Culture via streaming – Here you can watch an opera online

The year 2020 will inevitably go down in history as the year of restrictions. Due to a pandemic triggered by the coronavirus COVID-19, people's freedom of movement was significantly restricted in 2020 due to numerous legal regulations and requirements.

Some skeptics even saw their fundamental rights threatened by the fact that they could only visit football stadiums, casinos, concerts, restaurants , or the opera online. However, as in every crisis, there were also some winners: entertainment industry organizers who were able to save their businesses through particularly creative ideas.

Although several medical breakthroughs suggest that a vaccine to prevent severe illness from the COVID-19 virus will be available to us in 2021, scientists and politicians are already preparing us for the possibility that we will continue to live our lives with restrictions in 2021 as well.

This could mean, among other things, that you still won't be able to attend an opera in person in 2021. Fortunately, this doesn't have to be a reason to despair these days. Thanks to the creativity of the organizers, you can still watch your favorite piece online via live stream, and we'll tell you where you can do so.

The Bavarian State Opera

The Bavarian State Opera is still located in Munich, but you can currently only view the building from the outside, as performances in front of an audience will not be possible until further notice. Fortunately, the bright minds at the State Opera had already considered how to reach an even wider audience long before the pandemic, and as a result, Staatsoper.tv by the Bavarian State Opera .

Here you can experience the opera just as you would in person. This means you can buy your ticket, sit back, and enjoy the performance. The magic word here is video-on-demand.

But the Bavarian State Opera goes even further, offering Monday performances as free streams! Further information about the video-on-demand program and the free Monday performances can be found on the Bavarian State Opera's website.

The Vienna State Opera

Like numerous other opera houses in Europe, the Vienna State Opera was confronted with the Austrian government's repeatedly tightened regulations to contain the COVID-19 virus. Since the Vienna State Opera had to cancel all performances until further notice, interested opera-goers can currently only reserve tickets for one of the performances in advance; regular ticket sales unfortunately remain suspended until further notice.

These restrictions, however, do not deter the organizers of the Vienna State Opera's events from continuing to hold performances and make them accessible to their audience. The performances are broadcast live online from Vienna to the entire world.

You can not only watch the performances, but also visit the Vienna State Opera's digital archive, which is being made available to the public free of charge during the lockdown. Here you will find, for example, video recordings of numerous performances, including the applause of an audience, of course.

Click here for the current online schedule

The Stuttgart State Opera

The Stuttgart State Opera has made a name for itself throughout Europe, as its productions are staged in one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world, the Stuttgart Opera House. During the initial lockdown and event restrictions in spring 2020, the management of the Stuttgart State Opera devised a digital concept, which was revived during the renewed lockdown in November.

The motto of this concept is "Opera Despite Corona," and they've even come up with a dedicated hashtag for it. "Opera Despite Corona" means that you can watch a weekly opera recording on the Stuttgart State Opera's own YouTube channel. This is implemented as a video-on-demand program, similar to the Bavarian State Opera.

By watching Stuttgart State Opera performances online, you are also supporting everyone involved in the production, including the artists. All information about the events can be found on the Stuttgart State Opera website. Interestingly, the Stuttgart State Opera seems to be aware of its international audience, as the website has an English version and all video recordings have English subtitles.

Opera performances straight from the opera house to your home: In the 2024/25 season, you can once again look forward to free streams of selected new productions. These broadcasts are made possible by our digital partner, LBBW, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.

The Metropolitan Opera

However, it's not just German or European operas that are affected by the coronavirus pandemic; the virus is responsible for the cancellation of opera performances worldwide. Many German opera lovers like to broaden their horizons and might even want to visit an international opera house like the world-famous Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, New York City.

A personal visit is of course absolutely impossible at the moment due to the pandemic, as it is neither possible to enter the USA without restrictions, nor to see a performance at the Metropolitan Opera, since it, like many other opera houses worldwide, has had to cancel all events until further notice.

But even in New York, people have been thinking about how to bring joy to others during these difficult times, namely, how to give them the opportunity to attend the opera. The Metropolitan Opera probably has the most extensive online streaming service in the world, as a new performance can be watched daily on the opera's website or via the app on your mobile device – all completely free of charge. In addition, there is an on-demand service that provides access to even more performances.

OperaVision (formerly Theoperaplatform.eu)

This website is, exceptionally, not an opera house that has switched to online streaming due to the pandemic. Theoperaplatform.eu was founded in 2015 and is the result of a collaboration between several European opera houses. These opera houses make some of their performances available online completely free of charge.

In addition to this outstanding offering, at least one of the major performances each month can be watched via live stream. All performances uploaded there are available for six months. As this is an international European project, OperaVision operas in six different languages, including German.

The Stuttgart State Opera and the Komische Oper Berlin are among the German companies represented. Viewers can also watch performances from opera houses in Riga, Amsterdam, and Turin, and the Franco-German cultural channel Arte is also involved in the project.