Is an opera at the Teatro Regio worth it?

Per hour, the tour costs €24; the cheapest opera seat costs €10 for the whole evening. Even a good stalls seat at several times the minimum buys more than the tour does. The one bad deal on the list is the package: ask the box office for the same performance first.

The Regio is a horseshoe: stalls (platea), four tiers of boxes (palchi, 112 in all) and the gallery at the top, the loggione. Its pages name the categories but, on the pages we loaded, give only the starting price. How the view works in any house of this shape:

• Stalls: a straight view of the stage and the best sound balance. Four places are reserved for wheelchair users.
• Boxes: sold by the seat. The front chairs see the stage; the chairs behind them, especially in side boxes, may see half of it. Ask the box office whether you are buying a front place before you pay a box price.
• Gallery and loggione: the cheapest seats and the steepest angle, with the regulars who decide whether a tenor has earned his applause.

Our advice for a first visit: if the budget allows, a front box seat in a central box, or the stalls. If not, the loggione is a perfectly good night out, and some would say the most Parmesan one.

The top gallery has its own entrance and a reputation that travels: its regulars are among the most demanding opera audiences in Italy, and singers who fall short in Verdi can hear about it before the curtain falls. That is the house's character, not a risk to you. Applaud when the gallery does, stay quiet when it goes quiet, and you will be fine.

For a first opera, Nabucodonosor (October 3, 11, 18 and 24) is the safer choice: it has the chorus "Va, pensiero" and a straightforward story. Alzira is a rarity staged at the festival only once before, in 2002, and suits people who already know their Verdi. The October 17 Alzira starts at 6 p.m., which leaves time for dinner afterwards. Full dates are on our Festival Verdi page.

1. Book with the Regio. Online from each show page on the theater's website, or at the box office, Strada Garibaldi 16/a, +39 0521 203999, [email protected].
2. Know the box office hours. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10 a.m.–1 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday also 4–6 p.m.; on performance days it opens 90 minutes before the show.
3. Ask for the seat plan. Before you pay a box price, confirm front or rear place.
4. Use the youth offers. Under-30 rehearsals cost €10; under-35s get 50% off stalls and boxes in the winter Opera Season (the Regio does not state it for the festival).
5. Stay close. Hotel Torino and Hotel Stendhal are a few minutes' walk from the theater.

Dress: we found no published dress code. Italians dress up for premieres and festival nights; smart casual is fine, shorts and flip-flops are not. Booking details are on our opera night guide.

Only when no performance fits your dates, or you are travelling with children too young for a full evening. The tour shows the foyer, the auditorium from the stalls and boxes, and the Ridotto upstairs, in Italian or English. The theater warns that tours may be suspended during rehearsals, which in festival season means often, and its visit page still showed July hours in late September. Phone 0521 203995 before you go. Holding a ticket from Toscanini's birthplace cuts the tour to €8; the music walk links the two.