Vienna, Austria: Vienna State Opera

Visitors to Vienna expect to see a spectacular opera house, even if they don't know what's coming. It's Vienna, with all its cultural history. Happily, the State Opera delivers on that promise.

It was built in the 1860s, and was one of the first major structures on the Ring Road of the city. The building picked up its current name around 1921. Members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited for the performances at the State Opera, and the Vienna State Ballet works out of here. 

The place seats about 1,700, and it's interesting to walk around inside the place. That's a smaller capacity than you might think. Then again, there's floor seating ... and the rest of the place goes almost straight up. Not many bad seats, unless you are afraid of heights.

One interesting point - the group always tries to make sure that the performances have relatively inexpensive tickets prices at the bottom end. In other words, the floor seats seem to go for a couple of hundred Euros, but you can still get in and sit in the upper deck or grab a standing room spot for relatively little. 

It's all amazing.