The Vienna State Opera

The Staatsoper opened in 1869 on the new Ringstrasse and reopened in 1955 after rebuilding. It runs as a repertory house, which means the programme changes almost every night: dozens of operas and ballets across a season of several hundred performances, with singers flying in for two nights and out again. That rhythm explains the queue at the side door on Operngasse, where hundreds of standing places go on sale shortly before the curtain for the price of a coffee. The interior kept its original main staircase, the Schwind foyer and the tea room. Small screens on the seat backs carry subtitles in several languages, and during parts of the season performances are relayed free onto a screen outside.

History

The opera house was the first major building on the Ringstraße commissioned by the city expansion fund, built from 1861 to 1869 to plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, with the Czech architect and builder Josef Hlávka, and in stones long unseen in Vienna, from Wöllersdorf, Kaisersteinbruch and Jois. The public disliked it, all the more after the Ringstraße in front was raised by a metre during building, making it look like a sunken treasure chest; van der Nüll took his own life and Sicardsburg died of tuberculosis ten weeks later, so neither saw it finished, and it opened on 25 May 1869 with Mozart's Don Giovanni before Franz Joseph and Elisabeth (Wikipedia, Vienna State Opera).

The main sights

• The standing places - hundreds of them, sold at the side door shortly before the curtain.
• The surviving rooms - the main staircase, the Schwind foyer and the tea room kept from the 1869 building.
• A repertory night - a different work most evenings, with the stage rebuilt overnight.
• The screen outside - free live relays onto the facade during parts of the season.

When to go

The season runs from September to the end of June, with the house dark in July and August apart from guided tours. Seated tickets go on sale weeks ahead and the good ones move fast. For standing places, join the queue on Operngasse well before the doors open, and bring something to lean on.

Before you go

Standing means standing, for three or four hours, and the cheap gallery slots have restricted views of the stage. Seated tickets in the stalls run into three figures. Dress is smart rather than formal, whatever people tell you. The guided tour is short and moves briskly through rooms with no time to linger.

Nearby

The Albertina, the Hofburg and Kaerntner Strasse are a few minutes' walk.

Key facts