113 Best Performing Arts Venues in Germany

The Spiegelsaal (Hall of Mirrors) of the Neues Schloss is the magnificent setting for the annual international chamber music festival. Events run May until December. Tickets and information are available at the Tourist Information Office in Meersburg, Markdorf, and Konstanz

Also known as Mosel in Flammen (Mosel on fire), this annual July celebration along the Zurlauben riverbank (as part of the several days-long festival, the Zurlaubener Heimatfest) involves much wine, sparkling wine, and beer, and an impressive display of fireworks.

Munich's Bavarian State Opera Company and its ballet ensemble perform at the Nationaltheater.

This uninspired touch of socialist architecture is home to an undeniably splendid orchestra. Tickets to concerts are difficult to obtain unless you reserve well in advance. Sometimes spare tickets are available at the box office a half hour before the evening performance.

One of Munich's major pop-rock concert venues is the Olympiahalle.

Cologne's opera company is known for exciting classical and contemporary productions. The opera house on Offenbachplatz, originally scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2015 after a major multiyear renovation, remains delayed. Their interim location is the StaatenHaus am Rheinpark in Cologne-Deutz.

The Leipzig Opera, the third-oldest civilian music theater in Europe, boasts an outstanding international reputation shaped by the renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, distinguished soloists, an award-winning choir, and the Leipzig Ballet. Its repertoire spans from Baroque to contemporary operas and ballets.

This is a major venue for comedy and cabaret.

Bad Reichenhall is proud of its long musical tradition and of its orchestra, founded more than a century ago. It performs on numerous occasions throughout the year in the chandelier-hung Kurgastzentrum Theater or, when weather permits, in the open-air pavilion, and at a special Mozart Week in March.

Cologne's WDR Sinfonieorchester performs regularly in the city's excellent concert hall.

Dresden's fine orchestra takes center stage in the city's annual music festival, from mid-May to early June.

Locals in period costume gather in town over the first weekend in September to commemorate Rothenburg's being named Free Imperial City in 1274. Concerts are played throughout the city; the highlight is the Saturday fireworks show.

The impressive modern RheinMain CongressCenter (RMCC) building, a glorious mix of natural stone, wood, glass, and metal, hosts all manner of events including concerts, cultural events, balls, and trade fairs. 

Classical and pop concerts, symposia, film, and international theater are presented at this wood-paneled music hall inside the Museum Kunstpalast.

A Schäfertanz (Shepherds' Dance) was once performed around the Herterichbrunnen, the ornate Renaissance fountain on the central Marktplatz, whenever Rothenburg celebrated a major event. Although its origins go back to local shepherds' annual gatherings, the dance is now celebrated with locals from the area costumed as maids, shepherds, soldiers, and nobility. It takes place in front of the Rathaus several times a year, chiefly at Easter, Pentecost, and in September as part of the Imperial City Festival.

The rebellious actors at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, once the city's most experimental stage, have mellowed somewhat but still put on great performances, frequently with English and French subtitles. Their regular, avant-garde stagings of well-known Shakespeare plays provide a wonderful opportunity to enjoy German theater, even if you don't know a word of German. (You can always brush up on the story beforehand and follow along with your own English text.)

The municipally owned Schauspielhaus has a repertoire that includes works by Sophocles, Goethe, Shakespeare, Brecht, and Beckett, along with more contemporary plays, including by Arthur Miller. All are performed with modern, even avant-garde staging, with English subtitles.

The Schauspielhaus is home to the 20 or so private theater companies in the city. Until its main space on Offenbachplatz reopens after a major renovation, productions take place at an industrial space ( Carlswerk, Schanzenstrasse 6–20) in the Mülheim neighborhood. There are occasional productions with English supertitles.

Theatrical and musical performances are held at the Heidelberg castle during this annual festival from late June through July.

The quirky Schmidt Theater and Schmidts Tivoli has become Germany's most popular variety theater, presenting a classy repertoire of live music, vaudeville, and cabaret.

Chamber-music concerts are given regularly at the Schumannhaus, where composer Robert Schumann spent his final years.

In August, this one-day fest features street events, music, clowns, and magicians, capped off by fireworks over the lake. Neighboring Kreuzlingen in Switzerland also hosts a Seenachtfest separate from Konstanz.

The opera in Dresden holds an international reputation largely due to its opera house. Destroyed during the war, the building has been meticulously rebuilt and renovated. Tickets are reasonably priced but also hard to come by; they're often included in package tours. Try reserving tickets on the website, or stop by the box office (in Schinkelwache during the day or inside the Opera house starting from one hour before the performance). If that doesn't work, take one of the opera-house tours, a nice consolation that gets you into the building.

Built to showcase big-budget musicals, including American imports, this entertainment complex contains theaters, hotels, bars, restaurants, a casino, a wellness center wth indoor pool under a light-filled dome, movie theaters, and shops.

The Philharmonic plays regularly at various concert venues around town.

Hannover's opera company is internationally known, with productions staged in one of Germany's finest 19th-century classical opera houses. Completed in 1852, the neoclassical opera house has two large wings and a covered, colonnaded portico adorned with statues of great composers and poets. The building originally served as the court theater, but now is used almost exclusively for opera and you can only view its interior beauty with tickets to a performance. It was gutted by fire in a 1943 air raid and restored in 1948.

The Staatstheater Mainz comprises two halls, the Grosses (great) Haus and the Kleines (small) Haus; together they offer opera, drama, and ballet from national and international performers. The U17 stage offers performances from Mainz's youth theater group.

The Stadttheater, Germany's oldest active theater, has staged plays since 1609 and has its own repertory company.

The Stage Operettenhaus stages productions of top musicals including the musical adaptation of Rocky, and Love Never Dies, the follow-up to The Phantom of the Opera. Tours of the theater are also available.

Handily located just across the street from the Holstenstrasse S-bahn, the 2,000-seat Neue Flora attracts big crowds, who come for popular, long-running musicals such as Hercules.