How to Dress Up for the Opera

[Sator]

This is a guide for going to the opera as a complete experience. I will try to hand on as much practical wisdom as I can impart. Above all I hope it has something for everyone young and old, first-timers and seasoned opera goers alike. I hope it will encourage some people who have never been to the opera to give it a try, because the most important gift I want to hand on is how to thoroughly enjoy yourself. I should also add that what is written here is also perfectly applicable to classical ballet as well.

I have also assumed that readers are familiar with black or white tie (also known as semi-formal and formal dress respectively). For details on how to correctly wear evening dress I suggest the search engine.

The first thing is what to wear.



Black Tie

Both I and our gracious host Andy agree that black tie is the way to go irrespective of whether it is opening night or not. It is perfectly correct and the weight of tradition is behind you. However, opera goers have sadly been dressing increasingly casually over the years and many people will turn up looking like they are going to the movies (or worse). The best way to look completely natural in black tie is to accompany an elegantly dressed lady. There is definitely safety in numbers, with two well-dressed opera goers being the minimal number. However, if you go in a well dressed group, all the better! Go on: start a trend!

White Tie

The most correct occasion for this would be for an opening night. However, if you had a famous visiting opera company such as the Vienna State Opera or Kirov Theatre giving a limited number of performances of a major production, you could probably extend this to any night.



Either way, whether formal or semi-formal evening dress, the most important thing to remember is that the reason men’s evening attire is either black or midnight blue is to provide a backdrop against which your lady can shine. I would encourage you to plan with your partner well ahead of time and find her a suitably stunning evening dress to wear for the occasion. That way you can then insist on wearing something that would suitably flatter her – namely proper evening dress. If she prefers to wear a rather plain cocktail dress, it would be best to tone it down by wearing semi-formal dress, so as to avoid upstaging her. Fortunately, most women can easily be persuaded to dress up to look absolutely stunning. Formal dress requires that your partner also look suitably formally attired, that way you complement and flatter each other to the utmost.

In the past, there was an element of fierce competitiveness about dressing for the opera. The entrance into the opera house of the most famous belle would cause the entire opera house to fall into an awed hush, with all opera glasses trained on her to see what latest fashions she and the beaux on her arm were sporting. Fortunately for us, today the fact that 99% of people take little care in how they dress for the evening means that with only a little effort your lady can be made to feel like a 19th century belle of the opera. And even if one or two women do dress up well, they are inevitably hampered from reaching their full potential by a slobbishly dressed partner, who totally undermines all her best efforts. Armed with the sort of dress know-how AAAC can provide, you can easily find yourselves the most stunningly elegant couple in the entire opera house.

Here are some examples of how you might want to dress:



















Personally, I think it is important to steer your partner away from wearing black (or any dark solid). It just looks a bit funereal when you are both in black. It looks much better when you are allowed to function as the traditional dark backdrop to the more brightly toned woman.





Notice how in the last picture the gentleman is carrying the lady’s theatre coat. Here is a particularly extravagant example:

IMG]http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7240/eveningcoatc1900je8.jpg[/IMG]


How to Avoid Ever Being Mistaken for an Usher

1. Always walk arm in arm with a beautifully dressed lady
2. Always wear patent leather opera pumps
3. Always wear elegant studs on your shirt (mine have little pearls on them) - add waistcoat studs to that for white tie.
4. Always wear a hat (a collapsible opera hat with white tie and a Homburg with black tie) - and make a flourish of tipping your hat with a little bow whenever you greet people.
5. Always wear a boutonnière
6. Always carry your partner’s overcoat for her (even if you hand yours in to the cloak room) in case she becomes cold
7. Always carry the programme notes under your arm
8. Always make sure your champagne glass is full and you are seen drinking from it!

How to Book Tickets

Easy. Go on line and book your tickets. If you are travelling then be aware that only in English speaking countries will you find English subtitles. Famous opera companies:

Covent Garden (London)
English National Opera (London)
The Bastille Opera (Paris)
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin State Opera)
Vienna State Opera
The Dresden Opera
The New York Metropolitan Opera (The Met)
La Scala Milan
Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Kirov Theatre, St Petersburg

Of course, there are many opera companies others worthy of mention, but I think these are the most legendary ones. I am probably biased but I would also give the Sydney Opera House an honourable mention, if only for its world heritage listed architecture. Your lady will swoon as you sip champagne looking out onto the harbour under the stars.



The Dresden Opera House is also architecturally breathtaking:



How to Pick the Right Opera

I hear sad stories of people sitting through operas having everything go over their heads. To avoid this I suggest that beginners choose from the following list of operas:

1. Carmen by Georges Bizet: perennially the most accessible opera ever written. You will recognise many of the famous ‘numbers’ and will walk out singing them too.
2. La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini: the ultimate opera tear jerker. Make sure you have an extra hanky so she doesn’t borrow your pocket square.
3. La Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Easily his most singable opera and a real charmer at that too.
4. Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss Sr. Strictly speaking more operatta than opera but who cares. Good luck if you can get tickets to this at any opera house because they will sell like hot cakes. You will waltz out of the opera house.
5. La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. His most popular opera these days.

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko:



In the old days people would buy piano reductions of famous arias and sing them at the piano before they went to see the opera. It still pays to familiarise yourself with the music before the big night. I suggest you search Amazon for the recorded CD version with the best reviews and share it with your partner you are going with. At the very least buy a highlights CD.

I am sure I have offended someone by leaving out their pet favourite but I think this is still a great beginners list. Trust me, I have left out plenty of my own favourites too!

Eating Out

Operas have a bad way of starting at awkward times. Seven PM is just such an awkward time. Book your table for early eg 5:00 PM for a 7PM start and only have a light lunch. Make sure your place is within short walking distance to the opera house so you aren’t late to the performance. Fortunately, where there are good opera houses, there are also good restaurants. For example, there is a restaurant right inside the Sydney Opera House and a couple looking out onto to it as well.

Don’t whatever you do swallow down fast food wearing your tail coat five minutes before the performance. Plan your day well and you both find it all a magical and romantic experience you will never forget.

Well, I hope this has tempted you to take your lady out for an evening at the opera. Some forum members here complain of a lack of opportunity to wear evening dress - now there can be no excuse!

[alaric]

Brilliant (and a heck of a lot of work!). Thank you.

I find I pretty much already follow your suggestions. And yes Opera is grand theatre on the stage as well as in the audience (or should be anyway).

My experience so far is mostly in American Opera Houses, though I have been to the Mariinsky Theatre (which is opening it's 225th season on the 16th). I have been there mostly for the ballet, but did see Ruslan Y Ludmilla and Prince Igor. Hopefully, I will be going back in October, plans are a bit amorphous as yet.

alaric

[TMMKC]

Excellent work, Sator. Thanks for the insights.

[alaric]

I passed along your photo to the lady with whom I generally go to the opera (who also, seriously, likes to dress up). She fell in love (not with me, with the coat) I am quite certain the phone lines are overheating with her trying to find a similar fabric (she has threatened to embroider the flowers herself, if she can't find a suitable fabric.)

This ought to be fun.

alaric

[red96]

This is a fantastic guide, thanks for the comprehensive recommendations.

I imagine that I will never be courageous enough to try out opera pumps, but just reading your notes got me thinking about looking for what's coming to town...Thanks!

[Sator]

I passed along your photo to the lady with whom I generally go to the opera (who also, seriously, likes to dress up). She fell in love (not with me, with the coat) I am quite certain the phone lines are overheating with her trying to find a similar fabric (she has threatened to embroider the flowers herself, if she can't find a suitable fabric.)

This ought to be fun.

alaric

Of course you do realise that if your lady is wearing that, you have to wear white tie don't you?

Here are a couple of more shots of this coat from the Victorian and Albert Museum in London:

[Romana1911]

I hate to disagree, but as someone who has patronized the MET (a reasonably reputable opera house) over the last fifteen years or so, you WILL look ridiculous wearing white tie to any event. Having attended "formal galas" at opera houses throughout America, I have never seen anyone wear white tie (aside from perhaps the ushers). I am less aware of what may be acceptable in Europe, but I am quite positive that in the USA you will look absurd. In the best of worlds we would be able to wear white tie to a formal event; sadly, this is not the case, and doing so would ruin rather than engender our search for elegance. If 95% of patrons wear black tie to a formal gala, you are doing no service to yourself or to some higher sartorial calling by under or over-dressing. I would argue that wearing white tie is even worse insofar as it is blatantly out of line and thus mildly disrespectful. Similarly, if 98% percent of patrons wear, at most, a suit to a typical evening performance, you will look strange in black tie. This is not elegance. If you decide to dine before the performance, you will also look strange wearing a dinner jacket in any NY resturant (how sad), though this is a different issue altogether... To sum it up, black tie for galas, suit for regular evening performances. Please. We must contextualize our sartorial aspirations within the realities of an environment not condusive to our idealized concepts of what "formal" and "semi-formal" mean. Sure, white tie is "formal," but at least from what I've seen in NY this is not, and cannot, if you aspire to elegance, be the case.

[Sator]

It is inevitable that I was going to get a reactionary post and this issue of dressing up for the opera has ignited passionate debate in the past. That's fine by me, and contrasting opinions are certainly most welcome. Then again, I am personally very much against lounge suits as erstatz evening dress. There are a few of us around here who do wear dinner jackets to restaurants.

I am perpetually amazed that people have this deep Angst that dressing well will grievously offend others. However, in my personal experience reactions are always extremely positive. People are extremely flattered that you have taken the trouble.

Then again I think lounge suits are really only suitable as beach and resort wear anyway, so what do you think I am going to say?

[anglophile23]

Wonderful guide. Now I have to find black tie on a student's budget.

For the record, I have seen black tie worn by operagoers here in Memphis. Only one or two, but it just shows what still is acceptible.

[Kav]

Active duty military wear full dress uniforms with miniature medals. The only exception would be the light opera H.M.S. Pinafore if in naval service. Attending a full season in 1977 at San Francisco, I was gifted the use of prime seating by a retired Admiral when he was absent or had a open spot. I had one lady make a crack about my uniform. I simply replied ' Why, Margaret! Mrs Dumont! It is so good to see you again! In fact, standing in front of the stage, your all I can see." I bought my secondhand tux soon after.

[augustin]

My experience: Lots of black tie in Munich. Surprisingly, less so in Vienna (but what a wedding cake of an interior).

[MarcDavidMiller]

Brilliant (and a heck of a lot of work!). Thank you.
...I have been to the Mariinsky Theatre (which is opening it's 225th season on the 16th). I have been there mostly for the ballet, but did see Ruslan Y Ludmilla and Prince Igor. Hopefully, I will be going back in October, plans are a bit amorphous as yet.
alaric

Borodin's Prince Igor is, to me, the most beautiful opera ever staged. I saw the production at the Mariinsky in 2002 (and in Irkutsk the year before). When I am in St Petersburg during the White Nights I usually see at least one opera a day. (I am in the travel business focusing on Russia and the former Soviet Union, and we have even bought apartments for clients just to attend the White Nights Festival!).

That said, as much as I would like to wear my cape from Capas Sesena over a tuxedo, I would look ridiculous showing up in black tie (forget about white tie) at the Mariinsky (or the Bolshoi) unless there was a ball after the opera. Also, I have been to countless performances by the Kirov at the Met (War and Piece, The Gambler, Semyon Kotka, the Ring Cycle...) and I can count on one hand the number of men I have seen in black tie over the years--including people who are dining with Maestro Gergiev, Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and others after the performance.

Alaric, if you are going to be in Moscow in October contact me--my wife has two openings at museums in Moscow in October and November (our family has one of the world's largest collections of Russian contemporary art).

The other recommendations are quite good for the new (and old) opera goer. One note: The Kirov Opera is a company affiliated with the Mariinsky Theatre; it is not another stage in St. Petersburg.

[alaric]

Sator, thank you for the additional photos. She will be thrilled.

MarcDavidMiller, thank you, if I think I'll be able to get down to Moscow I will definitely let you know. I have always been a great fan of Russian art, particularly 19th and early 20th century (Anton Ivanov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilia Repin, Apollinarii Goravsky, etc.), but I am now getting into the amazing poster art of the Soviet era. I have only recently realized that the Russians are to poster art what the earlier German were to typefaces.

alaric

[MarcDavidMiller]

If any forum members are in St. Petersburg right now, they can catch the last days of "Shimon Okshteyn", a show my wife's foundation organized at the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum (I think it is coming down 10 September).

There will be a show in October and in November in Moscow, and another in January in New York.

[Good Old Sledge]

Sator,
Thank you so much for the effort that went into this post and for the information passed along therein. Though I have broadened my horizons quite a bit, I am at the core a pretty simple farm boy and while I want to undertake more cultural expositions, I am frequently a bit bashful and unsure how to go about them. Armed with this new lesson, one more seemingly inpenetrable cultural fortress has been opened to me.
If you can save just one Philistine...

[SilkCity]

Bravo; great show Sator!

2 points to add:

1. I like to have a bit afterwards, especially at a fine
restaurant to strut the finery...as it were!!!

2. My favorite house in the world in Teatro San Carlo in Naples.
Beautiful house and, of course, the hometown of Caruso!

SC

RIP Luciano--the greatest voice since Enrico C.

[Capt Ron]

I hate to disagree, but as someone who has patronized the MET (a reasonably reputable opera house) over the last fifteen years or so, you WILL look ridiculous wearing white tie to any event. Having attended "formal galas" at opera houses throughout America, I have never seen anyone wear white tie (aside from perhaps the ushers). I am less aware of what may be acceptable in Europe, but I am quite positive that in the USA you will look absurd. In the best of worlds we would be able to wear white tie to a formal event; sadly, this is not the case, and doing so would ruin rather than engender our search for elegance. If 95% of patrons wear black tie to a formal gala, you are doing no service to yourself or to some higher sartorial calling by under or over-dressing. I would argue that wearing white tie is even worse insofar as it is blatantly out of line and thus mildly disrespectful. Similarly, if 98% percent of patrons wear, at most, a suit to a typical evening performance, you will look strange in black tie. This is not elegance. If you decide to dine before the performance, you will also look strange wearing a dinner jacket in any NY resturant (how sad), though this is a different issue altogether... To sum it up, black tie for galas, suit for regular evening performances. Please. We must contextualize our sartorial aspirations within the realities of an environment not condusive to our idealized concepts of what "formal" and "semi-formal" mean. Sure, white tie is "formal," but at least from what I've seen in NY this is not, and cannot, if you aspire to elegance, be the case.

When I wore black-tie to the Opera, it was because my date and I were the only couple in the audience. We wanted our first opera together to be special and romantic. The entire opera was a special performance performed soley for our viewing pleasure. I could not stop admiring Stacy throughout the entire show. Prior to the opera we were also the only couple in the restaurant, it was opened just for us.
The morning after the opera, Stacy mentioned that we were lucky to get seated so quickly in the restaurant because it was so filled with fellow opera goers and mentioned meeting some of her co-workers at the opera. I could have sworn we were the only couple there... and that's why I wear black-tie to the opera.

[Canadian]

I've never been to the opera, but I am a frequent theatre goer and I usually get tickets to every musical in town. At one mid-summer event in the 40C weather we get here, I wore a seersucker suit and was the best dressed individual in the theatre. I've worn black suits and black tie to winter functions, and I have to say, you just feel better about the whole experience if you dress like your counterparts of prior ages would have done so.

I'd imagine black tie is having a resurgance. Visit any high school prom and you'll see a number of custom made DJs and waistcoat sets.

My DJ cost me 30CDN on Ebay, although I now have several, it remains my favorite and most appealing.

Tom

[Capt Ron]

and I have to say, you just feel better about the whole experience if you dress like your counterparts of prior ages would have done so.

Tom

Tom please use the "I" word. Take ownership, you will be a better man for it.

"I just feel better" & "if I dress like my counter parts"

Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine that I often catch myself committing as well.

[Bog]

There are a few of us around here who do wear dinner jackets to restaurants.

Hear! Hear! When you wear dinner jackets to restaurants, what are you going to wear when you are really going out? Like to the opera? The answer is obvious, and has been provided with much grace by Sator in this thread. Thank you Sator!

1. Always walk arm in arm with a beautifully dressed lady.

Don't worry Sator. If a man dresses as you advise, he will soon find one meeting his eye.

[Capt Ron]

Don't worry Sator. If a man dresses as you advise, he will soon find one meeting his eye.

Do you mean another man or a woman "meeting his eye"?


That's why I got that black JABa velvet dj for $59! Restaurant wear.
Out to dinner we go, Sator's treat!

[Bog]

Do you mean another man or a woman "meeting his eye"?

A woman. ("1. Always walk arm in arm with a beautifully dressed lady.")

[YYZ-LHR]

I hate to disagree, but as someone who has patronized the MET (a reasonably reputable opera house) over the last fifteen years or so, you WILL look ridiculous wearing white tie to any event. Having attended "formal galas" at opera houses throughout America, I have never seen anyone wear white tie (aside from perhaps the ushers). I am less aware of what may be acceptable in Europe, but I am quite positive that in the USA you will look absurd. In the best of worlds we would be able to wear white tie to a formal event; sadly, this is not the case, and doing so would ruin rather than engender our search for elegance. If 95% of patrons wear black tie to a formal gala, you are doing no service to yourself or to some higher sartorial calling by under or over-dressing. I would argue that wearing white tie is even worse insofar as it is blatantly out of line and thus mildly disrespectful. Similarly, if 98% percent of patrons wear, at most, a suit to a typical evening performance, you will look strange in black tie. This is not elegance. If you decide to dine before the performance, you will also look strange wearing a dinner jacket in any NY resturant (how sad), though this is a different issue altogether... To sum it up, black tie for galas, suit for regular evening performances. Please. We must contextualize our sartorial aspirations within the realities of an environment not condusive to our idealized concepts of what "formal" and "semi-formal" mean. Sure, white tie is "formal," but at least from what I've seen in NY this is not, and cannot, if you aspire to elegance, be the case.

All of the above applies equally at Covent Garden. For ordinary performances, there's rarely DJ in sight, much less a tailcoat. In the upper tiers, in particular, one feels perfectly comfortable in a sport jacket.

For Glyndebourne, male uniform is a DJ without vest or cummerbund. Exciting bowties abound.

Go with the flow.

[Miket61]

Similarly, if 98% percent of patrons wear, at most, a suit to a typical evening performance, you will look strange in black tie.

If all of your friends jumped off the Syndey Harbour Bridge at 5:30, would they be late to the opera?

[Carlton-Browne]

For Glyndebourne, male uniform is a DJ without vest or cummerbund. Exciting bowties abound.

I was about to say that you had missed Glyndebourne and the other one of note is the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland where black tie is probably worn by 90% of the male attendees.

I would also say that Don Giovanni and Magic Flute are missing from the beginner's choice. And definitely don't take a girl to Pelleas and Melisande for her first opera