Where the bat flutters

Two opera houses perform the most famous of all operettas, Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, over the New Year period: The Vienna Volksoper (December 31 and January 1) and the Vienna State Opera (December 31, January 1, 3 & 6). Rarely has a work with such immediacy left its mark on Vienna like this one. From the premiere in 1874 onwards, the pieces has been performed incredibly often and almost always over New Year's since 1900. Die Fledermaus takes a light-hearted look at the varieties of erotic and social affectation and gets the bourgeois façades dancing, political and social commentaries included.

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New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic

The most famous concert in the world – the New Year’s Concert – takes place on the morning of January 1st every year in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Music Society (preview and New Year’s Eve concert with the same program are held on December 30 and 31). Christian Thielemann will be conducting the first concert of 2024. As always, the program includes works by the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries and represents an expression of pure joie de vivre. You can be there again this year by watching the event on TV in over 90 countries.

A few days before that, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, conducted by Alfred Eschwé, will get the audience in the mood for the New Year with its New Year’s Eve concert at the Vienna Music Society. In addition to waltzes and polkas, there will be rousing orchestral works, grand overtures and vocal delights from operetta and opera (December 28, 29).

The musicians behind the Vienna Ring Ensemble are members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. This chamber orchestra ensemble will perform another classical New Year’s Eve concert in the atmospheric Brahms Hall of the Vienna Music Society. (December 30 & 31)

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Beethoven and Strauss at the Konzerthaus

A densely packed musical New Year’s Eve program makes the Wiener Konzerthaus the place to be – a performance will be held in every concert hall:

• The Strauss Festival Orchestra Vienna will deliver lively Viennese melodies from the Strauss dynasty in its program “Mit Dampf ins neue Jahr!” (December 28 & 29).
• “New Year’s Eve: 101 years of Gerhard Bronner & Georg Kreisler”: For all those who enjoy Viennese humor, but also something a little dark, this concert and reading will strike the right note. (December 28)
• “Franzensfeste. A new Schubertiade”: the East Tyrolean Musicabanda Franui and the duo of Viennese folk singers Die Strottern will be performing music ranging from classical to jazz, folk and revival songs. (December 29)
• Nikolaus Habjan is one of the rare species of artistic whistlers  and can be heard performing with friends as part of his program “Abpfiff 2023” (December 30).
• The Wiener Symphoniker will bring the year to a close with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber (December 30 and 31, January 1).
• Cabaret on New Year’s Eve with Dirk Stermann (“Hallelujahr!”), followed by a duo with Grissemann (“Das Ei ist hart!”) and Gernot Kulis (“Best of 20 Jahre Ö3-Callboy”). (December 31)
• The New Year’s Eve Gala will be a roaring party with Jansoka Ensemble & Friends as they perform “The Big Mulatság Reloaded” (December 31).

Wienerisch and different

Naturally, there are also unusual stage art formats at New Year's: in the crypt of the Peterskirche (Church of St. Peter), the operetta ensemble Oper@Tee thrills in a lively and punchy way with its Fledermaus performance with piano accompaniment (December 28, 30 & 31). Really close to the very small audience.

For the more courageous: the L.E.O – Letztes Erfreuliches Operntheater takes a humorous, entertaining and downright strange approach at the L.E.O. New Year’s Eve Gala, combining opera highlights, chansons, hits and operetta earworms and – watch out! – audience participation. There will also be snacks and drinks (December 31). On January 3 and 4, the L.E.O. will present works by composers celebrating anniversaries in 2024, from Puccini to Bruckner, at its New Year’s Concert 2024.

© L.E.O. Theater

Finding your favorite event

There’s even more happening on Vienna’s stages at the turn of the year – from concerts (Karl Ratzer New Year’s Eve Special at the Porgy & Bess jazz club) to theater (The Magic Flute directed by Nils Strunk and Lukas Schrenk at the Burgtheater, Brecht’s Threepenny Opera at the Theater in der Josefstadt) and musicals (Rock me Amadeus - The Falco Musical and Rebecca). 

Events in Vienna