The cheapest place to see world-class opera?
mainIt’s….
Prague.
According to the 2017 British Post Office Travel Money Cost of Culture Report.
Read full report here.
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Notably the State Opera in Prague employs exclusively local talent. Looking at their cast lists you will almost never find a name that is recognised outside the Czech Republic. This must be how they keep their costs (and prices) down.
Well we did have Piotr Beczala singing prince in Rusalka, Yusuf Eyvazov singing Chenier, Stefan Vinke singing Lohengrin last season. But true it’s mainly locals.
Prague is an intriguing place for opera. True, you don’t see many international singers or conductors, and the orchestras in the three houses (State Opera, National Theatre, Estates Theatre) are good but not quite on the level of the MET or Staatsoper. But you get to see a lot of operas you can’t see elsewhere – not only the Janacek staples, but Dvorak operas besides Rusalka (The Jacobin; The Devil and Kate); Smetana besides Bartered Bride, Martinu, etc.. Interestingly, while Rusalka seems to sell consistently well (and runs constantly), many of the other Czech operas (esp. Janacek) sell fairly poorly; even in Prague it seems they prefer their Puccini. And the occasional bizarre production – a recent run of Orpheus in the Underworld full of references to Czech politics that will be incomprehensible to most tourists, who make up a big part of the audience. Tickets cheap enough that I either forgot about the show or decided on the day it wasn’t worth making the trip downtown to see it.
The cheapest places to see World Class Opera must include the Komische Oper Berlin – seats from 12 Euros, more interesting programmes than the Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper and often better sung with more interesting productions!