Type of show
These are short programmes of well-known pieces in palaces and churches, sold by seat category. Here is how to read the ticket.
Vienna, Prague and Venice each have a concert trade aimed at visitors, separate from the season of the main opera house or philharmonic hall. A chamber ensemble or small orchestra plays a short programme of well-known pieces in a palace hall, church or historic salon. The repertoire follows the city: Mozart and Johann Strauss in Vienna, Mozart, Dvořák and Vivaldi in Prague, Vivaldi and Italian opera arias in Venice.
The link to each city is historical. Mozart lived in Vienna for the last ten years of his life and premiered Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787. Strauss wrote his waltzes for Viennese ballrooms. Vivaldi was born in Venice and taught at the Ospedale della Pietà. The concerts are built on that link. Some are played in period costume or on period instruments, and some add two singers or a pair of ballet dancers.
Expect 60 to 90 minutes. Longer programmes have an interval and church concerts often run straight through. Tickets are sold by seat category, usually three or four, priced by distance from the stage. Inside a category the seats may be numbered or free. Some tickets add a glass of sparkling wine, a dinner beforehand or a tour of the building. In Venice, one small opera format moves the audience from room to room of a palazzo, one act in each.
From €33 for a string quartet in a church to €250 for a Strauss dinner show, with seat categories that decide what you see.
Prices from €24.55 to €120, four one-hour programmes and one dinner evening, all staged for visitors. Here is how they differ.
Both cost from €34 and both play the Four Seasons. They differ in start time, ensemble, programme and how sure you can be of the room.
Vienna · Classical concerts
The most-reviewed concert here: 1,146 reviews, 9.1 out of 10, Mozart in costume at the Musikverein from €69.
Venice · Classical concerts
The most-reviewed concert here: 1,102 reviews, 9.5 out of 10, a 19:00 start, 80 minutes, from €34.
Vienna · Classical concerts
One hour of Mozart, Vivaldi and Bach in a Baroque church in the old centre: 9.4 out of 10 on 743 reviews, from €39.
Vienna · Classical concerts
A string quartet playing complete works on period instruments, 70 minutes, one price from €33, free choice of seats.
Vienna · Classical concerts
Mozart and Strauss in the Schönbrunn Orangery at 20:30, 1 hour 45 minutes with interval, four categories from €58.
You book on Civitatis, the ticket platform, under its own terms.
No. Those institutions sell full-length works in their own season, often months ahead. The concerts described here are shorter, run most evenings of the year and are produced by private organisers for visitors.
Between 60 and 90 minutes in most cases. The ticket page states the length and whether there is an interval.
There is no dress code at most of these concerts, and smart casual is what the majority of the audience wears. Beachwear and sportswear look out of place in a palace hall, and a few organisers say so in writing.
Look at the room before the price. In a church or a hall with a flat floor, the rear categories hear well and see little. Where seating is free inside a category, arriving early matters more than paying for the next band up.