Opera in Florence

The Building and Where It Is

The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino stands at Piazzale Vittorio Gui 1, by the Cascine park and Porta al Prato, west of the centre. Its Sala Grande opened on 21 December 2011 with 1,800 seats, designed by Paolo Desideri of ABDR, and it replaced the old Teatro Comunale, for good from 2014. The Zubin Mehta auditorium, a concert hall that seats 500 to 1,100 depending on the layout, opened on 21 December 2021.

The company also plays at the Teatro Goldoni. It is a walk of some distance from the Duomo, so take the T1 tram to Porta al Prato, and allow for it when you plan dinner.

This Season's Programme

This season's programme includes Berg's Wozzeck conducted by Thomas Guggeis and directed by Deborah Warner, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra with James Conlon and staging by Àlex Ollé of La Fura dels Baus, and Piovani's Romanzo criminale directed by Massimo Popolizio. In the auditorium, the symphony season includes Mahler's Second Symphony, Haydn's London Symphony and Holst's The Planets. Dates move and new ones are added through the year, so we do not print them.

Check the theatre's own calendar for the night you are in town, and the Maggio festival dates in the events calendar for spring.

Full prices for one opera performance in the Sala Grande, from the theatre's own event pages. The grid is identical on Wozzeck, Simon Boccanegra and Romanzo criminale. Platea 1 is €130 (about $152) on the premiere and €110 (about $129) on other dates.

Under 30, Reductions and How to Buy

The Maggio Card Under 30 is for anyone up to their 30th birthday. It is valid one year, brings season tickets down to €15 (about $18), and is free for first-time applicants through Unicoop Firenze. Over-65 and disability reductions also exist, the disability one from 70% certified with a free companion where it applies, but the theatre does not print the rates.

Buy online through the theatre's Vivaticket shop with no extra charge and a PDF ticket by email, or at the box office in the theatre: Tuesday to Friday 12:00 to 18:00, Saturday 10:00 to 13:00, and from two hours before each performance. It is closed on Sunday and Monday. The rules are on the theatre's information page.

Between performances, florence guided tours let you turn an evening at the opera into a fuller stay in the city, and you can browse the options for florence guided tours.

Rules to Know Before You Go

Nobody enters the hall once a performance has started. Latecomers are seated at the first interval, which in a short opera can mean most of the evening in the foyer, so arrive early. Running times on the event pages range from about 1 hour and 40 minutes for Wozzeck to about 2 hours and 20 minutes for Simon Boccanegra.

Start times vary too: Wozzeck's performances began at 15:30, 17:00 or 20:00 depending on the day. The theatre publishes no dress code. Our advice is smart casual, and a little more for a premiere.

Your ticket is a PDF, so a charged phone is the one thing you cannot forget.

Italy's First Music Festival

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was founded in April 1933 by the conductor Vittorio Gui, on an idea of Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, and it opened with Verdi's Nabucco. It was the first music festival in Italy and is the oldest in Europe after Salzburg, and the address of the new theatre, Piazzale Vittorio Gui, carries its founder's name. The festival runs from late April into June, and Daniele Gatti is music director from the 2026 season.

If your trip falls in those weeks, the festival nights are the ones to plan around. The dates and highlights live on the events calendar, which is the page that follows the festival year by year.

The Format

A recital is singers and a pianist performing the best-known arias, for about an hour, usually with a printed programme. At the plain recitals there are no sets, no chorus and no orchestra, and you sit on chairs in a church nave. It is not a staged opera, and the listings do not pretend it is.

The trade-off is time and price: an hour, from €26 (about $30), with no need to know the plot. If you want chorus, orchestra and scenery, book the Teatro del Maggio. If you want Puccini and Verdi after dinner, this is your night.

Five of the opera tickets we list start from this format, and they differ more by room and extras than by the music.

Santa Monaca Church

The Chiesa di Santa Monaca at Via Santa Monaca 6 is a small deconsecrated church in the Oltrarno, between Piazza del Carmine and Piazza Santo Spirito. The Santa Monaca recital is the most-reviewed opera ticket we list, 4.7 from 3,186 reviews, for €34 (about $40). It runs one hour, with a printed programme and a viewing of a painting of The Battle of Anghiari by Nico Paladini, which is not Leonardo's lost mural of the same battle.

The listing warns you not to confuse the church with the much larger Chiesa del Carmine nearby. The entrance is next to a Conad supermarket. It is not suitable for children under 5.

Dinner around the Oltrarno squares is a short walk away.

St Mark's English Church

St Mark's at Via Maggio 16/18 is the English church of the Oltrarno, and opera has been staged there by the company Concerto Classico for over 20 years. The church itself calls the room a very intimate space. The St Mark's performance is the one ticket we list that comes close to a real production: singers in scene and costume, piano accompaniment and an English introduction to each act, over 1.5 hours, for €49 (about $57).

There is an interval, and water and prosecco are sold then, paid on the spot. The listing has no reviews yet, so you are trusting the format and the room rather than a rating.

The Recital on Via di San Giuseppe

The opera concert entrance ticket is the lowest-priced recital we list, €26 (about $30), and it is rated 4.8 from 432 reviews. It is a one-hour recital by professional opera singers and a professional pianist in a Florence church known for its interior fresco, and the meeting point is Via di San Giuseppe 2. Two limits come with it.

The church cannot take wheelchair users, and it is not suitable for children under 3. If neither applies to you, it is the cheapest hour of opera on this page, and its rating sits above the Santa Monaca one. Check the programme on the listing, because the arias vary by night.

Teatro Nazionale and the Three Tenors

Two tickets we list swap the church for more of a show. The immersive concert at Teatro Nazionale runs 75 minutes, with a pianist and two soloists singing Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Rossini, LED wall projections, an English-speaking host and a welcome glass of wine with finger food. It costs €61 (about $71) and is rated 5.0 from 51 reviews. The Three Tenors concert at Piazza di Santo Stefano runs 1.5 hours, with opera arias and Neapolitan songs, a piano, double bass and mandolin ensemble and two dancers, for €54 (about $63), rated 4.5 from 142 reviews.

Both listings state wheelchair access.

Orchestra della Toscana at Teatro Verdi

The Orchestra della Toscana, ORT for short, plays its 46th season at the Teatro Verdi, Via Ghibellina 97, in the centre east of the Duomo. Its principal conductor is Diego Ceretta and its artistic director Daniele Spini. The box office is open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 13:00 and 16:00 to 19:00, and one hour before each event.

Online, tickets are sold through TicketOne and Classictic, and buying in advance costs €2 (about $2) more. The orchestra's own ticket office page has the current concerts. It is the classical evening of the centre, with no tram to catch.

Symphony at the Maggio Auditorium

The Teatro del Maggio's symphony concerts play in the Zubin Mehta auditorium, next to the opera hall by the Cascine. Seats are sold in four sectors: Settore A €70 (about $82), Settore B €50 (about $58), Settore C €35 (about $41) and Settore D €25 (about $29). This season's concerts include Mahler's Second Symphony, about 1 hour and 30 minutes, and Holst's The Planets, about 2 hours.

The same box office, online shop and latecomer rule apply as for the opera, see the opera house section. For a first symphony night in Florence, Settore D is the cheapest seat in the house.

Vivaldi at Santo Stefano

The evening classical music concert plays Vivaldi's Four Seasons with Bach, Mozart and Pachelbel, at the Chiesa di Santo Stefano or the Zeffirelli Museum depending on the option you book. It runs about 1 hour and 10 minutes, with standard, premium and VIP seats, and a printed programme. It is listed at €35 (about $41), rated 4.6 from 670 reviews, and the listing states wheelchair access.

Food and drinks are not included. This is the ticket for anyone who wants music but not opera, and it plays in the old centre rather than out by the Cascine.

Vespers at San Miniato al Monte

Every day at 18:30 the Olivetan monks of San Miniato al Monte sing vespers in Latin, in Gregorian chant, and entry is free. It is a liturgy, not a concert, so treat it as a service: sit quietly and keep your phone away. The church stands on the hill above Piazzale Michelangelo, so the walk up is part of the evening, and it pairs with sunset from the terrace.

For a traveller on a tight budget it is the one piece of live music in Florence that costs nothing at all. Opening windows and the bus up are on vespers at San Miniato.

Teatro della Pergola

The Teatro della Pergola on Via della Pergola 30 was founded in 1657, and people often call it Florence's old opera house. Today it is a prose theatre run by Teatro della Toscana, which means plays in Italian rather than opera. Guided visits of the building exist, but the prices are not printed.

If someone tells you the opera is at the Pergola, they mean the building's history. The staged opera of today is at the Teatro del Maggio, across town by the Cascine. So check what a Pergola ticket is for before you buy it: it will be a play, not an opera.

Summer at the Roman Theatre in Fiesole

In the hill town of Fiesole above Florence, the Roman theatre is still used for concerts, and summer is its season. It is a city bus ride up from the centre, and the programme changes every year, so check what plays on your dates before you plan an evening around it. The theatre sits inside the archaeological area, and the ride and the ticket rules are on the Roman theatre in Fiesole.

An open-air seat in a Roman theatre with the lights of Florence below is a different evening from a church recital, and the only one on this page that depends on the weather.

Recitals are the evening option after dinner. Staged opera can start earlier: Wozzeck's performances began at 15:30, 17:00 or 20:00, so on an opera day plan the museums around the curtain. For live music in bars and clubs instead, see bars and nightlife.

How the Evening Fits Together

Most museums close between 18:30 and 19:00, so a gallery day ends before dinner. Eat early in the Oltrarno, around Santo Spirito, and the two recital churches there are close by. A staged opera at the Maggio can start in the afternoon on some dates, so on those days put the Uffizi or the Accademia in the morning and keep the evening free.

One-day visitors can slot a recital into the one-day itinerary, and longer stays can pair a concert night with a two-day plan. For dinner near the venues, see where to eat in Florence, and for the rest of the city, see Florence attractions.

Two Sample Evenings

A free evening: climb to San Miniato for vespers at 18:30, walk down past Piazzale Michelangelo for the last light, and eat in the Oltrarno. It costs nothing but dinner. A recital evening: finish the museums by 18:30, eat early near Santo Spirito, then take the one-hour Santa Monaca recital or the 1.5-hour St Mark's performance, both a short walk from the Oltrarno squares.

An opera evening needs a different shape, because the Maggio is out by the Cascine and can start in the afternoon: keep the morning for one museum, take the T1 tram, and eat after the curtain rather than before. Whichever you choose, book the seat before the dinner table.