Attending a concert, play, opera, ballet…

We asked any of you who attended a concert, a recital or any music or dance performance or stage production outside of the US in the last couple of years to tell us how you learned about it and how you obtained tickets. The responses this month, comprising part six in this ongoing series, are mostly about events in Croatia and Hungary.

Well before you travel somewhere, browse the Internet to learn what you can about upcoming events.

If going to a famous theater, purchase tickets as far in advance as possible in order to get what you want. Pay a premium price if the occasion warrants. (You’ll forget what you paid but not that wonderful experience.)

Soon after you arrive, check out the main tourist information office (or the one in the Old Town, if applicable) to learn what’s available and when. Also, scan posters and free publications about what’s happening during the time you’re there.

• In RIGA, Latvia, in September ’10, I went to the tourist information office in the Old Town (next to the House of the Blackheads) and asked about current performances. I learned that the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” was at the Latvian National Opera and that one excellent seat (all I required) was available three days hence; I purchased it on the spot at the tourist office. I paid the equivalent of about $36.

• In DUBROVNIK, Croatia, in September ’08, I went to the tourist information office and asked about folklore performances. I learned about a Croatian music and dance performance by the Lindjo Folklore Ensemble.

I purchased tickets (something under $20) at the box office of the venue, Lazareti Art Workshop (Frana Supila 8, Lazareti, HR-20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia; phone/fax 382 20 423 497 or 421 114 [website in Croatian]), in Old Town.

The ensemble is still performing, according to this website.

• I was going to Australia in March 2006 and wanted to see a prime performance at the SYDNEY Opera House. A few months before that, I used Google and found the website www.sydneyoperahouse.com. I saw that the opera “Madama Butterfly” would be playing.

I e-mailed them about my seating preference, which was two orchestra seats five or six rows from the stage and as close to the center as possible. The person who responded was very helpful.

While the tickets were expensive, about $188 each (they’re more like $290 now), seeing “Madama Butterfly” in that venue was the experience of a lifetime; I never regretted the cost.

Pat Minami
Rockville, MD

I attended a production of the opera “Hamlet” by Ambroise Thomas (1868, French) at the beautiful opera house in ZAGREB, Croatia, in November ’11. The building and the production both were outstanding.

English speakers should be aware that (should they choose the distraction) the translation is provided on a huge screen above the stage.

I learned about the event online, several months before leaving, by Googling “Zagreb entertainment.”

Then, while our tour group was staying in Zagreb at the Palace Hotel (JJ Strossmayer Square 10; phone +385 1 4899 600), the concierge called the opera for us the day before the event, and we just picked up the tickets at the venue, a short walk from the hotel. Tickets cost only $25 each — can you believe that?

Marian Spainhower
Red Bluff CA

We attended a wonderful concert in BUDAPEST, Hungary, in 2008, at St. Stephen’s Basilica (Szent István tér 1; phone 06 1 311 0839).

We heard the Solti Chamber Orchestra (founded by the widow of Sir Georg Solti, conductor of the Chicago and Covent Garden orchestras). The venue was beautiful and the orchestra was very good.

We learned about it from the many handbills being passed out on the street. Tickets cost about €20 ($25) each, and we paid at the door the morning of the concert.

Judith A. Siess
Champaign IL

If you are into opera, there is no better website than www.operabase.com. You can find what operas are being done around the world by going to the site’s map. You can find “New and Rare” operas by clicking on that tab. The same is true for “Performances,” “Artists,” “Highlights” and “Companies.” Keep clicking away and you can plan your entire vacation around attending operas.

My mistake on our first trip to BUDAPEST, in 2004, was to think that my husband and I could just waltz into the Hungarian State Opera (Andrássy ut 22, 1061 Budapest, Hungary; phone +36 1 332 7914, fax +36 1 472 0449) and pick up tickets for any of the three days and nights we were there.

I had checked two months before our trip and there were plenty of seats available, but since I waited until we arrived, there were no seats for anything on those three nights, plus all of the opera-tour tickets had been sold. Neither our hotel concierge nor, because I was desperate, the three scalpers I tried (they all laughed at the silly American) could get tickets for us.

We went back in 2008, but this time I left home with tickets ordered and a confirmation letter. If you see tickets available ahead of time, pay the fee and get the tickets!

The opera house in Budapest is beautiful! So are Milan’s La Scala and the opera houses in Berlin, Dresden, Chemnitz, Leipzig, Paris, Verona… . You get the picture!

For the most part, we have found that coats and wraps must be checked, and that is free. Programs, however, cost money.

Some opera houses are very prim and proper and others are more “laid back.” In Verona, in 1990, we watched as a man carried the biggest sheet cake we ever saw into the cheap seats; we were sitting three rows behind him. All of a sudden he stood up and asked for a knife. A man two aisles over stood up and waved a knife, which was gently passed to the cake owner, who proceeded to cut the cake for his large party.

He then cleaned the knife with a napkin and started to send the knife back to its owner, who stood up and said, “Where’s my piece?”

The knife traveled back and the cake owner cut up the rest of the cake, passing it around to anyone within distance. The cake was delicious, and we laughed so hard that tears were on our pieces of cake!

Every theater has a great story, making memories of a trip so special.

Elizabeth Fashingbauer
Chicago, IL