Originally Posted by Perche

If there is an event at La Fenice, that is the ticket to get. Dress is informal. Most seats are great, but there are some very bad ones, where you cannot see, only hear.

On the floor (Platea) the first five rows are too close. Rows E-M are the best. There are also a few seats in those rows that are on the side, separated by a corridor for the people to walk to and from their seats. They are only a few seats. I like to sit there because you aren't squeezed in by people, and can see very well.

The side boxes are even better and and I often choose them. Boxes 6-11 and 29-25 are the best, but very important: only if you can sit in the front row of that box. For some reason, the boxes point towards the center of the floor, and not actually to the stage. In the front row, your head is at the front of the box, and you just look to the left or to the right so it doesn't matter. If you are in row two, unless the people in row 2 are very kind and sit to the side and let you lean in, you will not be able to see all of the stage. If you are in row 3, you are lucky if you see anything. The boxes way back look more directly forward and you can see, but it's pretty far away.

Fenice seats are quite expensive, so if you've got to go up to higher levels, you do it, but don't get a box on the side unless you are in the first row.

Teatro Malibran is the second most prestigious place for music. It's quite a bit less expensive, and yet is of high quality. I saw a great Ferrari-Wolf operetta there last week. I tried to book two 80 euro front row side boxes on their website, but was unsuccessful, so I went there about an hour before the show to purchase them. They gave them to me and said, "40 euros." I said, "No, I want to 80 euro side boxes." They said the price for those seats went down to 20 euros as it is, "last minute." Sometimes, you can get great seats at a bargain, but not at La Fenice, only Malibran.

There are two churches that have the same show all the time, usually Vivaldi one night, then some singers the next, and they alternate the two every night. On church is on the water front in Castello, Santa Maria della Pieta, the other is in Campo San Vidal, near Campo San Bernado. This goes on all year. You see the players in the streets in period costume giving out programs and asking you to go. They are actually professionals, and are actually highly accomplished, although the singers are not as good. Nights when it is only instrumental are usually better. I think they are called Interpreti Veneziani, but you'll see the flyers everywhere, including in your hotel.

Then, there are always one of a kind church singing events that you just have to look out for. The Venice tourist office in San Marco Square is generally unhelpful, and concierges won't know. You just have to look online or in the newspaper. Get Il Gazzetino, the local paper, and ask your concierge to read the musical and cultural events to you. Tourist things won't be in there.

Once I saw a flyer in a bookstore indicating that the world famous, grammy winning contralto Sara Mingardo was giving a concert on a November evening in the local church of San Giovanni e Paolo. I went to it, and it was sheer magic. Afterwards I went to get a few chichetti, then walking back to my apartment I passed the church and there she was, standing alone outside holding her bouquet of roses. I went up and talked to her, and had someone take a picture of us on my phone. Unlike the glamorous, costumed, person you see singing in the opera, she was without making up, and sang in a plain black dress. She just came to her local church to sing (she is Venetian). Sometimes you are lucky and can find things like that in local churches.