Mozart in Costume Vienna Guide
The marble statue of Mozart in Vienna's Burggarten, in an 18th-century coat with a hand outstretched, against dark copper-beech foliage

Vienna · Austria

Watch thirty musicians play Mozart in period costume

4.6 (6,249 verified reviews · GetYourGuide)

Overtures, arias and duets from Mozart's operas in wigs and Baroque dress, with Strauss's Blue Danube on the programme.

See open concert dates ↗ From US$76

The hall changes by date, so check which one your evening is in.

The answer, then the detail

Is the costumed Mozart concert in Vienna worth it, or is it a tourist trap?

Worth it for a first live Mozart evening: about thirty musicians in wigs and Baroque dress, with opera singers and soloists, play overtures, arias and duets from Mozart's operas, plus Johann Strauss's Blue Danube and Radetzky March. It is a concert made for visitors, not a staged opera and not a night with the Vienna Philharmonic. The title points to the Golden Hall in the Musikverein, the concert house Theophil Hansen designed, which opened in 1870 according to Wikipedia, but the series plays in more than one hall, so read the address for your date before you book.

Gerlinde Hasenöhrl — I write about Vienna's concert halls and the composers who worked in them, for visitors weighing a night of music against the rest of the city.

Five things to settle first

  1. The hall depends on the date

    This series plays in more than one Vienna hall across the season. The address on your booking for your date is what counts, so never assume the Golden Hall for every evening.

  2. A concert, not an opera

    Expect overtures, arias and duets from Mozart's operas, sung and played in costume. It is not a staged opera with sets and a plot from the first act to the last.

  3. Not the Philharmonic

    The Vienna Philharmonic plays its own concerts, and its New Year's Concert is a separate event. This is a different orchestra, run by its own concert company.

  4. Seats differ a lot

    Seat categories give very different views of the stage. Choose your category in the booking calendar, where each one is described, rather than taking the first one offered.

  5. Dress smart casual

    The concert asks for smart casual clothes. Jeans and trainers are the usual doubt; a jacket or a neat dress removes it.

Length
2 hours.
On stage
About thirty musicians, in costume.
Programme
Mozart's operas, then Strauss.
Dress
Smart casual.

On the programme sheet

Six pieces a Mozart-and-Strauss evening draws on

These are the works the concert's description points to: operas by Mozart, and two Strauss favourites. They are background, not this concert's running order, which may differ from date to date.

  1. The Marriage of Figaro

    An opera buffa in four acts, with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte after Beaumarchais, first staged at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. Mozart conducted the first two performances from the keyboard. Wikipedia notes that Emperor Joseph II first banned the play it came from in Vienna.

    A watercolour of a Vienna square with the old Burgtheater beside a domed palace gate and horse-drawn carriages
    The old Burgtheater beside the Hofburg, where Figaro was first staged

  2. Don Giovanni

    Mozart's second opera with Da Ponte opened in Prague, at what is now the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. Wikipedia adds that Vienna staged it the following year, with less success than Prague had given it.

    The pale neoclassical facade of the Estates Theatre in Prague with columns and a curved front
    The Estates Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni opened

  3. The Magic Flute

    A German-language opera of songs and spoken scenes, a Singspiel, with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It opened on 30 September 1791 in Schikaneder's Vienna theatre, two months before Mozart's death, and proved his last opera.

    A starry blue night sky with a figure on a crescent moon, a stage design for The Magic Flute
    Schinkel's stage design for the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute

  4. Eine kleine Nachtmusik

    A serenade completed in Vienna on 10 August 1787, made for a quintet of strings, though string orchestras often take it on. It was not published until about 1827, long after Mozart died.

    A page of handwritten orchestral score in brown ink on aged paper
    A page of Mozart's own manuscript of Eine kleine Nachtmusik

  5. The Blue Danube

    Composed in 1866 by Johann Strauss II, the waltz was first heard on 15 February 1867 as a choral piece and was received mildly. Strauss's orchestral reworking for the 1867 Paris World's Fair became a great success.

    A decorative printed title page for the waltz On the Banks of the Blue Danube by Johann Strauss
    A printed edition of the Blue Danube waltz

  6. Radetzky March

    Johann Strauss I's march was first performed on 31 August 1848 to celebrate a victory at the Battle of Custoza. Wikipedia describes the clapping custom in concert halls: quiet on the first round of the tune, thunderous on the second.

    A gilded statue of a violinist beneath a white marble arch in a park, with red and white flowerbeds in front
    The Strauss monument in Vienna's Stadtpark

Sources: English Wikipedia, on each of the six works and on the Vienna New Year's Concert.

The room

Which hall will your date be in?

The title names the Golden Hall, but this concert series plays in more than one Vienna hall. What follows is background on the Golden Hall, and a rule for the rest.

Check the venue first
What counts is the address attached to your date in the booking calendar. If it names the Golden Hall, the background below applies. If it names another hall, the music and the costumes are the same series but the room is not.
What Wikipedia says of the Golden Hall
It is the building's Great Hall, a narrow shoebox-shaped room with thick plaster walls, and its acoustics rank with those of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Symphony Hall in Boston, in Wikipedia's wording. The Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert is held there.
The building
The Danish-born architect Theophil Hansen designed it in a neoclassical style, on land that Emperor Franz Joseph I granted during the building of the Ringstrasse. The Vienna Philharmonic has been based there from the opening in 1870.
If your date is elsewhere
Then the gilding is not part of your evening. The two hours of Mozart in costume still are. Decide on that basis, and choose another date if the Golden Hall is what you came for.
The coffered gilded ceiling of a concert hall with painted panels, chandeliers and tall arched windows
The Golden Hall's coffered ceiling
Gilded caryatid figures standing along the balcony of a concert hall below an ornate painted ceiling
Gilded caryatids carry the balcony in the Golden Hall
The pipe organ above the stage of a gilded concert hall with chandeliers and empty chairs on the platform
The organ above the Golden Hall's platform

Concert, opera or Philharmonic night

This concert, an opera or a Philharmonic night?

Costumed Mozart concert
Opera or Philharmonic
Format
Overtures, arias and duets
A whole opera or symphony programme
On stage
About thirty, in wigs
A house orchestra and cast
The room
A hall that depends on the date
The company's own house
Length
2 hours
Set by the work
Programme
Mozart and Strauss
Whatever the season sets
Dress
Smart casual
Varies by house
Oil portrait of the composer Mozart in a red coat with a powdered wig
Mozart in a portrait painted after his death

The composer's city

Mozart in Vienna: five dates

Mozart spent his last ten years in Vienna. These five dates, from Wikipedia, give the city behind the music.

  1. 1781

    He stays

    Visiting Vienna in 1781, Mozart fell out with his Salzburg employer and lost his post. He decided to stay in the city for good.

  2. 1782

    A first Vienna hit

    The opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, first staged on 16 July 1782, was a considerable success, Wikipedia says.

  3. 1786

    Figaro

    The Marriage of Figaro opened at the Burgtheater on 1 May 1786. Mozart conducted the first two performances.

  4. 1787

    Chamber composer

    In December 1787 Emperor Joseph II gave him the part-time post of chamber composer, which required him to write dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal.

  5. 1791

    The last year

    The Magic Flute opened on 30 September 1791. Mozart died at home on 5 December 1791, aged 35.

Bronze relief of a horn, violin and sheet music at the foot of the Mozart monument
Instruments in bronze at the foot of Vienna's Mozart monument

Music or crown jewels

An evening of Mozart in costume or the Habsburg crown jewels: where to spend it?

A jewelled medieval crown with a cross and a pearl-studded arch on a red cushion in a dark display case
The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire in the Imperial Treasury
A courtyard in Vienna's Hofburg with pale yellow walls, a stone staircase and arched doorways
The Swiss Court of the Hofburg, entrance to the Imperial Treasury
Mozart concert
Imperial Treasury
Time of day
An evening
A daytime visit
Setting
A concert hall
A palace museum
What you get
Live music in costume
Regalia and treasures
Dress
Smart casual
Day clothes
Best for
Music lovers
History lovers
Pairs with
Dinner afterwards
The Hofburg or Schönbrunn

Book the evening, then the city

A Mozart evening, a treasury, a cathedral and a palace

The concert is listed first. Beside it sit the Imperial Treasury this page weighs it against, St Stephen's Cathedral with the Dom Museum, and a guided visit to Schönbrunn.

Choose your concert date

Each open evening shows its seat categories and its hall. After booking, the full address and start time reach you in your confirmation.

The costumed Mozart concert

4.6 · 6,249 reviews · From US$76

Two hours of overtures, arias and duets from Mozart's operas, played by about thirty musicians in Baroque costume and wigs with opera singers and soloists, and two Strauss favourites.

Check dates for this ↗

Imperial Treasury, Hofburg

4.4 · 2,030 reviews · From US$18

The Habsburg treasury in the Hofburg Palace, where Wikipedia places the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire; a daytime visit to set against the evening concert.

Check dates for this ↗

St Stephen's and the Dom Museum

4.4 · 2,358 reviews · From US$32

Tickets for St Stephen's Cathedral and the Dom Museum Wien in the old city: a daytime visit for the hours before your concert.

Check dates for this ↗

Schönbrunn Palace and gardens

4.7 · 2,100 reviews · From US$61

A two-hour guided visit to Schönbrunn Palace and its gardens with skip-the-line entry, a morning or afternoon that sits well before a concert evening.

Check dates for this ↗

More to book in Vienna

All Vienna bookings ↗

Practical points

Before you go: vouchers, dress and the way there

A white and green Art Nouveau railway pavilion with a curved roof on Karlsplatz in Vienna
Otto Wagner's pavilion on Karlsplatz
Read the address
Your date's hall is named in the calendar and again in your confirmation. Check it before you plan the journey, the dinner and the dress.
Voucher to tickets
What you buy is a voucher. It can be exchanged for your concert tickets at the orchestra's office before the concert day, so do it on an earlier visit to the centre.
Dress
Smart casual. The hall is a formal room but the ticket does not ask for evening dress.
By U-Bahn
If your date is in the Golden Hall, Wikipedia places it between Karlsplatz and Bösendorferstraße, and describes Karlsplatz as the largest transport hub for Vienna's public transport. Any other address is on your confirmation.
Start time
Start times vary by date; look yours up in the calendar before you book.
Seats
Categories differ in how much of the stage you see. The booking calendar describes each category before you pay.
Children
The page gives no age limit. Two hours of seated listening suits some children and not others, so think about yours.
Before and after
The Imperial Treasury and Schönbrunn make a day of it, as the cards on this page show. Plan dinner for after the music, not before.

Background for the careful buyer

Six guides: the concert, its music, its city

  1. Start here Costumed Mozart: worth it? Is the costumed Mozart concert in Vienna worth it, or a tourist trap? What the two hours hold, who enjoys it, which hall your date is in and the seats. Read this first →
  2. Compare Mozart or crown jewels? An evening of Mozart in costume or the Habsburg crown jewels: where to spend it? Time of day, setting, pace, dress and how to fit both into one Vienna visit. Read this first →
  3. Plan Which hall is yours? The costumed Mozart concert plays in more than one Vienna hall across the season. How to check your date's venue and what the Golden Hall is. Read this first →
  4. Music Mozart and Strauss pieces Mozart operas, a serenade and two Strauss favourites: the background to the music a costumed Vienna concert draws on, with the history of each. Read this first →
  5. History Mozart's Vienna years Mozart's ten years in Vienna in five dates, from the 1781 dismissal to the Magic Flute and his death in 1791, to set the concert in its city. Read this first →
  6. Plan Dress, vouchers, arrival Practical points for the costumed Mozart concert: smart casual dress, swapping your voucher for tickets, reading the hall address and the way in. Read this first →

FAQ

Before you buy a voucher

Is the costumed Mozart concert in Vienna worth it, or is it a tourist trap?

Worth it for a first live Mozart evening: about thirty musicians in wigs and Baroque dress, with singers and soloists, play overtures, arias and duets, plus Strauss's Blue Danube and Radetzky March. It is made for visitors, not a full opera or a Philharmonic concert.

Will I be in the Golden Hall?

Not necessarily. The series plays in more than one Vienna hall across the season, and the address attached to your date in the calendar tells you which one is yours. The title mentions the Golden Hall, but never assume it for every date.

Is this the Vienna Philharmonic?

Not at all: the Vienna Philharmonic plays its own concerts, and its New Year's Concert is a separate event held in the Golden Hall, as Wikipedia records. This concert is played by another orchestra and sold by its own concert company.

Is it a full opera?

Not an opera: a concert of overtures, arias and duets from Mozart's operas, with opera singers and soloists, plus two Strauss pieces. There are no full acts, sets or plot from first scene to last.

What should I wear?

Smart casual. A jacket or a neat dress is enough; the ticket does not ask for evening wear.

How do I get my tickets?

You book a voucher online. Exchange it for your concert tickets at the orchestra's office before the concert day; your confirmation says where.

Which seats are best?

Categories differ a lot in view of the stage. Read each category's description in the booking calendar and choose by what you can see, not by the order they are listed in.

Who runs this site?

This guide is independent: nobody at the hall, the orchestra or the organiser has a say in it, and it takes no bookings itself. You book with GetYourGuide.

What is in the programme?

Overtures, arias and duets from Mozart's operas, plus Johann Strauss's Blue Danube and Radetzky March. The exact pieces can differ by date, so none is promised.

Can I see the Habsburg crown jewels the same day?

Yes, they are a daytime visit and the concert is an evening. The Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg Palace is one of the other bookings on this page.

Wigs, arias and a Strauss waltz: know which hall you are booking.

Choose your Mozart evening ↗
See open concert datesCheck the hall for your date