Palermo’s Teatro Massimo is an ideal place to see opera on a grand scale, at modest prices

Opera is a global art form, with more than 1,000 major companies around the world and grand opera houses scattered across every continent but Antarctica. These days the lead singers are as likely to be from Africa or China as Europe. Italy, however, still has quite a proprietary relationship with opera.

It was invented here, after all, and many of the favourites in the repertoire are sung in Italian. Italians feel a sense of ownership when it comes to the most popular arias; my grandfather used to belt out Puccini like other people did pop songs. Even small towns in Italy have opera houses. In the cities, they’re usually an architectural centrepiece, on par with … and often next to … palaces. The biggest of them all is in Palermo.

The Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy, and the third largest in Europe after Paris and Vienna. When it opened in the 1890s it was intended to hold up to 3,000 people in its seven tiers and ground floor. Despite the cavernous proportions, it’s reckoned to have perfect acoustics. These days a desire for more personal space and fire safety has reduced audience size to just 1,381. That’s 875 fewer than London’s Royal Opera house.

The smaller audience lets you luxuriate in more elbow room, and the company here still puts on productions on a traditionally grand scale. Yet tickets at Teatro Massimo are far cheaper than in London. We splurged on £120 a ticket for amazing seats in the stalls (the ground floor of the auditorium). We were on the horizontal aisle that divided the front and back blocks of seating, so had no heads in front of us for 10 feet and the ability to stretch our legs full length during the production. Instead of your typical flip-bottom theatrical seating, the stalls are all individual bucket-shaped arm chairs in classic style with generous upholstery. I’ve never been more comfortable, and rarely had a better view, in an opera house. The same location in London would cost more than £250, and in our recent experience any seats cheaper than £170 put your so high up, or give you such restricted sightlines, they’re not worth buying. At Teatro Massimo, had we wanted to spend less, I could have bought seats with clear views in the lower tiers for £60.

It’s the escalating price of London tickets, paired with the increasingly streamlined sets and choruses there, that has us looking to the continent for more of our opera experiences. The Teatro Massimo didn’t disappoint. In addition to those comfy, excellent value seats we got an excellent production of Turandot. None of those modern, cost-slashing stagings here. We were served up architecturally impressive sets, dazzling costumes and a full chorus.

Admittedly, I was somewhat perplexed by the set design. Turandot is set in Ancient China, something conveyed perfectly in this production by a chorus in identical, earth-coloured uniforms standing in seried ranks in pits built into the stage floor. Just like the terra cotta warriors. But the architecture told us we were in the ancient Middle East, with double-bull columns framing the palace. The Emperor was dressed as the Shah of Iran, circa 1950, while the bloodthirsty princess rocked a Grace Kelly in ballgowns vibe. Our victorious prince at least dressed Chinese, though more Kyng Fu monk that romantic hero. Oddest of all were the three advisors, each wearing a different shockingly bright primary colour and dressed in a series of hip hop mogul designs.

Some little girls turned up occasionally, obviously projections of Turandot’s memories, implying that her willingness to send all of her failed suitors to execution was the result of childhood sexual abuse rather than Puccini’s story of some wronged ancestress. Later, the production had Turandot seeing a vision of the slave girl she’d tortured to death as a trigger point to her character transformation at the end of the opera.

I don’t think this mash-up of concepts was entirely successful. They were just trying too many disparate things and probably would have delivered a stronger whole if they’d stuck to one big idea. But it was great to look at, all of the performers were solid and it’s always a thrill to hear “Nessun Dorma” performed live, in its original context. Most memorably in this production, the little girls and the ghost suggested what was going on in Turandot’s head, thereby giving some sort of logic to one of the most ludicrous endings in all of opera. Puccini might not have written it, but it worked.

Beyond the production itself, part of the fun of going to a new opera house is exploring the building. While its amphitheatre is a classically grand space .. all white and gold with plush red upholstery and frolicking gods painting on the ceiling … the foyers are actually a bit gloomy. The colour schemes out here are browns, beiges, dusky pinks and dark greys. The great hall you enter upon coming through the front doors actually feels like they’ve brought Palermo architecture in, but toned down the colours. The marble walls, with their engaged columns and architectural details, felt like the exteriors of the city’s palazzi, and this enormous space like a piazza between them. A browse through online photos indicates there are lots of interior spaces we didn’t see, including a rather spectacular rotunda that I suspect may be under the dome up top. In hindsight, it’s probably worth taking one of the tours of the building during the day to see more than you do as an audience member.

Downstairs is a brighter, more modern and very elegant cocktail bar, but by the time you get served you won’t have long to enjoy the atmosphere before you have to swig your drink and return to your seats. Locals clearly knew the fastest route to the bar and headed there the moment the curtain fell for intermission. Next time, so will we.

We discovered there’s also a restaurant outside, but within the area closed off from the piazza beyond by ornate railings. On a return visit, I’d go early and enjoy my aperitivo there before the show.

The neighbourhood around the opera is highly attuned to the crowds pouring in and out of here every night, with scores of cafes facing the building and lining the little lanes leading away from it. Our B&B, L’Olivella, was just 200 metres down one of these … the Via Bara All’Olivella. It’s a great place to stay for the opera and the street between it and Teatro Massimo is lined with restaurants.

At less than three hours’ flight time from Heathrow, Palermo offers opera lovers an easy weekend alternative to London. While flights will add to your costs, opera tickets and food will be less expensive and accommodation is reasonable. Head to their website for a long-range view of productions and get planning.

For another operatic excursion in Italy, see my article about our visit to the Verona Opera Festival last summer. It was a much weirder performance, but still a great experience.