Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna Region, Austria

5Angel57 5:00 PM Jul 1, 2022

Queued for standing tickets
Our trip to Vienna was fairly last minute so no time to pre-book opera tickets before arrival. We're certainly not opera buffs anyway but love the cultural experience of visiting iconic places such as the Mariinsky & Verona Arena & of course the Vienna State Opera. So the only way to get tickets was to queue for standing ones. We popped into the box office in the morning to get the low down of what to do. A very helpful girl told us where we would need to queue & that the doors opened to purchase at 5,30pm but it was advisable to get there at least an hour before, preferably an hour & a half & to bring something like a scarf to mark place, Armed with a cloth bag, a tea towel, water & a "traveller" (rum & cokes in cooler cups) we arrived at 4.30pm to find we were 3rd in the queue. In fact the queue didn't grow massively whether that was due to the really hot weather or the opera, Capriccio, I don't know. Anyway the time went quickly & it was a very convivial atmosphere chatting with the other people in the queue who were mostly real opera buffs & told us a bit about the performance we would be seeing & the best options for standing (apparently upstairs for better acoustics or downstairs for better views). At 5,30 pm doors opened & we were able to buy our tickets. 10 euros each cash only. We were then taken around to some stairs were we had to queue again in pairs, all quite regimented before eventually being allowed into the standing area. We found ourselves right at the front with fabulous views. We tied our teatowel & cloth bag to mark our place & were then free to explore the Opera House, even being allowed to try out the proper seats. The bars were reasonably priced too. The performance started at 7pm & each seat & standing area has a small screen for subtitles. Any idea of leaving at the interval if we were tired/bored was scuppered as there is no interval in Capriccio. That said we really enjoyed it. The sets & costumes are wonderful the opera itself is actually very funny in places & the final aria very moving. You don't need to look at the subtitles the whole time as it is easy to get the gist of what is going on. We had a fabulous evening & so glad that we"d gone. Fnal couple of points, there is no strict dress code but they don't allow men in shorts, it is a very long time to stand but we managed it at 65 & 68 & there will be ticket touts while you're queuing who'll try & sell you 14 euro tickets for 30 euros, please don't encourage them.

420Andreas12 5:00 PM Sep 1, 2022

Magic place!
Fantastic building and worth to book the tour to see inside the Opera. Our first plan was to book a concert but they inform us that during July and August there are not any performances. Having no other option we booked the tour that we recommend as we learned about the history of the opera and same time visited all stages.