World's Top 50 Best Concert Halls and Opera Houses

A CONCERT HALL is a cultural building which serves as a performance venue, chiefly for classical instrumental music. Many concert halls exist as one of several halls or performance spaces within a larger performing arts center and, where appropriate, the name of the arts centre is included. Many larger cities have both public and private concert halls. Particularly in smaller cities with fewer alternative venues, concert halls may also be used to accommodate other activities, from rock concerts to university graduation ceremonies, in addition to their primary purpose.

An OPERA HOUSE is a theater building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers.

Concert Halls & Opera House News, Reviews & Resources

• 8 of the most stunning opera houses in the world - "From Valencia to the Amazon, and New York to Buenos Aires, Alex Sakalis explores the stories behind the most stunning opera venues across the globe."
• A Night (and Many Days) Backstage at the Metropolitan Opera - The New York Times.
• Acoustics - Wikipedia.
• After 350 Years, Paris Still Defines Opera - The New York Times.
• Aussies furious over opera house lights - "Sydney Opera House protesters disrupt horse racing advertisement."
• Barcelona opera house reopens with performance to 2,292 plants - "It's not uncommon for performances at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house to be sold out, but musicians played to an unusual audience on Monday to mark Spain's lifting of lockdown -- as thousands of plants filled its seats."
• Bayreuth festival gets a female conductor for first time - "Oksana Lyniv conducts Wagner’s opera Flying Dutchman in front of audience including Angela Merkel."
• Best Opera Recording Ever Is Maria Callas Singing ‘Tosca.’ Hear Why - The New York Times.
• ‘Better than we dared imagine’: Sydney Opera House unveils its ‘miracle’ new concert hall - "After two years of renovations, a room once blighted by poor acoustics and outdated machinery can now accommodate musicians previously turned away, with a push of a button."
• Bravo! Music at reopened Kyiv opera replaces noise of Russian artillery - "Three months after the invasion, the capital’s grand old venue stages an emotional comeback."
• Elbphilharmonie: Hamburg’s dazzling, costly castle in the air - The Guardian.
• How opera is aiming for net zero amid worsening climate change - "Many opera companies are working towards full sustainability, and Glyndebourne is among those aiming to be a force for good, according to a new documentary."
• Incredible Sydney Opera House design secret wows the internet - "Architects found an ingenious solution for the project. The Sydney Opera House's shells proved to be impossible to make, until the architect realised that they could be produced as sections of a sphere."
• Inside Herzog & De Meuron's Hamburg miracle - "Seven years late and 10 times over-budget, the €789m Elbphilharmonie concert hall is finished – complete with 1,000 handblown glass lamps and €300 loo brushes."
• Is opera the most misogynistic art form? - The Guardian.
• List of concert halls - Wikipedia.
• LIST OF OPERA HOUSES - Wikipedia.
• Meet the Chinese architects behind this unusual new concert hall - "The couple's latest project is a case in point. Nestled in a valley northeast of Beijing, a stone's throw from the Great Wall, the boulder-like Chapel of Sound looks as if it were carved from the landscape itself. The architects added local rocks to the concrete and mimicked sedimentary layers to help assimilate the structure with its surroundings."
• Met Opera cancels the 2020-2021 season due to the coronavirus pandemic - "The Metropolitan Opera announced that it is canceling its entire season due to the coronavirus pandemic."
• 
• Opera coat - ankle- or floor-length loose-fitting coat of luxurious fabric such as velvet, brocade or satin, to be worn over an evening gown or a man's tuxedo. It may be described as a fitted cloak with sleeves and is generally not as tailored as a coat. Men's opera coats are frequently worn with a walking stick and top hat.
• OPERA HOUSE - Wikipedia.
• Opera Magazine - since 1950. "The World's Leading Opera Magazine." British magazine devoted to covering all things related to opera. It contains reviews and articles about current opera productions internationally, as well as articles on opera recordings, opera singers, opera companies, opera directors, and opera books. The magazine also contains major features and analysis on individual operas and people associated with opera.
• SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE GETS REDESIGNED BY 10 ICONIC ARCHITECTS USING AI FOR ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY - "You can tell how iconic a building is by A. How many people pose in front of it, but more so by B. How many magnets/keychains get made with the building on it. Paris has the Eiffel, NY has the Statue of Liberty, Agra has the Taj Mahal, and Sydney has the Opera House. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the iconic multi-venue performing arts center was officially opened on October 20, 1973, becoming an indelible part of the city’s skyline with its modern expressionist style. This year (and month) marks the 50th anniversary of the Opera House and to celebrate it, the folks at Imagined Architecture decided to give it an AI-driven facelift. Here’s what the Opera House would look like if it were reimagined by some of the most legendary architects of our time."
• Sydney Opera House to Undergo $202 Million Renovation - ArchDaily.
• The best things to do at the amazing Sydney Opera House - "Since its inauguration on October 20, 1973, the iconic Sydney Opera House has been the centerpiece of Sydney Harbour, drawing millions of visitors every year."
• The broken promise of the Sydney Opera House, its botched design and $150m fix - "The landmark’s concert hall closes on Saturday for a two-year renovation. It has been plagued by compromises since architect Jørn Utzon’s walkout in 1966."
• The Met Opera cancels the 2020-2021 season due to the coronavirus pandemic - "The Metropolitan Opera announced that it is canceling its entire season due to the coronavirus pandemic."
• The Royal Albert Hall at 150: 'It's the Holy Grail for musicians' - "It’s hosted opera greats, suffragette rallies, Hitchcock films, sports events, sci-fi conventions – and, of course, the Proms and countless rock gigs. Artists from Led Zeppelin to Abba recall their moments on the hallowed stage."
• the story behind Australia's Sydney Opera House - "What to do at the Sydney Opera House. There's much more to Australia's top tourist attraction than just a show-stopping facade."
• ThÉÂtrophone - (1881/1890-1932). ("The theatre phone") was a telephonic distribution system available in portions of Europe that allowed the subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines.
• ‘We sponsored an opera seat for our cat’ - The Guardian.
• World's 20 Most Amazing Opera Houses - Fodor's.
• world's best concert halls - The Telegraph.

Top 50 Best Concert Halls & Opera Houses

• 
• ALTE OPER FRANKFURT - since 1880. Concert hall and former opera house in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was inaugurated in 1880 but destroyed by bombs in 1944. It was rebuilt, slowly, in the 1970s, opening again in 1981.
• Auditorium Parco della Musica - since 2002. Large public music complex in Rome, Italy, with three indoor concert halls and an outdoor theater in a park setting, hence its name.
• 
• Bayreuth Festival Theatre - since 1876. Opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated solely to the performance of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner. It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival.
• 
• BERLIN STATE OPERA | Staatsoper Unter den Linden - since 1742. German opera company based in Berlin. Its permanent home is the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
• 
• BRATISLAVA OPERA - since 1920. Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The oldest Slovak professional theater consisting of 3 ensembles (opera, ballet and drama).
• 
• CARNEGIE HALL - since 1891. Concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue. It is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music.
• Cologne Opera | Oper der Stadt KÖln - Germany.
• 
• Copenhagen Concert Hall - since 2009. "The opening of DR Koncerthuset means a national and international concert venue for Denmark and a new architectural landmark for the capital. Jean Nouvel’s unique building puts Copenhagen on a level with other cities around the world which provide the best modern acoustic and visual setting for concertgoers."
• 
• COPENHAGEN OPERA HOUSE - since 2005. The national opera house of Denmark, and among the most modern opera houses in the world. It is also one of the most expensive opera houses ever built with construction costs well over US$500 million. It is located on the island of Holmen in central Copenhagen.
• Deutsche Oper Berlin - since 1911. Opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house and also home to the Berlin State Ballet.
• Dutch National Opera - Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a modern building designed by Cees Dam and Wilhelm Holzbauer which opened in 1986.
• 
• Elbe Philharmonic Hall | Elbphilharmonie Hamburg - since 2017. Concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. It is one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world. It is popularly nicknamed Elphi.
• Finnish National Opera | Kansallisooppera - since 1993. Helsinki, Finland.
• 
• GLYDEBOURNE OPERA HOUSE - since 1934. English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Initially, operas were presented within the house but there is now a free-standing opera house on its grounds. The house itself, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundred years old and listed at grade II.
• HAMBURG STATE OPERA - since 1678. Germany opera company based in Hamburg.
• HARPA - since 2011. Concert hall and conference centre in Reykjavík, Iceland. The building features a distinctive colored glass facade inspired by the basalt landscape of Iceland.
• Helsinki Music Centre | Musiikkitalo - since 2011. Concert hall and a music center in Töölönlahti, Helsinki. The building is home to Sibelius Academy and two symphony orchestras, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
• 
• Hollywood Bowl - since 1922. Amphitheater in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The bowl is owned by the County of Los Angeles and is the home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the host of hundreds of musical events each year.
• 
• Konzerthaus Berlin - since 1818. Concert hall situated on the Gendarmenmarkt square in the central Mitte district of Berlin housing the German orchestra Konzerthausorchester Berlin.
• LA MONNAIE - since 1700. Opera house in Brussels, Belgium.
• LAUSANNE OPERA HOUSE - opened in 1871, the Lausanne Opera House has benefited from several improvements over the years until the major renovation when it was closed for 5 years. In 2012, the opera house reopened its doors with new boxes, modern technical equipment and a glossy mirrored facade. The intimate interior popular with audiences remains unchanged.
• LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS - since 1962. Complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts many notable performing arts organizations, which are nationally and internationally renowned, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet & the New York City Opera.
• 
• Margravial Opera House – Bayreuth - The Margravial Opera House is the best preserved example of a free-standing Baroque court theatre. It was modelled on the greatest opera houses of the time in Vienna and Dresden. As a unique monument of 18th-century festival and music culture it was inscribed by UNESCO in the list of World Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012.
• 
• METROPOLITAN OPERA - since 1966. Opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
• 
• Musikverein | Wiener Musikverein | Viennese Music Association - since 1870. Concert hall in the Innere Stadt borough of Vienna, Austria. It is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra.
• 
• National Opera of Ukraine - since 1901. The Kyiv Opera group was formally established in the summer of 1867, and is the third oldest in Ukraine, after Odessa Opera and Lviv Opera. Today, the Kyiv Opera Company performs at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv.
• New York City Opera - 1943-2013 / 2016-. American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City.
• NEW WORLD CENTER - concert hall in the South Beach section of Miami Beach, Florida, that is designed by Frank Gehry. It is the home of the New World Symphony, with a capacity of 756 seats. It opened in January 2011.
• Oper Frankfurt - since 1961. One of the leading opera houses in Europe, and voted best "Opera house of the year" several times since 2003.
• 
• Oper Leipzig - since 1693. Opera house and opera company located at the Augustusplatz in Leipzig, Germany. The Leipzig Opera traces its establishment to the year 1693, making it the third oldest opera venue in Europe after La Fenice (Venice, Italy) and the Hamburg State Opera (Hamburg, Germany).
• 
• OpÉra Bastille - since 1989. Modern opera house in Paris, France. Inaugurated in 1989 as part of President François Mitterrand’s "Grands Travaux", it became the main facility of the Paris National Opera.
• 
• OpÉra de Monte-Carlo - since 1879. Opera house, which is part of the Monte Carlo Casino located in the Principality of Monaco.
• 
• Oslo Opera House - since 2008. The home of The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the national opera theatre in Norway.
• 
• Palais Garnier - 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. The Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica."
• 
• Paris Opera | OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS - primary opera company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra.
• 
• Prague State Opera | STÁTNÍ OPERA - since 1888. Opera house in Prague, Czech Republic. Currently it is home to approximately 300 performances a year.
• 
• Royal Albert Hall - since 1871. Concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, which has held the Proms concerts annually each summer since 1941. It has a capacity of up to 5,272 seats.
• 
• Royal Concertgebouw - since 1888. Concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Because of its highly regarded acoustics, the Concertgebouw is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world, along with places such as Boston's Symphony Hall and the Musikverein in Vienna.
• 
• ROYAL OPERA HOUSE - since 1732. Opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden". The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery.
• 
• ROYAL SWEDISH OPERA | Kungliga Operan - since 1898. Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet. Located in the center of Sweden's capital Stockholm in the borough of Norrmalm. The opera company was founded by King Gustav III.
• SAGE GATESHEAD - since 2004. Concert venue and also a centre for musical education, located in Gateshead on the south bank of the River Tyne, in the North East of England.
• SAN FRANCISCO OPERA - since 1923. American opera company, based in San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
• 
• Semperoper - since 1841. Opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra).
• 
• SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE - since 1973. Multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the 20th century's most famous and distinctive buildings. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the building was formally opened on 20 October 1973 after a gestation beginning with Utzon's 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition.
• SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE GETS REDESIGNED BY 10 ICONIC ARCHITECTS USING AI FOR ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY - "You can tell how iconic a building is by A. How many people pose in front of it, but more so by B. How many magnets/keychains get made with the building on it. Paris has the Eiffel, NY has the Statue of Liberty, Agra has the Taj Mahal, and Sydney has the Opera House. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the iconic multi-venue performing arts center was officially opened on October 20, 1973, becoming an indelible part of the city’s skyline with its modern expressionist style. This year (and month) marks the 50th anniversary of the Opera House and to celebrate it, the folks at Imagined Architecture decided to give it an AI-driven facelift. Here’s what the Opera House would look like if it were reimagined by some of the most legendary architects of our time."
• 
• Symphony Hall - since 1900. Concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. Acoustically, among the top three concert halls in the world.
• 
• TEATRO ALLA SCALA - since 1778. Opera house in Milan, Italy. Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre is regarded as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world.
• Teatro Amazonas - since 1884. Oopera house located in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
• 
• TEATRO COLÓN - since 1908. The main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic, and is acoustically considered to be amongst the five best concert venues in the world. The other venues are Berlin's Konzerthaus, Vienna's Musikverein, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, & Boston's Symphony Hall.
• 
• Teatro LA FENICE - since 1792. One of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre", and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice became the site of many famous operatic premieres at which the works of several of the four major bel canto era composers - Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi were performed, but also operas from the 20th century by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Britten & Nono.
• THE NORWEGIAN OPERA & BALLET - the first fully professional company each for opera and ballet in Norway, the only such professional organisation in the country. Its current residence is the Oslo Opera House, since the spring of 2008.
• 
• Verona Arena | ARENA DI VERONA - Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy built in the first century. It is still in use today and is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind. In ancient times, nearly 30,000 people was the housing capacity of the Arena. Nowadays, for security reasons, the maximum attendance is 15,000 people.
• 
• VIENNA STATE OPERA | Wiener Staatsoper - since 1869. Opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese "city expansion fund".
• 
• WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL - since 2003. At 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California. The fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It seats 2,265 people and serves, among other purposes, as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The hall is a compromise between an arena seating configuration, like the Berliner Philharmonie by Hans Sharon, and a classical shoebox design like the Vienna Musikverein or the Boston Symphony Hall.
• 
• ZÜRICH OPERA HOUSE | Opernhaus ZÜrich - since 1891. Opera house in the Swiss city of Zürich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to the Zürich Ballet.