Actually, Spygirl, we already have 2 tickets that we bought months in advanced through the La Scala website. Excellent seats, too.

However, since we met up with some relatives who live in Italy, they decided to come with us to the opera.

Just as an fyi, the same-day tix are available at exactly 2 hours before curtain at La Scala. Hence, as we got to the box office at 2 hours and 10 minutes before curtain time, there were already a line-up for the same day tickets. I does appear that these same-day tickets would not last 30 minutes from the time the box office opens to sell them.

Well, I'm a great believer in same-day tickets, primarily because I'm not the reserve months in advance type of person, but as Prr said, it's been my experience that you can generally get much better tickets at far cheaper prices for the opera (and other major classical music performances) by going to the box office same day or within a couple of days of the performance than by doing it through advance purchase reservations. This still requires a bit of planning, but same day purchases obviously allows for so much more flexibility in trip planning, as you can't normally get rid of an expensive set of tickets as a tourist if your plans have to suddenly change, or you really want to be somewhere else on the appointed time of the performance.

whatever

The La Scala tix are a little harder to score than Springsteen seats, from my experience ;-) Missing Tosca was one of my few disappointments on our May trip, but we enjoyed exploring Milan with all the extra money we saved! If you visit Venice look out for special concerts in the churches - there were a few going on during our stay. And I was stunned one night walking out of Campo Santa Margherita by some spirited, talented opera singers at what I'm guessing was their version of "dinner theater". You could hear the singing for a couple of blocks, and we sat outside the side door and listened. I'm hoping for a little help here from the veterans identifying what the venue was... near Calle Soranza?