Preamble

I love the opera but I am travelling all the time for my job. As a consultant, I never know about my schedule well enough in advance and I have it difficult to book seats. I used to be famous among family and friends for gifting expensive seats because I could not attend the shows. This is the reason why I prefer now gallery tickets or “posti in piedi” as Italian opera houses describe them: literally, standing room tickets. They are sold at the last minute before the show. To buy such seats, you need to queue during long hours in the afternoon. In the most important opera houses worldwide, for instance Paris, Vienna or Milan, a person can only get two gallery tickets per show. When I can have (almost) a day off, I arrive at the opera with my Kindle after an early lunch, I queue for a seat in the afternoon and then spend the night enjoying the show. Queuing has become part of the event.

Gallery tickets, “posti in piedi“, belong to a very old tradition of opera houses. They exist to make sure that the modest people have an opportunity to attend the shows. The price of normal tickets now ranges between one hundred dollars and several grands. For a single ticket. This has become insane.

Gallery tickets are conversely very cheap.

You get one for 5 Euros in Paris; for 10 Euros in Vienna.

Busy people who can afford to pay full price tickets are not part of this crowd. I am quite a zombie in the queue. The other people are either tourists, or students, or amateurs and genuine connoisseurs of the art, with an extensive knowledge about singers, conducers, and directors yet without money. Some sort of proletariat touring the opera houses all around the world (or rather Europe), and take advantage of gallery tickets to watch an impressive volume of shows. Discussing with them is a nice way to spend time and learn about productions or singers. In my case, this small talk has transformed into an opportunity for updates and leads for shows worth of interest.

In Vienna, more than one hundred gallery tickets are on sale for each show. In Paris, today, this is rather in the range of thirty anymore. I have not been in Milan for a couple of years and I cannot tell how many gallery tickets are on offer each night at La Scala since the renovation. In Vienna, “standing seats” mostly locate at the very end of the parterre, behind the very last rows of seats. It is a great location to enjoy the show because you stand behind the sitting audience and therefore have a great view on the scene.

Today, I am in Paris, France. Bastille opera does not offer this option anymore. About ten years ago, they replaced most “posti in piedi” with seats; they added galleries and standing locations on the sides of the highest floor, under the ceiling. They are quite far away from the scene. It is not a problem because I usually carry with me binoculars or opera glasses. These seats sometimes have a limited view over the scene but they are always located where we enjoy the best sound.