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Cities with the Most Opera Performances

Name the cities that had the most opera performances from 2017–2022.
Quiz by camus
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Last updated: August 22, 2022
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First submittedJanuary 20, 2015
Times taken24,289
Average score55.0%
Rating4.44
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#
City
472
London
332
Dresden
301
Vienna
295
New York City
268
Berlin
231
Prague
192
Hamburg
#
City
189
Munich
150
Moscow
147
Paris
129
Stuttgart
128
Budapest
117
Tallinn
114
Zurich
#
City
114
Leipzig
112
Verona
111
Sydney
106
Birmingham
104
Cardiff
101
Madrid
+50
Level 62
Nov 26, 2017
Not one Italian city?
+14
Level 83
Nov 26, 2017
I was surprised about that too, the first opera house I thought of was La Scala in Milan.
+21
Level 67
Apr 29, 2021
I know. I typed Milan 12 times.
+7
Level 79
Nov 26, 2017
IKR? I thought Italian opera singers were practically a cliche.
+8
Level 62
Nov 26, 2017
Extraordinary, given that Italy was the birthplace of opera. According to the source, four Italian cities are in the top 50; they come in at #22 (Venice), #30 (Rome), #36 (Milan) and #41 (Florence).
+10
Level 77
Nov 26, 2017
It just means the performances are less concentrated in one place. Apart from Germany, even the US only has one city in the top and it's a huge country. Besides, you can get from Rome to Florence in a train in under 90 minutes, so you can go see opera at either one.
+15
Level 63
Nov 26, 2017
In Italy every middle-size town has its own opera theatre. Italy ranks 4th in the general classification, with 1393 opera performances last year, but in Venice — the 1st ranking Italian city — there have been only 139 performances.
+2
Level 74
Dec 2, 2017
Well, the source gives also a per capita statistic, putting Italy on 17th place.
+4
Level 76
Nov 27, 2017
Yeah, I must've tried 5 Italian cities before trying anything else. Pretty surprising to be honest, although the explanations people have posted here explain things pretty well.
+4
Level 75
Aug 31, 2022
I'm pretty sure Verona is in Italy. Maybe the quiz was updated? Still I'm surprised not to see more Italian cities there.
+1
Level 67
Oct 16, 2022
Verona is in italy, but yeah, I kept typing Milan and Rome (plus a couple of others) thinking there must be some mistake.
+1
Level 59
Nov 13, 2023
verona?
+7
Level 51
Dec 20, 2017
Great quiz! I am quite amazed that 9 out of 20 are in the german speaking world and that there is not a single italian city
+6
Level 52
Jun 14, 2019
In Germany, theatres, opera houses and orchestras are subsidised, which means that there is a theatre in every town of a certain size. More money means more performances. Italy is the birthplace of opera, but the state doesn't care much about culture. This is also why major Italian corporations sponsor some of the country's heritage sites, like the Colosseum.
+1
Level 71
Feb 23, 2018
Wow, I somehow got them all on the first try.
+1
Level 57
Feb 23, 2018
Great quiz!
+2
Level 78
Feb 23, 2018
Thanks!
+1
Level 80
Feb 23, 2018
Interesting quiz, and the source website is fascinating.
+4
Level 86
Feb 23, 2018
North-central Europe sure does love their opera. Also, I can't believe I forgot about the world's most famous opera house.
+7
Level 90
Feb 23, 2018
Milan isn't on the list:)
+4
Level 90
Feb 23, 2018
The Teutons love them some opera.
+4
Level 51
Feb 23, 2018
Ahhhh...I went to one of those 245 Paris performances. It's supposed to be one of the greatest opera houses in the world (to be fair, the location was beautiful)...it turns out that 'King Lear' actually meant a German 'interpretation' of King Lear. There was a naked fellow on stage at one point. We left after the first act and it looked like most of the audience did as well. I just don't even know anymore.
+21
Level 51
Feb 26, 2018
Oh no - if you didn't like that one performance, the Paris Opera couldn't possibly be one of the best in the world! And everybody knows naked bodies have no place in the arts - we should all be ashamed of them (somebody should have told Michelangelo as well). Also: Yes, the opera "Lear" is a german opera based on William Shakespeare's King Lear - could have easily googled that before buying tickets.
+3
Level 82
Jul 10, 2019
Aesthus, I'm with you. And cerealkiller needs a hug.
+1
Level 76
Feb 1, 2023
He's completely right, though, but apparently pointing out illogical arguments means one is butthurt about something.>__> Typical deflection when you don't have a leg to stand on in your argument.
+4
Level 39
Feb 24, 2018
Wow...7 German cities
+1
Level 66
Feb 24, 2018
Wow, almost two opera performances in Moscow every day!
+1
Level 50
Jan 21, 2020
Good quiz. Got all but hanover
+1
Level 78
Jan 22, 2020
Thank you!
+3
Level 55
Jun 27, 2020
This is typical racism. Beijing has probably triple the amount of Opera performances. But this is just for western countries.
+24
Level 78
Jun 27, 2020
You can justify your anger by citing credible sources.
+17
Level 52
Dec 9, 2020
"I hate Chinese, how will I target them? Oh, I know! Exclude them from a quiz about cities with the most opera performances!"
+9
Level 67
Oct 29, 2021
If the stat is true, where is the racism?

If the stat is false, that is not racism, that is wrong data.

But you can easily prove the intentional and racist use of wrong data by citing the actual source, that shows how better Beijing is doing in the number of opera performances.

+4
Level 79
Nov 7, 2022
Sometimes, racism is systemic, which could be the case here if the definition of what opera is and the recording of data exclude non-Western performance art by design. I don't know anything about "Beijing" opera, but a quick internet search suggests that racism accusations are easily avoided here by including a caveat that explains what counts as opera and what does not.
+2
Level 76
Aug 23, 2022
I'm going out on a limb here, but perhaps some people are mixing up "Beijing opera" vs. the "regular opera". It's debatable whether these should be both counted as "opera". If yes, then, in Beijing, one theater alone offers 365 shows on a normal year. Alright. The floor is yours.
+1
Level 76
Feb 1, 2023
Oof. Schooled.
+1
Level 59
May 19, 2021
I misread it as "countries" and spent 3 minutes guessing countries and wondering why on earth Russia, France, and Austria weren't here.
+1
Level 70
Sep 26, 2021
There's more than one opera a night?
+4
Level 65
Mar 18, 2022
Cities can have multiple opera houses, ya' know?
+2
Level 79
Jul 29, 2022
So apparently Germans really love their opera! And the country I thought would top this, Italy, doesn't even factor into this quiz. Huh.
+3
Level 77
Aug 22, 2022
Oof, this was so hard! I only had 10 after a few minutes. Only 40 seconds left. Then I started hitting German cities like a bandit. With 1 second left, I managed to guess the Welsh one. I guess it’s true… it’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings… … :D
+1
Level 92
Aug 22, 2022
I know absolutely nothing about opera. So maybe it's reasonable that I should be totally surprised at some of the answers in this quiz. Never in a million years would I have thought of some of the cities here versus all the ones in Italy that I did try.
+1
Level 95
Aug 22, 2022
I wonder if covid skewed the results of this at all? I know Italy was hit particularly hard early in the pandemic. If they were locked down for a long time relative to other countires it might explain why they didn't have a lot of entries on this list.
+1
Level 78
Aug 23, 2022
If you go to the source that is linked above you'll see that no Italian city was in the top 20 before 2020 either. Aloha19's comment here explains that the Italian state doesn't subisidize operas much, unlike Germany whose cities heavily feature here.
+1
Level 64
Aug 23, 2022
Verona was in Italy last time I looked! But like other folk, one of my first guesses was Milan because of La Scala. Surprised not to see Beijing and Tokyo either. Interesting quiz, but does it take any account of smaller or amateur performances?
+1
Level 78
Aug 31, 2022
The quiz covers 2017-2022. Verona wasn't in the top 20 in any year before 2020, as I wrote. I couldn't find out any specifics about what kinds of performances they include but the source is linked above.
+2
Level 78
Apr 20, 2023
In Verona there is a beautiful (restored) Roman amphitheatre where operas are staged throughout the summer.
+1
Level 78
Apr 20, 2023
@EcceHomo Cool, thanks for the info. If I ever get to Verona I'll try to go there :)
+2
Level 82
Aug 23, 2022
Ah yes... Cardiff, but not Milan. Obviously.
+1
Level 60
Nov 8, 2022
The Welsh do have something of a reputation for singing do they not?
+2
Level 84
Aug 25, 2022
"Do you know any Klingon opera?"

"I don't get a lot of requests for it!"

+2
Level 78
Aug 25, 2022
Have you considered the Puppet Opera House in Salzburg? They frequently put on 2 or 3 operas in a day. The only difference is that the performers are puppets with a soundtrack. They would be well up the list here.

Also very surprised not to see Milan on this list

+1
Level 78
Aug 25, 2022
And if anyone finds themselves near Salzburg I thoroughly recommend this theatre. I saw the Magic Flute there a while back. Imagine what you can do with puppets in that opera
+1
Level 75
Aug 27, 2022
I've never seen a quiz where the 2nd highest answer got so few correct.
+1
Level 40
Sep 8, 2022
Tallinn was a shocker, i'm very proud of that
+1
Level 71
Nov 7, 2022
I tried 5 or 6 Italian cities but not Verona, which had an opera performance on every night when I was there
+1
Level 64
Nov 7, 2022
Tricky quiz. Many of the answers aren't the obvious cities you'd normally think of.
+1
Level 59
Nov 7, 2022
I live in Cardiff and never would have guessed it
+2
Level 89
Nov 7, 2022
Should have gotten Prague. Can't believe I missed that.
+1
Level 65
Nov 8, 2022
Wasted a lot of time trying Italian cities as i thought they must be on the list!