The Vienna State Opera 2026/27 Season
Verdi’s grandest dramas, a rare Zemlinsky–Bartók premiere, Carmen, Tosca and the ballet — the autumn highlights now on sale, and how to choose your night.
September: Verdi, Mozart and the Ballet Return
The house wakes from its summer silence on 4 September and barely pauses for breath: within its first fortnight the season serves Verdi’s brooding Don Carlo, Cilea’s backstage tragedy Adriana Lecouvreur, and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in repertory rotation — three utterly different evenings inside a single week, which is precisely the Staatsoper’s magic. Evening prices this autumn start in the mid-€30s, rising towards €400 for the finest seats at the premiere; every listing shows its exact range.
Don Carlo Verdi
Verdi at his darkest and most political — the Spanish court, the Inquisition, and some of the greatest confrontations for low male voices in opera. A long, grand evening; come rested and surrender to it.
Adriana Lecouvreur Cilea
The tragedy of a real Parisian actress, wrapped in some of the most perfumed melodies of the Italian repertoire. A connoisseur’s favourite that rewards a first-time visitor just as richly.
Le Nozze di Figaro Mozart
One crazy day in the Almaviva household — Mozart’s perfect comedy of class, desire and forgiveness. If you’re bringing an opera first-timer, start here.
Ballett: Living Legacies
The Vienna State Ballet’s season-opening programme — and at around two hours, the gentlest introduction to the house. Ballet evenings also carry the season’s friendliest prices.
La Clemenza di Tito Mozart
Mozart’s final opera seria — clemency, conspiracy and imperial Rome, written in the last months of his life. Rarer on stage than Figaro, and all the more worth catching.
Konzert: Günther Groissböck
A single concert evening with the celebrated Austrian bass — a different way to hear the house, at concert prices from under €30.
Macbeth Verdi
Shakespeare’s witches and ambition through Verdi’s early fire. The Lady Macbeth role is one of the repertoire’s great vocal cliff-faces — thrilling on any night it’s attempted.
Tosca Puccini
Rome, 1800: a diva, a painter and the most elegantly evil police chief in opera. Puccini’s thriller is the repertoire’s surest bet — compact, ravishing and merciless.
October: A Premiere, Carmen and the Barber
Eine florentinische Tragödie / Herzog Blaubarts Burg Zemlinsky · Bartók
The season’s new production: a double bill pairing Zemlinsky’s blood-dark Florentine tragedy with Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle — two one-act studies in marriage and menace, and the hottest ticket of the autumn. Premiere-night seats reach the season’s top prices; later performances in the run are noticeably gentler.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia Rossini
Figaro here, Figaro there — Rossini’s effervescent comedy, home of the most famous entrance aria in opera. Pure pleasure, start to finish.
Carmen Bizet
One of the most performed operas on earth, for good reason. If there is one opera whose tunes you already know without knowing why, it’s this one.
Late October to New Year’s Eve: At a Glance
After the opening weeks the season keeps building: two more new productions (Ariadne auf Naxos on 22 November and La Damnation de Faust on 17 December), Verdi’s Otello, Puccini’s Butterfly and Bohème, three full-evening ballets and the operetta Vienna saves for 31 December. Dates below are the first performance of each run as currently on sale with us; every date is on the Vienna State Opera page.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail Mozart
Mozart’s harem comedy — a Singspiel with spoken dialogue, so the seat-screen subtitles earn their keep.
Ballett: Nijinsky
The full-evening ballet on the life of the legendary dancer, from the Vienna State Ballet.
L’Orfeo Monteverdi
Orpheus and the very beginnings of opera, four centuries on.
Otello Verdi
Verdi’s Shakespeare — a storm to open, and one of the most demanding tenor roles in the repertoire.
La Fille du Régiment Donizetti
Donizetti’s sparkling comedy, famous for the tenor aria with its nine high Cs.
L’Elisir d’Amore Donizetti
The love-potion comedy and home of Una furtiva lagrima.
Madama Butterfly Puccini
Puccini’s Nagasaki tragedy — among the most performed operas anywhere.
Luisa Miller Verdi
Verdi after Schiller — love, intrigue and a father’s devotion.
Ariadne auf Naxos Strauss
The season’s second new production: Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s opera-within-an-opera.
Ballett: Onegin
John Cranko’s Pushkin ballet, danced to Tchaikovsky.
Konzert: Xabier Anduaga
The Spanish tenor in concert at the opera house.
La Bohème Puccini
Puccini’s Paris in winter — the natural December opera.
Die Zauberflöte Mozart
Mozart’s fairy tale — an ideal first opera in the run-up to Christmas.
La Damnation de Faust Berlioz
The season’s third premiere: Berlioz’s dramatic legend, staged.
Les Pêcheurs de Perles Bizet
Bizet before Carmen — and the celebrated tenor–baritone duet.
Ballett: Schwanensee
Swan Lake over the holidays.
Die Fledermaus J. Strauss II
The house’s New Year’s Eve tradition — Vienna’s own operetta on the last night of the year.
Which Evening Is Yours?
First opera ever? The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville or Carmen — melodic, funny or familiar, and none outstays its welcome. Seasoned and hungry? The Zemlinsky/Bartók premiere is the collector’s item of the autumn. Short on evening? Tosca or the ballet — see our guide to running times. Whichever you choose, our seating guide explains the categories, the dress code guide settles what to pack, and every performance is on the Vienna State Opera page with live dates and prices.
This guide covers the productions on sale with us from the season opening through New Year’s Eve and is refreshed through the season as new dates open. ONE EVENT is an independent ticket agency. All tickets offered are genuine and valid, but we are not the official box office of the Vienna State Opera. Prices include our service fee and may be higher than the original face value.