Some additions to the excellent advice you've already received by lincasanova and molker... true standing room buffs at the Staatsoper (the "inhabitants") would never go anyplace but the gallery because the acoustics are THAT superior, except for the lateral parts (the standing room at the gallery is all around the U-shaped house). Which means that you should go to the gallery if you are interested in music, and to the parterre if you are just interested in the theatrical part of the performance (stage sets, costumes, acting...) - sight is much better downstairs, but the acoustics are, ummmm... unless you come early enough to secure a place in one of the first two rows of the parterre standing room, these are actually the best places all over the theater. The ones who aim at those few tickets are the ones sitting on those camping stools while lining up - they arrive around noon, or sometimes earlier.
In any case, don't go to the balcony, which is (also the seats, but the standing room in particular) for the blind AND deaf. Each ticket for each of the three standing room areas has a number printed on it - just to count how many tickets have already been sold. Check before you buy: if the gallery tickets are at no. 160 or more, walk away and find a nicer way to spend the evening. You'd have to stand in the wings of the gallery standing room (the lateral parts), and the acoustics there are even worse than downstairs.

As I said, the gallery standing room is where the "inhabitants" are, so beware that violations of the rules will be answered in the extremely rude, impolite way that's so typical of Vienna. But with lincasanova's excellent explanation of the "rules", you won't have any problems - just memorize them well! And one more rule is important: most of those rails have two bars - tie your scarf to the LOWER one! Just the scarfs on the lower bar will be respected, any scarfs on the upper bar will be removed by the ushers.
The question of leaving during the intermission is a two-edged one... the regulars are happy, on the one hand, that so many tourists walk away during intermissions, so it's getting less crowded and less stifling. OTOH, they're going to shake their heads and find confirmed what they always knew: that there aren't any cultured people outside Vienna.

As molker said, stools of whichever kind are of course forbidden in the standing room, but it's also frowned upon if you sit down on the steps, and justly so (it's too uncomfortable for the people standing behind you - you actually sit on their feet, and even before the performance starts, it's bad manners to sit down since you severely impede others who want to pass to get to their scarfed places). It's really a STANDING room, and you should be able to STAND for about five hours, the line for the tickets and the performance summed up.

Take those five hours seriously; many operas last about three or three and a half hours, and on most evenings, arriving one and a half or two hours before the curtain rises is early enough, so the standing in line for the tickets is not much to write home about. If you post here which performances you want to attend, I (or others) can tell you at which hour to arrive; it depends on the opera, but above all on the cast.

Finally, the Volksoper. They are selling tickets 30 days in advance, as you said, but there's hardly any need to actually buy them in advance - perhaps on three or four special evenings throughout the whole season. Usually, arriving 45 minutes before the curtain rises is plenty of time for the Volksoper. Here, only the gallery standing room is worth considering (the one in the parterre is tiny and awful). BUT you should only go to the Volksoper if you are very informed and know every singer on this planet and know what to expect from whom; or if you are very uninformed and enjoy any performance of any quality. What I'm trying to say politely is that good performances at the Volksoper are possible, but the probability of seeing a bad one is still higher.

Re: Budapest - the cast @ the Hungarian State Opera is usually not that great, so I wouldn't make a special trip there unless it has a special cast. The house is much smaller so you can hear much better even from the very top, and prices are a lot cheaper too. There is projected surtitles on the top of the stage, in Hungarian; no individual titles screens. You didn't say when you're going, but I believe Juan Diego Florez is having a recital (not opera) in Budapest in December, just so you know.

The Franz Liszt Academy is a beautiful hall for orchestral & chamber music; but I believe it's under renovation right now. Not sure when it will reopen.

One more thing about sitting on the steps in the Staatsoper standing room - you will first be warned by the usher; and if you try again, you will get kicked out of the auditorium. We witnessed this ourselves (we were sitting in the last row of the gallery).

I read that Staatsoper is changing the way they sell tickets this year? It appears that one can already buy tickets NOW for OCTOBER! (The tickets for Sept & October now go on sale <b>4 months</b> in advance, instead of 1 month).

Where did you get that information? Their website doesn't say anything like that so far. Perhaps a project announced by the new manager (who is going to take over on July 1st)? Anyway, that's certainly not true for the standing room - also the 1-month-in-advance system is only for the seats.

franco - I was referring to regular seats for the Setp & Oct 2010 performances, which is now available for sale (4 months to the day in advance).

For example, the October 23rd performance of Cardillac
http://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/Cont...ventid=1015535

When I click on "Karten online kaufen", I get a new window open (culturall.com) and I can buy tickets for that performance.

Someone I know had successfully purchased his ticket for Oct 22nd's L'elisir d'amore via Staatsoper/Culturall website (the performance was sold out minutes after online ticketing opened yesterday).

yk: thanks for bringing up this thread again.

First off, thanks to all for the excellent information you have provided.

I didn't come back to this thread because of some rather slow, ongoing email back-and-forth with the Vienna Staatsoper and then with a ticket agent.

The gist of all this "correspondence" is that the passes are sold out for next season and the vouchers have to purchased IN PERSON at the Operngasse 2 location (as the passes also have to be purchased there in person). Thus, at this stage of the planning, the in person requirement pretty much leaves that avenue out of consideration, unless I can find a friend or family member that's going to be in Vienna some time soon. Pity this information came now, as one of my family members was in Vienna in April - oh well.

Back to the drawing board.

lincasanova: thanks so much for sharing your wonderful TRs. We did try once to get tickets to something, but that's so long ago - can't remember even if it was Budapest! It's such a wonderful city that I won't mind going back again - time allowing. the countryside of Middle Europe is especially appealing. Thanks again!

Molker: you are tempting me, aren't you? Summer sounds so wonderful musically in Vienna.

You were wondering when - at first I thought it would be October and November (Edita Gruberova, Juan Diego Florez and both Dimitri Hvorostovsky and Ramon Vargas in Rigoletto), but some family affairs have come up for October, so I'm mapping out further months on the calendar of events.

The holiday season is out of the question, so it will have to be spring or summer of 2011.

This is where a standing room season pass or voucher would have taken out a lot of the anxiety of getting tickets. yk's story of tickets selling out minutes after they come online gives me the shivers.

Maybe I'll just come in the summer and sit all summerlong outside the Rathaus - sigh! Such a tempting thought!

franco: thanks for the acoustical information.

yk: you always have such up-to-date information! There was something about September tickets going on sale in May/June because the ticket offices close during the months of July and August. However, when I click on the culturall.com link you provided, the entire 2010-2011 season comes up. Does this mean one can purcahse tickets through culturall.com way in advance?

Didn't you try online 30 days before performance to get some tickets? How did you do it? Did you use the Wien Staatsoper website or some other website? What kind of credit card did you use?

Being the nervous nelly that I am, I might just try to purchase online one of the cheaper tickets for September/October just as a trial purchase but not use it.

Thanks again, everyone! You don't know how helpful you've been!

Googling culturall.com, this newsletter came up and provides valuable information:

https://www.culturall.com/docs/272?catid=232


111op: sorry, I missed your post somehow. Glad you were having a good time in Vienna!

Culturall is the OFFICIAL website to buy tickets from Staatsoper (and from a few other places, I believe).

The Staatsoper used to release unsold tickets 1 month in advance of the performance (which is what I did in the past). However, they changed their policy this year; and I just found out yesterday that one can now buy them 4 months in advance (but I think it's only for Sept/Oct performances).

If the performance is 4 months PLUS 1 DAY from now - say for the Oct 25th peformance, you CANNOT purchase the tickets from Culturall. There is NO OPTION to purchase. You can only do a "reserve request". However, if you click on any performances that are less than 4 months in advance, the culturall page will show how many seats are left for each price category, and you can directly purchase them online on its website.

The reason L'elisir d'amore sold out within minutes is because Juan Deigo Florez is singing in it. I'm pretty sure other performances with lesser cast still have plenty of seats (eg, the Hindesmith's Cardillac I mentioned yesterday still have about 200 seats available as of NOW).

hi again, easy,

I'm not sure how I did it, but I definitely got my tickets for Aida last June more than a month is advance, via the official website.

it appeared to me that I "bid" for them, [by which I mean I said that I would accept tickets up to a certain price] and then when I was offered some, i had a few hours to confirm or reject.

What would have happened if I'd rejected them I've no idea!

good luck with your attempts to penetrate the system.

ann, what you did was you put your name on the waiting list (before the tickets are opened for sale to the public via their online website). When subscribers turned in their tickets, those seats are offered to people in the waiting list.

thanks yk.

i could manage to order the tickets in German, but not fully to understand the process.

Hi, ann!

thanks for the added information! Every little bit helps!

And thanks for the good wishes, yes, it is a "system" and it takes quite a bit to learn this system.

Apparently there have been a few changes for the 2010-2011 season, but the email correspondence was incredibly slow and not very informative, so i bit the bullet and randomly ordered a ticket in 2011.

The following is for those who might wish to order advance tickets online for the Vienna Staatsoper.

I hope my experience might be helpful for someone.

Yes, you can preorder tickets ahead of their sale date, however, it is not a guarantee that you will get a ticket.

If you go into the English version of the Vienna Staatsoper website, first download the seating chart from the "Seating Plan" link (you don't need to download the pricing structure chart) and get a magnifying glass.

Then click on "Monthly Programe" to select the month and date of the performance.

Then just follow the instructtons. They are pretty easy to follow.

You'll have to select your top price and then you'll have to select your "preferred seating" (this is where the seating chart comes in handy).

You'll also have to give a credit card and then you'll be placed on a waiting list.

(to be continued)

I then got an email confirmation with a confirmation number.

You can read the following explanatory notes and draw your own conclusions.

<i>"Your above standby booking has been waitlisted. When tickets become availiable they will be allocated in order of the waitlist. We will try as early as possible to assign you the requested tickets - as a rule on the first day of advanced purchase - until your 'latest date of allocation' has expired. A successful allocation is going to be communicated via mail. You are also going to be informed should your standby ticket expire without allocation.

Please note that by booking a standby ticket, you have an obligation to take those tickets if and as soon as they have been allotted. A failure in receiving the allocation mail is irrelevant. Standby bookings can be cancelled free of charge only via mail and only as long as no tickets were allocated. For cancellations at short notice please send an email and try to reach us by phone. Cancellations are valid only after confirmation. Bookings can also be prolonged and shortened free of charge.

Please inform yourself if tickets were allocated after you latest date of assignment has run out via www.culturall.com / Standbyticket Zuteilung. A failure to receive our allocation mail does not entitle you to a refund.

Please note: This confirmation is only a proof of your successful entry into our waitlist but no invoice for a ticket purchase.

Allocated tickets can be picked up with the transaction code which then becomes the pick up code."</i>

My conclusions would be: let's say you've ordered tickets for March 15, 2011. You'll be notified around January 15, 2011, whether you have been successful or not.

Maybe.

<i>"A failure in receiving the allocation mail is irrelevant."</i>

So, even if you don't get a notification, you're still considered as having bought the ticket, so the burden is on YOU to check and see if a ticket has been allocated or not. In any event, your credit card will have been charged.

(Do they really mean "mail" and not "email"?)

Please correct me if my interpretation is wrong.

This is so much fun! I love learning new systems! Now on to the Munich Opera House and it's "system".

This is what comes of experimenting.

My request for a ticket came through! Now I've got a seat for an opera in Vienna in April, 2011.

Now what to do with this ticket?

LOL!

Anyhow, this proves one can get tickets at the Vienna Staatsoper months ahead of time. The ticket has already been charged to my credit card six months ahead of performance time.

you mean that you don't want it?

ann: I'm not certain at this point.

The amount isn't all that much.

OTOH, this may be the impetus to go to Vienna in April!

The success of getting a ticket way ahead of time, however, is an encouraging sign, wouldn't you say? It'll make planning a great deal easier, especially for those of us not living in Europe and needing to know if we'll be able to get into an opera or not (apart from the standing room option).

kind of you to volunteer to be our ticket guiniea-pig, easy. and at the expense of having to force yourself to go to Vienna in April - you poor thing!

let us know whether you decide to go !

Sigh! someone has to make the great sacrifices!

Or are you volunteering, ann?

Maybe we could meet in Vienna. (More incentive to go!)

I had some friends from Europe over the summer and we were talking about wine in Europe. They go every year back to the Alsace (where he's from) and stock up on wine. I was talking about visiting the heurigers around Vienna and hiking (combining two of my favorite activities) and pretty soon we were planning a trip drinking our way from Vienna to Alsace!

do you drink?

Maybe we could meet in Vienna.>>

but you've only got one ticket - half of the opera each?

do I drink? well, if you read my trip report from our austrian holiday last year, one highlight was our day touring the Heuriger [plural?], so much so that DH and I are still unable to agree on how many we actually went to!