Every city keeps a room where the music starts at seven.
Which Vienna concert is actually in the Golden Hall. What a fado night in the Alfama costs once dinner is on the bill. Reviews of the concerts and live shows you can book for tonight.
The four concert nights people plan a trip around: Vienna, Prague, Lisbon, Harlem.
The rooms that fill first, what a seat in each one costs, and what happens once the lights drop.
01Vienna, the Golden HallVienna: Mozart Concert at the Musikverein – Golden HallMozart in the Musikverein, under the gilt and the caryatids. Period dress, an interval, and the room the Philharmonic records in.
02Prague, the Mirror ChapelPrague: Entry Ticket Classical Concert at the Mirror ChapelA chamber programme in the Klementinum, mirrors on the ceiling and about a hundred and fifty seats. Sit near the front; the room is small.
03Lisbon, an Alfama houseLisbon: Live Fado Show with Port Wine at Lisboa em FadoOne voice, a Portuguese guitarra and a glass of port. The lights go out between songs and nobody talks over it.
04Harlem, Sunday morningNYC: Harlem Hallelujah! Gospel Wednesday ConcertA working church with a full choir and a congregation that has been welcoming visitors for years. A service first, a concert second.
Vienna and Salzburg play a concert almost every night of the year. Pick the room first.
Mozart under gilt in the Musikverein, Strauss in a palace with dinner before it, a quartet in a church off the Ringstrasse. Three kinds of Austrian night, what each costs to walk into, and which city it happens in.
What a concert ticket actually costs, from a church recital to a palace dinner.
Three bands of price, and the gap between them is wide. A cathedral recital in Vienna costs less than a round of drinks. The palace evening with dinner served first does not.
Church recitals, chamber quartets, fado houses and the cathedral concerts that run most evenings of the week.
Full orchestras, opera house seats, Broadway stalls and the river boats with a band on the lower deck.
Palace evenings with dinner served first, front-row opera, and the private boxes that earn the splurge.
A classical concert is the night most travellers book, in Vienna, Venice or Prague.
A string quartet in a baroque church, the Four Seasons in the city that has played it longest, Mozart under a ceiling built for the sound. Start with these three, then pick the city.
Live music travels well in churches, palaces and on the water.
The room does half the work. A cathedral nave carries a cello the way no theatre can. A palace hall was designed around the sound of a small orchestra. A paddle steamer puts a brass band ten feet from the table. Pick the room and the night follows.
The concerts and shows more travellers book than any others.
Every live music night we have reviewed →The seats that go first across every city on the site, and what earns each one the slot.
1
Vienna: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in Karlskirche
Spend 75 minutes inside Vienna’s Karlskirche with Orchestra 1756, a period-instrument ensemble performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Expect vivid strings, church acoustics, and a changing bonus program with works by Mozart, Bach, Biber, and other major composers. Arrive early for the best seat in your category.
From · $40
Read our review →
2
Venice: La Fenice Opera House Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
from $14
3
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option
from $58
4
Budapest Danube Cruise and Dinner Options, Live Music and Dance
from $54
5
Paris: 3-Course-Dinner Cruise on the Seine with live music
from $135
6
Porto: Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Wine
from $23
7
The Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg
from $90
8
Dubai: Sunset or Dinner Cruise with Live Music & Open Bar
from $51
Six cities where the concert is the reason to go.
Vienna has played Mozart nightly since he lived there. Lisbon sings fado in small tiled rooms. New Orleans puts the band on a paddle steamer. Six starting points, and the best night out in each.
New York: Broadway at eight, Harlem gospel on Sunday morning.
Everything in New York →
The stalls of a Broadway house, a Harlem congregation that has been singing to visitors for decades, and a band playing while Manhattan slides past the window. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Broadway: which house, which night
The long-runners hold seats back for the week you are there. The new hits do not, and the cheap ones go first. A matinee costs less and the house is calmer.
Harlem gospel, in a working church
A service first and a concert second. Dress as you would for church, arrive before the doors, and stay for the coffee afterwards. Photography is usually not allowed.
Dinner, a band and the skyline
The Hudson at night with the bridges lit behind the bandstand. Boarding shuts well before the boat casts off, and the deck seats go to whoever got there first.
In New Orleans the band plays on a paddle steamer.
The Natchez still carries a steam calliope and a jazz band on the deck below it. Two hours up the Mississippi and back, dinner optional, and the horns start before the wharf is out of sight. The clubs on Frenchmen Street take over once you are back on land.
Every New Orleans music night →
Italy plays Vivaldi in the churches he wrote it for.
Venice runs the Four Seasons most nights of the week, in San Vidal and the Scuola Grande, in period dress and by candle. Rome answers with opera arias in a church off the Corso. Florence, Verona and Lucca keep seasons of their own.
- 1Venice: La Fenice Opera House Entry Ticket with Audio Guidefrom $14
- 2Venice: Interpreti Veneziani Concert at Church of San Vidalfrom $37
- 3Florence: Santa Monaca Church Italian Opera Concert Ticketfrom $35
Three nights that only happen in one city on earth.
Orchestras and musicals are everywhere. A fado house in the Alfama, a film location you can sing in, and a Harlem church on a Sunday morning are not.
Fado, in the rooms that invented it
Fado is sung in small tiled rooms in the Alfama and the Mouraria, one voice against a Portuguese guitarra and a classical guitar. The house lights go down between songs and nobody talks over it. Most rooms serve dinner from about eight and start the singing at nine, in sets, running well past midnight.
- 1Lisbon: Live Fado Show with Port Wine at Lisboa em Fado★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,097 reviews
- 2Lisbon: Fado Show and Wine inside Medieval Walls★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,819 reviews
- 3Lisbon: Fado Show and Portuguese Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,531 reviews
The Sound of Music, on location
The film was shot around Salzburg in 1964 and the locations are still standing: the Mirabell gardens where they sang Do-Re-Mi, the lake terrace at Leopoldskron, the gazebo now at Hellbrunn, and the abbey at Mondsee used for the wedding. Austrians largely never saw the film. The coaches are almost entirely visitors, and they run to a fixed daily departure.
- 1The Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,129 reviews
- 2Salzburg: Original Sound of Music Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,059 reviews
- 3Salzburg: Hallstatt and Sound of Music Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 522 reviews
Sunday gospel, with the congregation
Harlem churches open their Sunday services to visitors, and the choir is not a performance laid on for you. It is a service, with a band, a preacher and a congregation, and the singing carries the room. Visitors are seated in their own section, cameras stay away, and the whole thing runs longer than a concert would.
- 1NYC: Harlem Hallelujah! Gospel Wednesday Concert★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,638 reviews
- 2New York City: Harlem Gospel Live Music Concert★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,479 reviews
- 3Harlem: Central Harlem Sunday Gospel with Locals★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 499 reviews
Four live music nights that will not wait for you.
Most of this can be sorted from a hotel desk on the day. These four run on performance calendars, seat categories and a boarding time that leaves without you.
- 01NYC: Aladdin the Musical on BroadwayBroadway seats are sold per performance. Weekend evenings for the long-runners go weeks ahead and the cheap seats go first.
- 02NYC: Harlem Hallelujah! Gospel Wednesday ConcertIt is a Sunday service, so there is no Tuesday alternative. The visitor sections are capped and they fill.
- 03New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionThe boat leaves on a timetable and boarding closes well ahead of it. Miss the gangway and the next one is tomorrow.
- 04The Original Sound of Music Tour in SalzburgOne or two departures a day from Mirabellplatz, and the summer coaches fill. The lake locations are an hour out and an hour back.
When the opera houses go dark for summer, the churches keep playing.
Europe’s opera houses run September to June and close for high summer, which is exactly when most visitors arrive. The church and palace concerts do not: Vienna, Prague and Venice put on a chamber programme almost every night of the year, and the festivals fill the rest of July and August. Book the opera house in season and the church in the heat.
By city — where the music is
The latest concert and live show reviews.
Everything added this week →
Verona: Orchestra Concert in the city of Romeo and Giulietta
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Salzburg Super Saver: Hallstatt & Original Sound of Music Tour
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Seoul: Vivaldi Park Winter Ski with Eobi Ice Valley Day Tour
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SEOUL: Gugak – Korean Traditional Music Museum&Concert Tour
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Vienna State Opera House Mozart Concert in Historical Costumes
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STATE OPERA – PRIVATE guided tour (tickets included)
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Alpaca World, Railbike and Vivaldi Park Experiences from Seoul
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New Year’s Baroque Concert at Doria Pamphilj Palace
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Opera Garnier Mysteries Private Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line Entrance
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