The Vienna Opera Ball 2026

The artistic opening features a prominent cast, which this year also brings a Broadway feeling to the Haus am Ring. The Vienna State Opera Orchestra will be playing under the musical direction of conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, with opera stars Pretty Yende and Benjamin Bernheim singing. The program includes Waltz No. 2 from the Suite for Variety Orchestra by Dmitri Shostakovich, Tonight and Maria from Leonard Bernstein's legendary West Side Story, Art is calling for me from The Enchantress by Victor Herbert and Brindisi(Libiamo ne' lieti calici) from Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata. The fanfare will once again be performed by the Vienna State Opera's stage orchestra under the direction of Markus Henn.

In a new creation by choreographer Jessica Lang and with costumes by Giorgio Armani , the Vienna State Ballet performs Carousel Waltz from Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. 32 members of the company will be dancing: Timoor Afshar, Ioanna Avraam, Elena Bottaro, Victor Caixeta, António Casalinho, Davide Dato, Olga Esina, Laura Fernandez Gromova, Alessandro Frola, Masayu Kimoto, Kentaro Mitsumori, Cassandra Trenary, Madison Young, Liudmila Konovalova, Vladyslav Bosenko, Margarita Fernandes, Giorgio Fourés, Sinthia Liz, Rosa Pierro, Natalya Butchko, Alessandro Cavallo, Gaia Fredianelli, Zsolt Török, Rinaldo Venuti, Benjamin Alexander, Victor Cagnin, Laura Cislaghi, Lars Philipp Gramlich, Phoebe Liggins, Milda Luckuté, Meghan Lynch and Godwin Merano.

In addition, the Vienna Opera Ball Orchestra will once again be playing under the direction of Andreas Spörri, and the Santner Dance School will be responsible for the choreography of the Young Ladies' and Young Gentlemen's Committee for the sixth time.

For the fourth time, the Vienna Opera Ball is setting an example of social responsibility and solidarity by supporting "Austria helps Austria" (surcharge on tickets and consumption at the ball), and the auction of Arnulf Rainer's Opera Ball subject, Black Velvet, Red Silk, will also benefit "Austria helps Austria".

The work can now be viewed at Dorotheum . The online auction starts on January 16 at 12 noon and runs until February 19, 2026 at 4 pm. Bids can be placed here; the starting price is €40,000.

Also live on 3sat and ORF ON

Once again this year, the entire main evening of ORF 2 and 3sat (also available on ORF ON) will be dedicated to the "Ball of Balls". From the arrival of the guests and their procession up the grand staircase to the opening of the Young Ladies' and Young Gentlemen's Committee and the midnight quadrille: TV audiences will once again experience all the highlights live from the Vienna State Opera from 8.15pm. This year's Opera Ball TV evening will be hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Teresa Vogl and Andi Koll, a proven trio of presenters. Karl Hohenlohe and Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz will once again provide trenchant commentary. ORF director Fabienne Pinter will be responsible for the broadcast for the first time in 2026 and will present the Vienna Opera Ball to the audience in her usual atmospheric images.

All information can be found on our Opera Ball website.