Paris need advice on buying Opera tickets in advance
 

I am trying to navigate my way to find tickets to Opéra National de Paris - Palais Garnier. I would prefer to buy them before we visit Paris to be assured of getting tickets. I've been to the website www.operadeparis.fr but it is difficult for me to figure out seating and pricing etc... Not to mention I believe this site only sells subscription tickets. Does anyone have any experience with buying tickets and knowing seating so forth? I would greatly appreciate any advice.
Thanks so much.

I'm not sure where you're having trouble. You CAN buy single tickets from the website, but you need to set up an account.

Here's a link to seating plan:
http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/liv...s.php?&lang=en

Which performance(s) are you looking at?

Maybe it's too early to buy them-- the dates that each show goes on sale is listed here: http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/liv...s.php?&lang=en

Thank you, yk. I don't know why I'm having such a time. I am now registered, but am still unable to find where to buy individual tickets. The event is in Platte, in December. I believe the tickets are now available. I've seen them listed on "ticket finder" sites.
Also, the seating chart is confusing, to me. What is the difference between the tarifs? I see the catagories in the colors, but the tarifs have me confusted.
Thanks so much for your help. I've bought many tickets to different events and online, but have never had this kind of trouble.

Well, there you go! Thank you, MademoiselleFifi! That's why I can't find this event. I must mark my calendar.
Thank you both, MmeFifi & yk

yk's right- you need to go here:

http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/liv...tification.php

and set up an account. Then you log in to purchase your tickets. Prices will be listed- you can also find them on the page for each individual opera and ballet.

One thing is you can't choose a particular seat- you choose the price tier you want, but not the actual seat. Then the system will automatically offer you a ticket for a particular seat within the price tier you choose- you'll also get a link you can click that shows you the view of the stage from that seat. If you don't want that seat, you can close the window and keep trying until you get offered a seat you like.

It's possible that seats for the performance you want aren't on sale yet- right now they are only selling for performances until the end of October. If you're looking at something in Nov or Dec or 2010, you'll have to wait to get tickets- usually the website says when they go on sale.

In the meantime you could always register and practice ordering and looking at the "viewing window" to get a feel for the seats, so that when it comes time to buy your tickets you'll already have a good idea of what you want. Sometimes tickets can go really fast and you won't want to waste time figuring out the system at the time.

If you have your heart set on getting good seats for a particular performance, you might want to make note of the date it goes on sale and then set your alarm clock and wake up extra early that day to buy your tickets.

Sorry- I'm a sloooowwww typist...

Platee won't be available for a while- definitely mark your calendar because I think that show will sell out fast.

cristeen, looking at the page for Platée, it looks like the price category is Tarif A.

If you look at the seating/price plan, imagine you're standing on the stage and looking back at the auditorium.

So, Cat 1, with seats in the front, are the most expensive.

Since this is shown at Palais Garnier, I would advise against buying the seats in the back of the loge boxes. I suppose the 2nd row in the loge box is perhaps okay, but definitely not the 3rd row in the loge box. Based on what I've read here, you really can't see much of anything sitting in the 3rd row in a box, because there is no incline in the boxes.

Apres_Londee, Thank you. I did just mark my calendar for a few days earlier so I will get up. I would like a good seat, but the most important thing for me is that I get the tickets. I don't want to miss seeing an Opera in this Opera House during our stay.
I am also going to take your advice and practice so I know what to look for. Thanks! The catagories make sense to me on the website but the tarifs were throwing me off. I hadn't gone far enough to see actual seat selection and that seemed odd.
Thank you all for your help. It is much appreciated.

Apres_Londee- you think so? Ok, good to know. I will set my alarm!

yk-thanks. That is good to know, too. I will try for 1st or 2nd row. What does the tarif column mean?

Ah, I get it now! Each event is assigned a tarif or kind of like a price point. I am to look up what the assigned tarif is and then choose a seat by catagory. They show me the seat when I request and I can accept or decline and move on.
Got it! Thank you all so much! I think this event may be one of the highlights of our trip.

Which tarif column are you looking at? As I said earlier, the production you want to see is Tarif A. So Cat 1 tix are 138 euros, Cat 2 tix are 116 euros, Cat 3 tix are 70 euros ... and so on. If you put your cursor on top of each category color, you can see the seats of that category light up in the seating plan.

Perhaps other Fodorites can answer this (I don't know the answer): What time does the online booking start? Does it start at Midnight Central European time, or does it start at 10am? If it is MN, it's actually beneficial for us US-based folks, as that will be our afternoon/evening hours. If it is 10am, then it's PITA because that translates to middle of the night here.

8am CET if (2am EST)

Looks like I'm going to be tired! ;O)

Thank you all!

cristeen- this same production of Platee was recorded several years ago with Minkowski, Paul Agnew, the same cast- so if you're interested you could find the dvd and watch it ahead of time. I saw it a few years ago and I loved it.

Also if you're at all interested in/open to ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet is doing a Ballet Russe mixed program during the same period in December, at the Garnier- this will probably be the POB's blockbuster show of the season.

Christeen ............ when I ordered my tickets about 4 years ago for the ballet at Palais Garnier, I got up at quarter of three in the morning and had the computer all set with 5 (five) open windows on the ticket ordering site. The tickets went on sale at 3:00 AM. That way I could bring up a stage view of the ticket being offered and choose the one I wanted. My ticket was delivered to my home address and I had it in my mail box within 5 days. Very impressed with their service.

goldwynn, are you on the east coast? Then I must have been mistaken about the time (maybe the 2am written in my calendar was the time I set the alarm clock). Good idea about the many open windows, since their website sometimes slows to a crawl during that rush. One year, it took me over three hours to complete the transaction because the site was so overloaded that the 7-minute limit kept timing out.

Yes .... Mademoiselle Fifi, I am in Canada in Northern Ontario, about 3 1/2 hours north of Toronto. Same time right now .... 6 hours difference. I have always had good luck with tickets at Palais Garnier. I shall be there again in October for a month and wouldn`t you just know it. The same ballet as 4 years ago. But not to worry, Paris always offers up a huge range of things to enjoy ....... like just walking.

goldwynn, there's also some Russian company performing Giselle and Don Q. at Theatre des Champs Elysees the last week of October.

re <<same ballet as 4 years ago>>

Sometimes it's nice to see it again with a different cast-- I wish they would post casting info sooner, but usually by the time that comes out, it's too late to get tickets.

I just realized this weekend that I missed Giselle at Opera
Garnier for Oct. Was so heartbroken. Did get ballet tx Nov. 12 for self, son and dil. Had to pay Cat 1, 1 loges de face, hope these are good seats. However I saw Joyaux a few yrs ago. I would love to see Giselle at Theatre des CE. Thank you for this info. I will google it.

gg

Well, just not meant to be. Theatre des CD is sold out too. I will go to Opera Garnier a couple of times and see if I can pick up a return since I will be there a month.

Thanks

gg

ggnga (are you the same person as goldwynn?),

It's a 2-hr train ride away from Paris, but with a whole month maybe you would be interested in this? http://www.lepoint.fr/culture/2009-0...e/249/0/343176

This is all fabulous information. Thank you. I am in Philly on the east coast, so I will be getting up early for my tickets.
Apres_Londee - will look into that ballet. It would be wonderful. We're not there for very long, so the events to choose from are limited.

goldwynn - If you will be there in October, and maybe you already know, there is the Nuit Blanche in Paris. I believe I saw it is October 3rd this year. It sounds so fun.
"The Night When Art and Culture Reign Until Dawn:
First launched in 2002, Paris Nuit Blanche (White Night) has become a hotly-anticipated annual celebration of all things art and culture in the city of light. Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, Nuit Blanche sees countless Paris galleries, museums, city halls, and even swimming pools open their doors all night to visitors-- with free entry. Elaborate light installations, edgy performances, concerts, and unclassifiable happenings of all sorts await."

Thanks for the heads-up Christeen on Nuit Blanche. I noticed that on the events calendar when I was booking my appartment for the month. I will arrive the 1st of October, but am heading directly north to Normandy and the Canadian War Cemetery just outside of Caen. Won`t be back into Paris until Monday afternoon and the event is long over. I wish you luck in getting your tickets of choice. Don`t forget to open those extra windows for more choice in seating.

We just got back from a visit to Paris & United Kingdom. I ordered tickets for the ballet and received the tickets at my home (Louisiana) in record time. Be sure to take heed of the "partial view" or other disclaimers when booking. It's true. I sat thru the whole ballet with only a view of 1/8 of the right front stage! But the "non-contiguous" wasn't a problem. We had three seats in the same box (2nd loge). So worth going to--if only to see the inside of the opera house!

Too bad about missing Nuit Blanche. It sounds very fun. Hope you enjoy your Normandy and Caen visit.
I will definitely use the multiple window tactic. Thanks. I rented Platee from Netflix. It should be here tomorrow. toneyks, thanks for that advice. I will make note there as well. Now I'm almost as excited for Sept. to try to get my tickets as I am for December to see the Opera. I will post, hopefully, my success.

Toneyks ......... for those not fortunate to attend a production at Palais Garnier, there are tours of the building almost daily. I think I noticed the admission is around 8 Euro ..... they are not escorted as far as I know.

Watched the DVD of the opera last night. Now I'll have a better idea of what I'm listening to.

Another venue for opera in Paris is Theatre Chatelet, a venerable theatre offering alternatives to the two "national" opera houses. In recent times it has presented the new opera based on the movie The Fly, as well as the ballet Edward Scissorhands. In May it housed the revival of the opera Cyrano, with Placido Domingo. The great man's name was buried in the credits -- my opera-going friends didn't know he was performing -- so getting a ticket was relatively easy. Chatelet sends out lively newsletters; see www.chatelet-theatre.com

Hoping opera advisors are still here. ;O)
Now we are trying to decide on our tickets for Platee before they go on sale tomorrow in the middle of the night.
We are considering going on a Tuesday night the 1st week this Opera opens at Garnier. Do you think if we did not pre-order tickets, there would be any chance of purchasing at the box office or a ticket office in Paris that week for this show? Do they usually sell out?

Why wait if you want to see the performance? Why risk it being sold out?

Not sure dh really wants to see it. Never been to Opera before. Would rather see something more familiar. I think once we get there he'll want to go, but right now he's not so sure. We'll see. I guess.

cigdemak: the best thing to do is to contact some of the large hotels in Paris and ask for the help of the concierge desk.

Good luck!

I'm in the midst of planning our trip to Paris for this autumn (Sept 26 to Oct 13) and really hope to see The Marriage of Figaro while there.

With all the help on this thread I was quite confident that I could see my way through the booking process. Wrong!

I'm getting blocked by the mandatory field for Postal Code/City. I've tried every permutation I can think of (I'm Canadian) and have yet to find the magic formula.

If anyone can help I'd be most thankful.

Try just putting in a random post code from Paris. You can eventually print your tickets online.

What a friend wrote about the experience of buying online from the US:

Well, we have tickets to see Louisa Miller on April 1!!!! And it only took 25 or 30 interactions with the Paris Opera electronically to achieve that:

-- establishing an account was relatively painless, but they provide you with a magic number which you are supposed to remember forever. Ha!

-- picking seats was fun! Their site has a diagram of the house coded with something like 7 or 8 sections, which maybe were supposed to indicate the relative desirability of sitting in each. Then there were 4 price categories. There was no indicated relationship between these two categories of information.

-- unlike most of the opera houses I've purchased tickets for recently, there was nothing that showed you what tickets were still available nor any way for you to pick your seats. Instead you had to tell them how many tickets you wanted a what price (and to a limited degree, what part of the house you wanted). So I said 3 at 90 Euros. The system then gave me 3 seats, but no information about where they were precisely. At the bottom of that page was a button saying "More selections available" Press it, and bingo, you're given 3 different seats. And I suppose you could work you way through the entire house, 3 seats at a time. I decided to just accept the first selection they gave me. I could not get back to that. In fact I reached the point where the system claimed it had NO seats available at my price (probably since each time it gave you a choice, it locked up those seats.) Deep experience with stupid systems taught me that I should just give it a rest, and at some point it would reset itself and have the seats available again. That proved to be right, so I ordered the original choice.

-- unwisely I chose to print my tickets at home. They want you to first test doing this. I was a good user and did so. Worked fine. Then I tried printing the real tickets. What got downloaded was labeled a PHP file, which is a computer program. After some back-and-forth over e-mail (it look a LONG search to find an e-mail address, of course) it was decided that the files just had the wrong file extension. So I changed PHP to PDF, and Voila! Tickets!

I think they're better at producing operas than selling access to same. We'll enjoy it I'm sure.

Thanks so much for your reply, Akislander.

I was rather concerned that the complications wouldn't end even when I made it past the first hurdle. By the end of the process your friend must have had every last hair pulled from his head. I hope the production compensated him for his efforts.

Now I'm wondering if I should brave the phone route instead, given that my French is less than rudimentary.

I will persevere.

Yes, and he is a computer expert. I should clarify that while the original 2009 post had to do with Opera Garnier, his post had to do with the Opera Bastille, where you are trying to get tickets. I am not even sure that Opera Garnier still has opera.

One nice thing about going to all that trouble: right before the performance we attended, the ushers went through and invited the audience to move into the better seats that remained empty! Wow! Everyone moves in the US, of course, but not on invitation. We were astonished. Another reason to love the French: you arrive late, Tango Sierra. Somebody from the cheap seats is sitting in the seat you bought!