LilysReview - The Zurich Opera House

The Opera House in Zurich is a beautiful building that is in the heart of the city next to Zurich Lake. But to be honest, we are not a big fan of Opera music, except maybe The Phantom of The Opera. I honestly think we couldn’t survive a two-hour performance. It would be too much for our ears and brain. :-) Therefore we only knew the building from the outside. But in July we decided that it is time to take a tour, especially and only because of the costume department.

That was the selling point for us, especially for my mum because she is a costume designer and has designed three costume sets for the best-selling Swiss artist DJ Bobo and his dance crew and of course three beautiful gowns for the Black Madonna at the Abbey of Einsiedeln.

So we were both very excited to see how the costume department creates masterpieces/costumes for world-famous Opera shows. After long minutes of waiting finally two female tour guides picked us up. We were a group of over twenty people that they divided in two. We choose the friendly lady because the other one was a grumpy and unfriendly woman. She was clearly annoyed about the number of visitors. We took an English-speaking tour and were surrounded by international tourists.

Believed it or not, we didn’t see anything about costume design. She took us to the pitch dark Opera stage. We couldn’t see much because the staff was preparing a premiere show for that night. Later she took us backstage. Again it was pitch dark, so we didn’t see anything. Then she took us downstairs in the basement and we saw empty rehearsal rooms and plenty of boring and smelly closet rooms filled with very old costumes and shoes. And that was it. That was the highly anticipated Zurich Opera House costume tour. It was a joke. It was embarrassing to witness how these companies toy with tourists. At least we had a friendly tour guide. She is working there for over three decades and enjoys her job. 

Our recommendation: Don’t even think about it taking this boring tour. Don't be a YOYO. It is a waste of time and money! You can go to your own basement and pretend to be back and on stage at the Opera House in Zurich. Trust me, it’s the same exact experience!

OUR HONEST REVIEW: We give 0 from 5 stars!