Opera Houses of the World: 10 Great Theatres from La Scala to the Met

The great opera houses of the world are as much a part of their cities as cathedrals or palaces. Some have staged the premieres of works that are still performed every night somewhere on the planet; others are famous above all for their architecture or their sound. Here are ten of the most celebrated, from La Scala in Milan to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with a short history of each and tips for visiting.

1. La Scala, Milan, Italy

The Teatro alla Scala opened on 3 August 1778, built to designs by the neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini after fire destroyed Milan’s previous court theatre, the Teatro Regio Ducale, in 1776. Its name comes from the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, which once stood on the site. Over the following century and a half La Scala premiered some of the best-known works in the repertoire, among them Verdi’s Nabucco (1842), Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893) and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926).

Allied bombing badly damaged the theatre in 1943. It was rebuilt and reopened on 11 May 1946 with a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with the young Renata Tebaldi as soprano soloist. A major renovation by the Swiss architect Mario Botta followed in 2002–2004. The season traditionally opens on 7 December, the feast of Milan’s patron saint, Ambrose. The Museo Teatrale alla Scala, entered from the foyer, displays costumes, instruments and portraits,, and museum visitors can often look into the auditorium from a box when rehearsals allow.

2. Palais Garnier, Paris, France

The Paris Opera’s most famous home, the Palais Garnier, was designed by the young architect Charles Garnier and built between 1861 and 1875; it was inaugurated with a gala on 5 January 1875. Its grand staircase, gilded foyer and horseshoe auditorium of 1,979 seats made it the showpiece of Second Empire Paris. Marc Chagall’s painted ceiling was installed over the original in 1964, and the building is the setting of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, which borrowed a real accident with a chandelier counterweight in 1896.

Since the modern Opéra Bastille opened in 1989, the Palais Garnier has mainly hosted ballet. The building is open for self-guided and guided visits; check the official visit page, because rehearsals can close the auditorium at short notice.

3. Vienna State Opera, Austria

The Vienna State Opera opened on 25 May 1869 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni, as its official history records. The architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll designed it as the first major building on Vienna’s new Ringstrasse; neither lived to see it completed. Gustav Mahler directed the house from 1897 to 1907, a decade still remembered as a golden age.

An American bombing raid on 12 March 1945 set the house on fire, destroying the auditorium and stage, although the foyer survived. The opera reopened on 5 November 1955 with Beethoven’s Fidelio, conducted by Karl Böhm. Today it runs a true repertory system, with 50 to 60 operas and about ten ballet productions in more than 350 performances a year, and the members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra. Standing-room tickets go on sale 80 minutes before each performance for about €10, and every year on the last Thursday of carnival the auditorium becomes the ballroom of the Vienna Opera Ball.

4. Royal Opera House, London, England

The first Theatre Royal at Covent Garden opened on 7 December 1732, financed by John Rich with his profits from The Beggar’s Opera. Handel gave regular seasons there from 1735 until his death in 1759, and many of his operas and oratorios premiered in the house. After fires in 1808 and 1856, the present building, the third on the site, was designed by Edward Middleton Barry and opened on 15 May 1858. It is home to The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, rebranded together as Royal Ballet and Opera in 2024.

A £213 million reconstruction from 1997 to 1999 renewed the house and lifted Barry’s Floral Hall, a glass-and-iron former flower market next door, to create public space. Renamed the Paul Hamlyn Hall in 2005, it is now the theatre’s bright main foyer.

5. Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia

The Bolshoi dates from March 1776, when Catherine the Great granted Prince Pyotr Urusov a licence for theatrical performances in Moscow. Its theatre on Theatre Square was designed by Joseph Bové, from a competition-winning design by Andrei Mikhailov, and opened on 18 January 1825. A fire in 1853 caused heavy damage, and Alberto Cavos rebuilt it. The house is famous worldwide for the Bolshoi Ballet as well as its opera company.

The historic stage closed for a long restoration in July 2005 and reopened on 28 October 2011.

6. Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Teatro Colón opened on 25 May 1908 with Verdi’s Aida. Three architects shaped it: Francesco Tamburini began the design and died in 1891, his pupil Vittorio Meano continued until his murder in 1904, and the Belgian Jules Dormal finished the building. Its horseshoe auditorium has nearly 2,500 seats and standing room for about 1,000 more. In a survey by the acoustician Leo Beranek, opera and orchestra directors ranked it the best hall in the world for opera.

The theatre closed for refurbishment in 2006 and reopened with a gala concert on 24 May 2010, on the eve of the bicentenary of Argentina’s May Revolution.

7. Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy

Commissioned by the Bourbon king Charles of Naples, designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano and opened on 4 November 1737, the king’s name day, the San Carlo is the oldest continuously active opera venue in the world. It predates La Scala by 41 years. A fire on 13 February 1816 gutted it, and the theatre was rebuilt in just ten months by the architect Antonio Niccolini. Rossini was its artistic director from 1815 to 1822 and Donizetti from 1822 to 1838; Donizetti wrote sixteen operas for the house, including Lucia di Lammermoor in 1835.

The horseshoe auditorium has 184 boxes in six tiers around a royal box and seats about 1,400 people. The theatre is connected to the Royal Palace, next to Piazza del Plebiscito.

8. Sydney Opera House, Australia

The Danish architect Jørn Utzon was announced as winner of the design competition on 29 January 1957. Construction began in March 1959, Utzon left the project in February 1966 and never returned to Australia, and the building was finally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973. Its sail-like shells on Bennelong Point have made it one of the most recognisable buildings of the twentieth century, and it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.

The complex holds several venues. Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet perform in the 1,507-seat Joan Sutherland Theatre, while the 2,679-seat Concert Hall is home to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The standard guided tour involves many stairs; a step-free Mobility Access Tour is also available.

9. Prague State Opera, Czech Republic

The Prague State Opera opened on 5 January 1888 as the New German Theatre (Neues deutsches Theater), with Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. It was planned by the Viennese firm Fellner & Helmer with Karl Hasenauer and built in just 20 months. Alexander Zemlinsky, Erich Kleiber and Otto Klemperer are among the artists linked with its German era. After 1945 it became the Theatre of the Fifth of May, then the Smetana Theatre from 1949, a second stage of the National Theatre. The Prague State Opera company was founded in 1992.

The spacious auditorium is known for its elaborate neo-rococo decoration.

10. Metropolitan Opera, New York, USA

The Metropolitan Opera was founded in 1883 and opened its first house, on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets, on 22 October 1883 with Gounod’s Faust. Its present home at Lincoln Center, designed by Wallace K. Harrison, opened on 16 September 1966 with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra. It has about 3,700 seats plus standing room, and two huge Marc Chagall murals, The Triumph of Music and The Sources of Music, hang in the lobby. The Met’s own history tells the story of its stars and productions.

In the 2015–16 season the Met gave 227 performances of 25 operas, and on 30 December 2006 it launched its Live in HD cinema broadcasts with The Magic Flute, bringing opera to screens around the world.

Tips for visiting an opera house

• Tour or performance? A daytime tour lets you study the architecture; an evening performance shows the building doing what it was made for. Many houses offer both on the same day.
• Book early for big nights. Season openings such as La Scala’s 7 December premiere sell out quickly.
• Look for cheap tickets. Standing places, last-minute and under-30 schemes make even the grandest houses affordable.
• Read the synopsis first. Most major houses now show surtitles, but knowing the story makes a first opera far more enjoyable.

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