The keys to an entertaining evening

You can immerse yourself in its world in advance in a variety of ways.

Our Stage24 service offers videos, interviews, and fascinating articles relating to the performance.

You’ll also find a wealth of background material, such as photos, playlists, trailers and performance-specific cast sheets on each production page.

The programme booklet, published on the day of the premiere, is a comprehensive information package, which includes a synopsis of the story, background articles, and facts about the creative team. You can buy it at the Opera House as you arrive at the performance or at the Opera Shop at your convenience.

Our Opera&Ballet mobile app contains a handy Pocket Guide with insights into the evening’s cast, a synopsis of the story, trailers, and music to get you in the mood for the performance. You’ll have access to the Pocket Guide once you’ve bought a ticket to a Main Stage opera or ballet performance. The Pocket Guide can be found in the My Events tab of the app.

Arriving in good time is a great start for the evening, as it gives you time to get in the mood for the performance. You will also be able to enjoy pre-show refreshments from the Opera Restaurant if you wish. We recommend arriving at the Opera house no later than 15 minutes before the start of the performance. The doors of the Opera House generally open 1.5 hours before the performance starts. The service counters of the Opera Restaurant are open and pre-performance refreshments are laid out as soon as the doors open. We recommend ordering refreshments in advance.

Arriving late or leaving during the performance

Latecomers are not admitted to the auditorium until the interval if the performance has already started. This is to avoid disrupting the experience for both the audience and artists. We recommend arriving at the Opera house no later than 15 minutes before the start of the performance. For the same reason, leaving the auditorium during the performance is discouraged. In the event that you must leave, you can only return after the interval. Please ask our lobby personnel to assist you.

You’ll find more information about arriving to the Opera House here.

The cloakroom at the Opera House is a free service included in your visit. Please note that large backpacks and bags or other bulky items cannot be taken to the auditorium for reasons of fire safety. Your bag should not exceed the dimensions of A3 size (width 42 cm, height 30 cm, and depth 16 cm). Please keep the bag on your lap or on your seat. You can rest assured your personal belongings are well looked after at our cloakroom.

Please keep in mind that there are always people in the audience and on the stage who are sensitive to fragrances. Kindly take others into consideration when putting on perfume or aftershave. Unfortunately we are unable to completely ban fragrances in any of our performances at the moment.

Tickets and proof of concession are checked at the entrance to the auditorium. You can also show the ticket on your mobile phone screen.

Please take your ticket out in good time and ensure you show the correct document with a QR code. Please note that the order confirmation is not a ticket.

Your tickets will be emailed to you from the address liput[at]opera.fi. If you’ve lost your ticket, you can find it by signing in to your customer account. You can show the ticket to the staff directly from your customer account under the Upcoming performances tab by clicking the Show ticket button.

You can also email the ticket to yourself again from your customer account. Just sign in to our online store, go to Upcoming performances and select the performance.

If you’ve downloaded our mobile app, you can also find and share the tickets in the My events tab.

Your exact seat number is displayed on your ticket, along with guidance on whether to enter the auditorium from the left or right side. Row numbers are found at the end of each row, and seats have numbers. You can check the location of your seat beforehand on the seat map.

The entrance to the Stalls is located downstairs from the Main Foyer. The 1st Balcony is on the same level as the Main Foyer. The 2nd Balcony is accessed via lift or stairs and the 3rd Balcony only via stairs.

The total duration of each production is different. The length of the interval is approximately 30 minutes, which is included in the duration of the performance. Most performances have one interval, but some have two and others have none. You can see the number of intervals on each production page.

The photographing or sound or video recording of any performance is strictly forbidden for copyright reasons.

Taking photos or recording the curtain call and posting photos from our foyers on social media is positively encouraged, however. Capture the ambience and tag your photo with @oopperabaletti so we can find it, too.

Kindly ensure you don’t share pictures of other visitors without their permission.

We perform most works in their original language. To help you follow the plot, there are surtitles above the stage, usually in Finnish, Swedish and English.

Every year we interpret one opera production in sign language. Further information about productions interpreted in sign language is published on the Accessibility page and in our social media.

If you’re not sure when to applaud, simply follow the lead of others in the audience. At opera and ballet performances in Finland, the arrival of the conductor is typically met with applause, as are the beginning and end of the performance. A particularly impressive aria or solo dance also warrants a round of applause.

At the end of the performance, the applause can go on for quite some time, so be prepared to clap to your heart’s content. A standing ovation and a shout of “Bravo” or “Bravissimo” are also perfectly acceptable ways to show your appreciation.

Please contact our concierge-on-call regarding lost property on +358 (9) 4030 2306. Lost property is delivered biweekly to the Suomen Löytötavarapiste lost property service. The Finnish National Opera and Ballet is not responsibility for visitors’ personal items.

When you buy tickets in our online store, we will always ask for your contact details. This is in order to ensure that we can reach you if necessary, for example if we’re forced to cancel a performance.

If your contact details change, please update them in your account in our online store or inform our customer services. We strongly discourage buying tickets from brokers. Not only are tickets more economical in our online store, but you will also get them refunded if the performance is cancelled.

Please read our privacy policy for more information.

You can read answers to our most frequently asked questions here.