The Vienna State Opera House - fancy dresses provided

Did you ever watch Covert Affairs on USA? It was one of our favorite series, and one of our favorite episodes was shot in Vienna at the Vienna Opera House. I remember the characters walking down the main opera stairs, and thinking how neat it would be to visit in person. A few years ago, we got the chance! It's actually called the Vienna State Opera. Unfortunately, there were no performances when we went, but as in other cities, you are able to tour the house, and we were super excited to do so!

Above is a neat shot as night time was falling. They have tours almost every day that last about 40 minutes where you'll hear the building's history, about the architecture, and of course, opera everything! The day we went it was blue skies and sunshine. Beautiful!

The first thing you see, of course, is the grand stair case. On either side are beautiful wall sculptures; one for opera, the other for ballet.

 

There were so many "outer" rooms - ballrooms, waiting areas, the Emperor's room, etc... We learned that about 80% of the the opera house was destroyed during WWII.

 

 

They did a great job rebuilding from the damage back to the original conditions, but it was very neat seeing the drastic change for those rooms designed and decorated with a 1950's feel. 

 

The auditorium was round with many boxes -- they also sell standing-room-only tickets the day of the performance for only 3 euros! That actually is a State mandate so that ALL Austrian people can have the opportunity to see opera and ballet. Isn't that wonderful!?!

We also got to take a peek backstage - it's an enormous amount of behind the scenes work. Our tour guide told us all about the many set changes and sub-stages used to make things go quicker during the show.  

 

The final thing he told us about was the annual Vienna Ball where the entire Opera haus is transformed to a ballroom. Can you imagine? Click on this link to see some of the pictures. That would be a #bucketlist item for sure. To participate in the opening ceremony, you have to be able to:

• dance the Viennese Waltz
• only do it once in your life
• be between 18-24 years old

Since we've missed the opening ceremony cutoff, we'll just have to watch it. They said a box rents for about 20,000 euros.  ;-)

We loved the tour and enjoyed learning about the history and architecture of the building. One day, if we are ever lucky enough to go back, maybe we'll just get to see a performance!  We'll make sure and wear our fancy dresses.  :-)

Auf Wiedersehen.