Cities with the Most Opera Performances

Not one Italian city?

I was surprised about that too, the first opera house I thought of was La Scala in Milan.

IKR? I thought Italian opera singers were practically a cliche.

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).

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.

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.

Well, the source gives also a per capita statistic, putting Italy on 17th place.

NYC doesn't work.

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

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.

Great quiz!

Interesting quiz, and the source website is fascinating.

North-central Europe sure does love their opera. Also, I can't believe I forgot about the world's most famous opera house.

Milan isn't on the list:)

The Teutons love them some opera.

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.

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.