The top 20 most often staged operas include seven comic operas. Each season, the Metropolitan Opera in New York includes at least two and often three of these works, as does the Los Angeles Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, and for the 2009-2010 season, the National Opera Theater in Tokyo is performing “The Elixir of Love.”
The Center for the Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas, which includes the new state-of-the-art Winspear Opera House, has been under construction since 2006 and will open for its premier season in the fall of 2009. Quality productions are not limited to grand opera houses. Smaller settings such as the Hawaii Opera Theater in Honolulu also provide world-class performances in a more intimate, and for some less intimidating, location.
With so many performance settings available around the world, the opportunity for travelers to enjoy live opera while on holiday is limited only by planning. Tickets for the most popular opera buffa are frequently sold out well in advance, so to avoid disappointment, pre-purchasing event tickets is a good idea.