Three hundred performances a year, standing tickets for the price of a coffee, and a building the Emperor's opinion nearly killed its architect over.
The Staatsoper opened in 1869 with Don Giovanni. The reception was poor: the building was criticised for sitting too low against the raised Ringstrasse, Franz Joseph made a remark about it, and one of the two architects, Eduard van der Nüll, killed himself. His partner August Sicard von Sicardsburg died of a stroke ten weeks later. Neither saw it open. It is said the Emperor’s habit of saying only “it was very nice, it pleased me very much” about everything afterwards dates from this.
It was gutted by bombing in March 1945 and reopened in 1955 with Fidelio, ten days after the State Treaty — a piece about a prisoner released, chosen deliberately.
Mahler directed here from 1897 to 1907 and reformed the place completely. Karajan, Böhm and Strauss all held the post.
Going
The season runs from September to June with a repertory system: a different opera most nights, over fifty productions a year and around three hundred performances. That density is unusual and it means you can almost always see something.
Standing places are the great Vienna bargain. Around 560 of them, sold from eighty minutes before the performance at the Operngasse entrance, for a couple of euros. Bring a scarf to tie to the rail in front of your spot — that is how you reserve it while you go to the bar, and it is a genuine convention rather than a story.
Seated tickets go on sale two months ahead online and range from modest to expensive.
Dress: smart, but the standing area is relaxed. Nobody will turn you away in a jacket and clean shoes.
The tour
Forty-minute guided tours run most days when there is no rehearsal, taking in the auditorium, the tea room and the Schwind Foyer. Times are posted daily rather than fixed, because the stage is in constant use.
The Opera Ball
Held on the last Thursday of Carnival, when the auditorium is floored over to make a ballroom. It is a genuine society event, expensive, televised, and reliably protested outside.
The screen outside
During many performances, the opera is streamed live and free onto a large screen on the square, with seating. It is one of the more civilised things any city does.
More Landmarks
St Stephen's Cathedral
A tiled roof of a quarter of a million glazed tiles, a tower you climb by 343 steps, and catacombs full of Habsburg organs.
Schönbrunn Palace
Fourteen hundred rooms of Habsburg summer residence, a garden you can walk for free, and the oldest zoo in the world.
The Hofburg
The Habsburgs' winter residence for six centuries, now holding the Sisi Museum, the imperial silver and the crown jewels.