Great Opera Hits: how to book

What you are booking

You are booking a seat at Great Opera Hits, Opera Australia's concert in the Sydney Opera House. Opera Australia describes it as a concert of the greatest hits of opera: famous arias from Bizet, Puccini, Rossini, Verdi and more, performed by some of its finest opera singers and accompanied by piano. The concert lasts around 90 minutes, with one interval. The Opera House says the run time is subject to change, and that cast, dates, times and fares vary by date. The booking calendar shows the start time for each date. The Opera House's event page presents it as opera's best arias in around 90 minutes. Opera Australia calls these relaxed concerts, and guests who were new to opera describe them as fun and entertaining.

Who sings and plays

Opera Australia's production page names a director, a pianist and four singers: a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, a tenor and a baritone. Different artists are named for different runs of dates, so the cast depends on the night you pick. Opera Australia calls itself the nation's premier opera company. Each year it stages operas, musicals and concerts attended by hundreds of thousands of people, mainly at the Sydney Opera House and the Arts Centre Melbourne. Its own orchestra plays in the Joan Sutherland Theatre for Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet, but this concert uses a piano in place of an orchestra, which keeps the voices in front. Opera Australia says it is developing the next generation of Australian artists through a young artist program, and former young artists regularly perform with the company.

The kind of music to expect

Opera Australia names four composers: Bizet, Puccini, Rossini and Verdi. Famous arias by those composers include the Habanera and the Toreador Song from Carmen, Nessun dorma from Turandot, Figaro's Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville and La donna è mobile from Rigoletto. Carmen is among the most popular and most often staged operas, and The Barber of Seville is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music. Bizet's Carmen was his final opera, and Puccini's most renowned works include La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot. None of these arias is promised, because the programme changes from date to date. The home page of this guide has a card for each composer.

Choosing a date

Pick a date in the booking calendar and it shows the seats and fares for that night. Opera Australia's own page lists dates and start times that differ from one date to the next, so look at the start time before you commit. The calendar is GetYourGuide's, so the dates and fares it shows are the ones you book, and Opera Australia's own page may list them differently. Its page also marks each date's availability as good, medium, low or sold out, so a date marked low is worth booking sooner. The Opera House lists Great Opera Hits in separate runs by season, so a date on an older page may belong to a finished run. If your trip has fixed days, check those dates first, because the GetYourGuide ticket is non-refundable.

Choosing a seat

The Joan Sutherland Theatre is a proscenium theatre, and the Sydney Opera House publishes a seating map for the concert on its event page. The booking calendar shows the seat options for the date you pick. One guest who sat in the front row in the middle said it felt as if the singers were singing to them alone. The Opera House calls the theatre the second largest indoor venue in the building, and its access pages name the seating areas Stalls, Dress Circle, Loge and Boxes. If stairs are hard for you, note that some seating locations have significant amounts of stairs to seats, and the Opera House's access pages explain how to book accessible seating through its Box Office, with a ticketing policy that covers a companion seat.

Booking direct or through GetYourGuide

Opera Australia and the Sydney Opera House also sell the concert on their own sites, with a booking fee. This guide links to GetYourGuide instead, where you can choose your language and currency in the booking calendar. Opera Australia's page carries the full run of dates, and the Opera House's page carries the same event with its seating map, so compare the two before you decide. The GetYourGuide ticket is non-refundable. Opera Australia's page says that if you can no longer attend, you should contact its Box Office as soon as possible. Whichever route you use, check the date, the hall and the name of the show on your confirmation. This guide is independent of Opera Australia, the Opera House and GetYourGuide.

Language and surtitles

Opera Australia says the performance is in multiple languages, with English and Simplified Chinese surtitles. Surtitles are translated or transcribed lyrics projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, and they are commonly used in opera. They came into widespread use in the 1990s to translate the meaning of the lyrics into the audience's language, and they are also used to let hearing-impaired patrons follow theatre productions more fully. If you read neither English nor Chinese, reading a line or two about each famous aria's story beforehand will help you follow the singing, and the guide to opera for first-timers covers the basics.

Concert, tour, or both

Great Opera Hits is an evening in a theatre. The Opera House also offers guided walking tours of its halls and foyers, listed as separate bookings. The one-hour tour is led by a live guide in English, German, French or Spanish and is not suitable for wheelchair users, while the concert ticket is marked wheelchair accessible. A second tour adds a main meal and a drink at one of three harbourside venues on the site. Guests on the tour may catch a rehearsal in action or the crew working on a set. Venue access on a tour varies on the day. A tour by day and the concert in the evening make a simple pair, because the tour explains the building and the concert uses it.

Who this isn't for

It suits people who want to hear opera once, in the building, in about an hour and a half with an interval. Great Opera Hits does not suit travellers who want a staged opera with an orchestra, sets and costumes. Opera Australia's staged productions in the same building are separate bookings with their own casts, and the Opera House's opera page lists them by season. It also suits you less if your dates may still move, because the GetYourGuide ticket is non-refundable. It is also a poor fit for restless children, because the Opera House asks that children aged 15 and under be accompanied at all times and that audiences keep disturbances to a minimum. And it is not the place for photographs: filming and photography are not permitted inside the venue unless authorised.

A checklist before you book

Run through these points once your dates are fixed. Two of them decide most bookings: the date, because the ticket is non-refundable, and the hall, because Opera Australia and the Opera House stage several productions in the same building. Each point is covered by the sources at the end of this guide, and the practical guide for the night explains every rule in full. If any point does not fit your plans, pick another evening or another way into the Opera House before you pay.

• Date and start time shown in the calendar
• Joan Sutherland Theatre, Bennelong Point
• Photo ID: passport, ID card or driver's licence
• Doors close at show time, and latecomers wait for a pause
• The GetYourGuide ticket is non-refundable

Where to read next

For the way there, the doors, the cloakroom and what to wear, read the practical guide for the night. For the room itself and the company that performs in it, see the guide to the Joan Sutherland Theatre. For the building's story, from Jørn Utzon's competition win to the opening, read the Utzon guide. The guide to opera for first-timers explains arias, recitative and what a concert of arias leaves out. Each of these guides names its sources at the end, so you can check any detail against the Opera House's own pages.

Read next: Opera House night: what to know