While in Lviv we decided to see an opera in the Lviv Opera house. We purchased tickets a few days ahead of time and had excellent seats. The inside is beautiful old opera house built probably over a hundred years ago. Well worth the experience.
This building is one of those you just have to see when you in Lviv, but go inside, because outside it is nit so beautiful.
It cannot be compared, for the building, with the Odessa opera house but it is still very nice. The quality of the performances is of a very good standard but of course, with no comparison with the Mariinsky in St Petersburg.
The architecture was quite wonderful, one can go every few steps to capture gorgeous pictures. The seats were not overly comfortable but this should not be overshadowed by the spectacular setting.The salon room should not be missed.
We went to a 200th anniversary of T.Shevchenko, and it was absolutely amazing. It wasn't packed at all, and the theater seemed to be a bit small, nonetheless it was an amazing performance, and the opera hall is ABSOLUTELY beautiful inside. Tickets are pretty cheap, and you can usually buy them the day of :)
So old fashioned and atmospheric.very cheap and worth queuing up for tickets.Still manually done so takes forever..but for a few pounds a great treat.
I enquired as to whether there was any opera on that day and was told there wasn't but there was a tour I could take at my own leisure for 10uah (45p??) The building is grand, colourful and historical and is kept in fantastic condition.The tour allows you into the main hall on the top balcony where you can look down at all the sears, an impressive sight! Definitely worth it if you have a spare hour.
Visited June 2013. The Lviv Opera is a elegant piece of Ukrainian architecture built in the beginning of the 20th century. It's a cultural and national monument to all of Ukraine. Unfortunately, my friends and I came on a day where they were performing a graduation ceremony in the theater. We stayed for an hour or so to take photos in the lobby, and view the rooms and hallways before we left. The only downside was that the building isn't open generally unless there's a performance, which seem to occur far and few in between. The front of the building has a sign of the performances, dates and times which list 2 weeks in advance.According to a schedule I had saw:Tue: 6pm-8pm*Wed: 6pm-8pm*Thu: 6pm-8pm*Fri: 12pm-2pm**Check performance run-time. Typically 2 hours minimum, and can run as long as 3 hours.
This is definitely a must do - even if you are not especially fond of ballet or opera ( why not try!) as the 1901 built in a neo- renaissance style building is spectacular both externally and internally. Thus far all programmes for the performances have included English translations.
Surprise to find an excellent restaurant and bar in the basement of the Opera and Ballet House. Door is around the corner on the right facing the entrance. Go down steps, cross the water and enjoy a fine meal. We enjoyed a string quartet who played extremely well. Rockoko played both classic and modified jazz/rock.