Opera
Opera in Vienna, at the price printed on the ticket.
The house sells its own seats and sells them well. We buy a small number at the public release, resell them at the face value printed on the card with a margin of €0.00, and spend the rest of this page telling you how to buy without us.
- Face value printed beside our price on every card
- Our margin on opera and ballet cards is €0.00 by design
- Collected free at our office or delivered free to your hotel — never posted
- A refund date on every line, before you pay
This is the ticket page
What is here is what we happen to be holding today, so it changes and is sometimes empty. The pages that do not change are each house, tier by tier, and each production with every date it is performed.
Wiener Staatsoper →Ballet →How opera works here
The house is not a supplier. It is a box office we queue at.
Every concert on this site comes from an ensemble we have an arrangement with. A house that sells its own seats has no such arrangement with anyone, so we behave like an informed member of the public: we buy a few seats when they are released and we sell them on at exactly what the house charged.
That is why this page holds a handful of cards instead of a calendar, and why half of it is about how to buy without us.
01
The house sells first
Every performance goes on public sale from the house itself, to everyone at once. We are in that queue like anybody else and get nothing earlier.
02
We buy a handful
A small number of physical cards per evening, bought at the release and paid for. They are ours: a real financial position, which is why the number is small.
03
We resell at the price printed on the card
The face value is printed beside our price on every line, our booking fee is €0.00, and on these cards our margin is €0.00 by design.
04
When they are gone, we say so
The row reads sold out and keeps its place. No waiting list, no timer, no substitute you did not choose — and the house’s own box office is linked from every page.
The seats we hold
What is on our shelf today
Read at the moment you load this page. Open or sold out — never a count of somebody else’s seats.
Reading the house
What the words on the ticket mean
A house prints its own vocabulary and we keep it untranslated, so what you read here is what the usher reads.
Parkett
The stalls: the flat floor in front of the stage.
Loge
A box — a small group of chairs off the tiers.
Balkon
The tier above the boxes.
Galerie
The top tier of the house.
Stehplatz
Standing. Sold by the house, on the day, at the house — never by us.
- Where a house is in our catalogue, its own tiers and where each one sits are on that house’s page, with the price the house charges. We print none of that here from memory.
Practicalities
What can go wrong — and what we do
If we cannot supply
If we cannot supply what you bought, the affected line is refunded in full and immediately, however close the date, and the 48-hour limit does not apply.
Cancelling and refunds
Event tickets are refundable until fourteen days after purchase, or until 48 hours before the performance, whichever comes first. That date is calculated when you order and printed on each line.
Changing the date
A date change is free until 48 hours before the performance, for the same event and the same category, up to two times per order.
Printed cards
Some products are physical cards issued by the organiser. They are collected free from our office or delivered free to your hotel. They are never posted.
The whole of it is in our terms, and the 48-hour rule is stated once, on changes and refunds.
The houses
A permanent page per house
Never withdrawn: the rooms, the tiers, the box office — in stock or out.
Read before you book
Written at the counter. All guides →
Questions people actually ask
Is it cheaper to buy from the house?
Is it cheaper to buy from the house?
Usually yes, and where that is true we link to their own box office on the page. Our booking fee is €0.00, but a house selling its own seat has no intermediary at all.
What happens if the house says no?
What happens if the house says no?
You are refunded in full and immediately, whatever the date, and told that we could not supply. There is no voucher and no substitute you did not choose.
Why do you sell opera cards at zero margin?
Why do you sell opera cards at zero margin?
So a visitor arriving in December can still get into an evening that sold out in September. It is a service position, not a profit one, and we carry the risk if a card goes unsold.
When are house releases?
When are house releases?
Each house publishes its own dates, months in advance. Where we know the next one for a title we hold nothing for, we print it on that title’s page.
Can I buy standing room from you?
Can I buy standing room from you?
No. Standing places are sold by the house alone, on the day of the performance. There is nothing for us to hold and nothing to resell.
What does it cost?
What does it cost?
From €4 with the house’s BT-Card, as its own ticket page puts it. The price depends on the performance, and the house’s ticket shop shows it for each one.
When do standing places go on sale?
When do standing places go on sale?
At 10:00 on the day of the performance, in the house’s own online ticket shop.
Do I have to queue?
Do I have to queue?
Not for the ticket: the house sells standing places online from 10:00 on the day of the performance.
What is the scarf for?
What is the scarf for?
It is how a standing place is claimed once you are inside: you tie it to the rail. It is a real convention and it is respected.
Is standing room a good idea for a first visit?
Is standing room a good idea for a first visit?
It is a good idea if you are there for the music and you can stand for three hours. If you want an evening rather than a performance, buy a seat.
Ballet has its own page — and its own small pile of tickets
The same company dances in two houses, and the good nights sell differently from opera.