Prague boasts a world-class music scene, with concerts, operas, and ballets performed throughout the year in the city’s famous theaters. Best of all, tickets to these events are within even a Cheapo’s reach, as they cost a fraction of the going rate in other capital cities. You may even be able to score one for under $10.

If you’re planning a trip to Prague and are a fan of the performing arts, you owe it to yourself to check out performance schedules before you arrive, as you’ll want to consider all of your options. Of course, you could wait until you arrive to book last-minute tickets, but why limit your chances of securing a good deal?

Booking your seats online in advance directly with the performance halls gives you the most options for available seats, including the super-cheap seats. Also, when researching shows, consider choosing an afternoon performance, when seats can be less than half the price of an evening show.

Prague’s main performance halls 

Prague has three main venues for opera, ballet, and concerts: The National Theatre (Narodni Divadlo), the Prague State Opera, and the Estates Theatre.

The National Theater

Located along the Vltava River, the National Theater produces dramas, ballets, and operas, and is the most important theater in Prague. The neoclassical building, its golden rooftop gleaming, was constructed between 1868 and 1881.

The Estates Theatre

The charming and regal Estates Theater was built in 1783 and produces ballets and operas. It was here that Mozart conducted his Don Giovanni in 1787, and still today the Estates produces mostly Mozart operas.

Tickets for the National and Estates: You can book tickets for both venues through the National Theater’s website. Click the ”Tickets” link at the top to see the current season and check availability. Tickets are available in seven price categories. You will first need to create a free user account, before paying with a credit card or simply reserving the seats and paying for them in cash when you arrive at the theater. (Be careful: It’s so easy, in fact, that we accidentally reserved two seats for “Falstaff” in October while doing our research!)

You may also purchase tickets, without surcharge, through the Bohemia Tickets website. Tickets can be picked up at their offices in central Prague, emailed to you (for free), or they can send them to your hotel, for 200 CZK ($13).

The Prague State Opera

The city’s second most important opera house, the grandiose State Opera was built in 1888 and is situated just off Wenceslas Square. Opera performances here are often crowd-pleasers by the likes of Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi, in addition to special festivities around Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The State Opera performs ten months a year, with no performances during the summer.

Booking: Book tickets in advance directly from the State Opera’s website. There you can view performance schedules and click “buy tickets” to see available seats. The State Opera sells e-tickets directly through their site. When you buy an e-ticket, there is no need to exchange your email confirmation for an actual ticket at the theater.  

As with the National and Estates, you can also book, without surcharge, through “Bohemia Ticket.” 

Prices for all three theaters: Ticket prices vary, but can go as low as 100 CZK ($6.50) for the cheapest (and highest) seats. First and second-tier balcony seats are often in the 300-600 CZK ($19-48) range, while the most expensive orchestra (and prime mezzanine) seats normally cost 800-1,000 CZK ($51-$64).

A note about other ticket booking sites

In researching this post, we came across many other ticket booking websites. Put simply, we would always stick to the official theater websites or to their official partner “Bohemia Tickets.” Other sites often only sell the more expensive seats (not even bothering to offer the cheapies), then tack on “handling charges” and additional delivery charges. One site that we found would either deliver the ticket to your hotel or personally greet you with the tickets at the theater (holding a sign) for about $20.  Not so fast.

Have other tips for finding a cheap seat in Prague? Let us know!

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We love Paris. We love classical concerts and operas. And we love saving money. Thus, we combined our loves and put together a list of five ways to do culture in Paris a la cheapo.

Free classical music

Pick up a Pariscope, the weekly listings guide (in French), at any magazine kiosk and flip to the classical concert listings. You’ll see many freebie concerts, often by young musicians and local ensembles, held on Sundays in churches around town.

We’re especially fond of concerts in the 16th Century Eglise St-Merri, in the 4th arrondissement, which presents free concerts on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year. (Incidentally, the bell tower contains the oldest bell in Paris, cast in 1331!)

Cheap seats for concerts in major venues

Paris boasts world-class performances in state-of-the-art musical halls. Best of all, many of these venues receive government support to help keep ticket prices affordable — or at least some ticket prices affordable. (Don’t be thrown by expensive seats. Hunt around a bit on the websites and you’ll find the cheap seats!)

The Salle Pleyel is a brand new performance hall, offering performances by classical stars and touring orchestras. Tickets can be found for major concerts from €10. (Check out our earlier post on the Salle Pleyel.)

Theatre du Chatelet located at Place du Chatelet in the 1st arrondissement, offers modern and classical concerts, from recitals to full orchestras. Again, ticket rates are surprising reasonable, starting at €20 for most concerts. The theater has a Sunday morning concert series with all seats going for €23 (€12 under 26 years old, children free) and no tickets are sold in advance. The ticket office opens at 10 AM and seating is open. (More information, in French.)

Cheap seats for Dance

Theatre de la Ville, located across from Theater du Chatelet, provides modern dance performances. Tickets are quite reasonable, many priced at €10-15.

The celebrated 19th Century Opera Garnier presents mostly ballet and modern dance pieces. Even if you’re not a dance enthusiast, you can’t help but be impressed by the building’s neo-Baroque architecture, sweeping staircase, 2,200 seat grand salle, and ceiling by Marc Chagall.

Cheap seats for Opera

The Opera National de Paris operates both the Opera Bastille and the Opera Garnier. The Opera Bastille, a controversial building when it opened in 1989, presents operas throughout the year, and boasts that each of its seats provides an unobstructed view of the stage. Although ticket prices go as high as €150, seats for the same performance go as low as €5. (Seriously, check out the ticket prices for Wagner’s Parsifal.)

We’ll see you at the show… in the cheap seats!

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We’re always keen to dispel the myth that you must be rolling in it (money, that is) to enjoy world-class entertainment. Take the Viennese opera. This Austrian gem is well within the range of Cheapos.

Here are our three best bets for landing a night at the Opera:

Try ’standing room only’

If you are willing to stand for the duration of the performance, then you can get some of the cheapest tickets in town. The cost of a “standing room only” ticket is between €2 and €3.50 per opera. These tickest are only available at the evening box office, which opens 80 minutes prior to show time.

Snag seats for a song

In the nosebleed section of the opera house, you’ll pay anywhere from €7 to €18 for a seat in the rafters (but what rafters they are!). Considering a spot in the front orchestra could cost you €200, we consider this is a huge score. Just bring some good opera glasses.

Take a tour and skip the show

If The Marriage of Figaro isn’t your idea of fun, opt for one of many daily guided tours of the ornate and scope-worthy opera house. For €5, you can get up-close and personal with the opera house, touring even the stage and the tea salon. For another euro and a half, visit the Opera’s museum, too. A recent exhibit showcased the original compositions (on-page edits and all) of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung”.

And, one last note on all of this: If you’re a student, you’ll almost always benefit from additional discounts. Bravissimo!

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Photo by oliviagiovetti

Though Prague is knee-deep in music history, the only way to get into the Estates Theater—its most famous opera house—is by seeing one of its operas. And if you’re taking in an opera, why not go for one of Prague’s most famous operas, La Clemenza de Tito?

If you missed last month’s production of Clemenza as part of the Prague Spring Music Festival, you’ll be able to catch it again as part of this fall’s Czech Opera season. Written for Prague by its adoptive son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart it the opera had its original premier in the very theater where it will be performed this fall. The current stark white set and modern(ish) costumes (designed for the Mozart 2006 Prague Festival) aren’t replicas of the original 18th century production, but they make for exciting visuals to an exciting Mozart score.

Seeing this integral part of Czech culture, a part of its living history, in the blue velvet jewel-box of an opera house is a must. And with tickets for Clemenza still available for CZK450 to CZK1000 (that’s about $20 to $50), soaking up history and culture won’t soak up your bank account. Bohemia Ticket (located on the net and off Wenceslas Square) is a good resource for getting tickets.

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Johnson Castle will once again showcase the world famous Wexford Opera Festival. The festival begins today and will run through June 17, 2007.

This year’s line-up includes three breathtaking shows: Kurt Weill’s Silverlake, a combined performance of Busoni’s Alrlecchino with Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinnella, and Dvorak’s Rusalka.

Students are in for a special treat this year, as Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency and radio station Lyric FM have teamed up to sponsor 20 student seats for each performance. Student tickets will sell at the reduced price of only €30. Email boxoffice@wexfordopera.com for more information.

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Photo by infraredhorsebite

A sibling love affair, a taxidermic incident with the family dog (whose name, of all things, is Sorrow), and a dancing bear. Need we say more? These plot details are just the tip of the iceberg in John Irving’s novel, The Hotel New Hampshire.

The story follows a family from New England as they open their Hotel New Hampshire and endure various travesties. They take the show on the road, moving to Vienna to run a Gasthaus for an old family friend, Freud, a former European refugee who, along with his traveling companion—the dancing bear—originally brought the parents together. Intrigued yet? You haven’t even reached Vienna.

We don’t want to spoil the plot, so we’ll just say that once you arrive in Vienna you can look forward to a hotel floor of prostitutes and a plot by radicals to blow up the Vienna State Opera. It’s a wild ride, and we are willing to bet you won’t want to put it down.

Because Vienna is a fairly placid place, a novel like this one provides an enjoyable and counterintuitive take on the Austrian capital.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Photo by barraclough

There are two world-class opera houses in Paris, and we’re happy to report that they both sell cheap last-minute tickets. Just show up an hour before the performance and wait in line – and yes, you can wear whatever you want, even jeans. Tickets prices are quite inexpensive, ranging from €5 to €10, depending on location.

Competition for last-minute seats is fierce at the historic opera house, Opéra Garnier, but tickets are almost always available at the post-modern Opéra Bastille, especially on weeknights. Both venues are under the direction of the Opéra de Paris, and both maintain busy production schedules. In April alone, there are four operas, five ballets, and two classical concerts between the two houses: information and schedules for the productions are online.

Opéra Garnier is located at Place de l’Opéra, 8th arrondissement, metro Opéra (lines 3 & 7; the connection to line 8 reopens May 18 2007). Finding the ticket office at Opéra Garnier is easy: walk through the main doors into the huge marble hall and go right.

Opéra Bastille is located at Place de la Bastille, 12th arrondissement, metro Bastille (lines 1, 5, & 8). To find the ticket office, you have to walk around the building to the right of the teenagers who lounge and smoke on the giant staircase. Ah, Paris…

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