I went to a Sunday night ballet performance of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty in the Berlin Staatsoper. The show was amazing, but just to see the building itself is a worth the ticket price.

The Staatsoper is on Unter den Linden, one of the fanciest streets in the city. Not far from the Brandenburger Tor, it is in the heart of Berlin. The building, from the outside, looks like many of its neighbors, but becomes much more special when you enter.

You can buy or pick up tickets just inside the doors and then you enter another set of doors to go into the lobby. With lush colors and crystal chandeliers, you immediately find yourself in a most elegant setting. Although travelers seem to be accepted in grubbier clothes, many of the opera goers are dressed to the nines and this adds to the classy atmosphere.

Inside the opera house, there is a large number of seats on the floor, then there are several balconies that climb vertically. While this looks very nice, the higher levels may have limited visibility of the stage, especially on the sides. Nonetheless, the ticket prices reflect that factor, and start at very affordable levels.

The official website is in English and gives information about the performances, ticket prices, and location of the building. You can also order tickets online and pick them up at the building, or they will be mailed to you if you order more than 10 days in advance.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go to a performance at the Staatsoper--I just walked past the stately facade and stepped inside the lobby for some information. Here’s what I found:

Founded by Frederick the Great in 1742 as Prussia’s Royal Court Opera, the Staatsoper has a longer and grander history than its main competitor, the Deutsche Oper (the respective conductors, Barenboim and Thielemann, are reputably Germany’s best Wagner directors). Although the building was destroyed twice in WWII, it has been rebuilt and replicates the original 18th-century opera.

Currently, debates are raging about the Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper, and the Komische Oper. There is talk that Berlin cannot support three opera houses, and funding may be cut at one or more of them. This, of course, is a heated topic. Komische was once the "people’s opera" in the east, the Staatsoper the court opera of the east, and Deutsche the major house of the free west. Thus, choosing any of these over another is quite a messy affair, as politics, egos, and regional pride are inextricably intertwined. We’ll see what happens.

At the Staatsoper, any unsold tickets are available for 10 euros a half hour before performances.

Go to Staatsoper Berlin for more info.
Tel: 203 540; for tickets 2035 4555
Box office 10am - 8pm Mon. - Fri.; 2-8pm Sat., Sun.
Tickets 5 to 120 euros