In 2008, I was able to obtain a ticket for an opera at La Scala in March for about 24 Euros, on their website. It even arrived in the mail before I left home. The seat in question was in the last balcony row.

While it was nice of Perche to answer your questions, the amount of incorrect information in his reply only serves to further myths about La Scala while really not helping you at all. Not ALL tickets for all performances sellout right away. Not even close. While Turandot is sold out , many hundred tickets, including many in the orchestra, remain for many performances of Carmen long after they went on sale. Even Lucia with Damrau, whose Traviata at La Scala was celebrated, has nearly 400 tickets remaining for all performances a day after they went on sale and in all locations except the gallery. I suggest you go to the La Scala website and see for yourself. Five tickets in the orchestra will run you about $1500.

In addition, the cheapest non gallery seats are closer to 100 euros than they are to 200. And discounted tickets are available at the box office an hour before curtain if any are available not to mention the cheapo day of gallery tickets.

I was almost fooled into believing the myth about La Scala tickets until I found out for myself.

The OP asked about discounted tickets at La Scala for five people. There are none. That's just not going to happen. $1,500 for seats that don't even allow you to see the stage but are, "listening only" is not what I think the OP had in mind.

Even a broken clock shows the correct time twice a day and once in a while someone will get lucky and get a cheap ticket to La Scala. However, if you want to buy tickets for La Scala you have to pay up unless you bump into a very distressed seller, or unless you want to see a modern opera that Italians don't generally take to.

Also, unless you are in the front row in the gallery the seats are for listening only. That means that you cannot see the stage even though you have paid $1,500. Opera houses in Italy and particularly at La Scala, for some peculiar reason, were not made for you to be able to see the stage unless you are seated on the floor, or in the front row gallery, or way in the back. If you are sitting in row 1 in the gallery, fine. If you are sitting in row 2, unless the people in front of you are very polite and will move over their chairs and let you lean over their shoulders to give you space to put your head, you will be looking at a wall, and you can only listen to the music, but not see it.

My intention here is to warn the OP that just showing up in Milan and thinking about getting cheap tickets to a popular opera at La Scala, or searching on a website for discounted seats at La Scala, is unrealistic. Getting good, non-scalped tickets to a traditional Italian opera is about as realistic as thinking that as a tourist in you can just show up in San Francisco and get good seats to see the San Francisco Giants play baseball. Every seat has been sold out for the last two years. Can you get in? Sure, scalpers line the streets, and some tickets are held to be sold on game day. Are five people going to get decent seats sitting together, no, that's not going to happen.

At La Scala, getting discounted tickets where you can actually see the stage is like being a blind squirrel. Every now and then even a blind squirrel finds an acorn, but don't go to Italy with having the idea of getting discounted seats at La Scala in your game plan.

There have been a number of posts here where people say that something is easy to do in Italy. Things are not easy in Italy, and you will be disappointed if you believe that. Life in Italy is beautiful, but not easy. The history of Italy has made it that way, and Italians like it like that.

The OP asked about five seats, not necessarily together. For many performances on sale now, one can find five good seats in the orchestra that are reasonably close together and are not listening only. It's easy to buy pairs together. Discounted? No. But not obstructed view and very easy to get just by going to the website. Lucia, which I would consider an Italian opera, is one of them.

The reply made it sound as if tickets to La Scala are impossible to get. They are not. Five together might be tough, but not impossible for some operas, and everybody will see the stage.

I just went online to the La Scala site and had two orchestra seats in my cart. Total price 540 euros. I recently bought two orchestra seats to Carmen. Total price 540 euros. I could've had lots more in both cases. Easy.

I think the correct answer would have been that discounted tickets are very difficult to come by but face value tickets are not for many operas.

And, yes, there are no good cheap seats in La Scala.

I agree with you completely. If it is someone's mission to get seats at La Scala, and they are willing to do whatever it takes, they can do it. My advice was based on what my perception was, a family with three young children who want to see a major opera at La Scala, at a low price. I think that is like the blind squirrel trying to find an acorn. For their trip planning I was just saying that they should not include finding cheap tickets to La Scala for them and for their three kids, sitting together, where they can see, at a discount price. I think we are in agreement on that.

For Carmen La Scala lists does list a few seats available right now selling for 276 euros each depending on the date, and not what I think OP had in mind. They would have to go on different days, as most days only have one last isolated seat available.

He or she asked for a discount for a family of five, as the few seats left for five people to see Carmen would cost over $1,300, and even then they would not be sitting. If they go to the balcony at La Scala they would also be split up and each would be looking at a wall in a "listening" only seat that would cost them close to $1,500 for the family. It's great to go to La Scala, but don't expect discounts

That's for the May Carmens. For the June Carmens you could put together pairs for the same performance. Same for the May Lucias. I didn't check all the way through for five but did find two pairs of two in the orchestra for both Lucias in May with Damrau singing. My recommendation to the OP is to go to the La scala website and see for herself.

Sorry for diverting the thread a bit. But I'm travelling to Italy for a few weeks in September/October and would be interested in seeing an opera somewhere at a reasonable price. Are there other cities worth considering? I was thinking of Verona for example. I've watched some youtube videos of outside operas and they look awesome.

And one other consideration: If the OP's main consideration is seeing an opera at La Scala, the world premiere of CO2 in May has several hundred tickets available for each performance with top price at 180 euros. I bet getting five together for those performances won't be difficult and they might even be discounted day of.

True, but nobody in Italy wants to see CO2. It's the lecture that Al Gore gives on global warming, set to music. Italians are not major global warmers. They turn the lights off when they leave the room, and no matter how hot it is, they won't turn on the air conditioner because they don't want to use energy. You can be suffocating in a taxi cab in Rome in August, and if you ask the driver to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner, you will get a dirty look. You may also freeze if you go in early winter because there is an official day when people start turning on the heat. Before that day if it is cold, you are not going to get your landlord to turn on the heat, even if it is freezing.

Italians are very progressive about music. I love that you can go to see concerts and hear music composed in the 20th and 21st century, which is hard to do in the USA. But I'm not sure that there is going to be a big audience in Italy to hear an Al Gore lecture set to music and made into an opera. And even seats for CO2 it would cost a family of five around a thousand dollars to get a seat where you can see the stage, depending on the date, which is not the discount that I think the OP was looking for.

You are right, OP can get tickets, but the words discount and La Scala, or even discount and opera, are words that generally don't go together in Italy.

My guess is that if spending that much is what someone wants to do, then budget is not a barrier and they wouldn't be asking if they can get a discount. They would just spend $2,500 dollars and get five good seats. Or they can go and see the Al Gore opera CO2 where I suspect there are going to be vacant seats.

What part of Italy will you be traveling to, and what weeks in September/October? It's hard to say without knowing where you'll be, and when. I really doubt that there will be any outdoor operas in late September or in October anywhere in Italy. If you go as far south as you can get in Italy, to Sicily, close to Libya, the temperature in October is only in the 50 degree range in the evening, and the Fall is the rainy season. You can't have an outdoor opera in late September or in October in Italy. Outside operas generally take place in July and August when the weather is more predictable. If you are going to be in Italy in early September head for Verona, but the last day of the outdoor opera season is September 6th. After that, if you want to see opera, plan on being indoors.

I haven't actually booked it yet. I wanted to avoid August as I read all the Italians go on holiday and it's just full of tourists (like me!). Plan is to visit various places from Cinque Terre down to Sicily but nothing concrete yet. If there was something worthwhile visiting like an outdoor opera somewhere that doesn't cost a fortune, I'd make an effort to go there.

Hi,

The outdoor Italian festivals other than Verona (Macerata, Torre del Lago (Puccini) and Festival Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca are the ones that come to my mind) are smaller in physical scale and generally run from July to August.

Verona is all about the spectacle - the casting is generally "B" level and the dramatic aspects are usually suppressed under the massive sets. Even as a serious opera follower, I think everyone should experience site-specific performances in places like Verona or Bregenz one time, at least. I went to Verona in 1997, and feel no need to return.

Oh, even in August, it can rain, and if it does, the performance is stopped immediately (to protect the orchestral instruments from damage). On the night I went, the performance was paused for ninety minutes due to rain. Everyone in my group had had enough - the singers were so poor that we didn't return, and instead enjoyed a fine dinner.

As for regular indoor performances in Sept/Oct, the issue is that many house don't start their seasons until later in the fall. Also, some cities have more than one organization doing opera. For example, in Rome, the Teatro della Opera often takes second hand to the concert perforances at the Academy of St. Cecilia - just last month the Academy did a sensational concert Aida with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano - this Aida far outclassed La Scala's new Aida, which "featured" some really poor singers and a ugly production (I saw a video and shut it off after 'O patria mia')

Macerata is a very nice setting and I will say that Marche in August is quite nice. There are beaches and tourists but it is so easy to get away from that in the hill towns. The Marche in July and August is a very laid back Italy. Saw a very nice Il Trovatore there in August 2013.

The following week saw Rigoletto in Verona. Fantastic setting. Nucci, even at 71, was great and the production, while a bit of a spectacle, was excellent. The cast played up to the crowd a lot but it was a nice touch as the audience is all over the board. Actually removed the foul taste of the Gelb's Met fiasco set in Las Vegas (where Rigoletto finds Gilda dying in the trunk of a Cadillac) that I had seen in April that year.