I limit my comments to only the venues where I have attended live performances.

Great (Historical) European Venues for Music and/or Opera

• I love Semperoper in Dresden, where I had my most impressive Wagner experience (I love the surrounding areas too!). A perfect combination of the grandeur outside and intimacy inside. Strolling outside, you know, instantly, this is the heart-and-soul of the city. While stepping inside, after the curtains go up, you can experience the ideal setting for operas, allowing you to hear every detail, even whispers, from anywhere in the house! No wonder singers from this shore come in flocks to Europe, to old, hisotrical, and intimate houses, to find their fame (and fortune, perhaps), before heading back to tackle the huge monster houses (MET being the head of all mosters) over here.

• I love Berlin for her rich musical life and the abundance of impressive live performances at her various venues. Over here, the contrast between "old" and "new" cannot be more vivid, with the "old" school winning it hands down. Both Staatoper and Komicheoper are great for operas, more attractive than the modernish Deutche Oper, and the old Koncerthaus Berlin is so much better than the new Berliner Philharmonie. The unique situation of three big opera houses/companies makes Berlin such an attractive destination for opera lovers, not to mention the superb Berlin Philharmonic and other groups.

• The only city that can compete with Berlin is London, with a superior collection of orchestras and other groups and a smaller collection (but most would argue not inferior) of opera companies. However, none of the venues in London impressed me too much. One curious point is that Barbican Center Concert Hall is the only fan-shaped that I enjoy almost as much as traditional concert hall in a shoe-box shape. I also enjoyed Royal Albert Hall a lot, not really for it's accoustics, but for the festivity and the many performances of the BBC Proms.

• Music/opera venues in other cities in Europe:
  • Concertgebeuw in Amsterdam is impressive, both the main hall (where I heard my first live Nielsen) and the chamber hall (where I heard Borodin Quartet for the last time).
  • We visited Vienna at the wrong time, when Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera were out at Salzburg Festival. So, I didn't get to go to the famed Musikverein. But I did manage to attend some chamber concert in small venues, churchs, and even a lieder recital at Schuberthaus. Lovely!
  • Opera houses in Paris is like that in Berlin. I love the old one, Opera Garnier (but only managed to see a ballet instead of an opera), but not so impressed with Opera Bastille.
  • I enjoyed my visit to Bayreuth too, although not at the festival time. So, didn't get in (well, couldn't get in anyway).
  • Some music are meant to be performed in churches, and I had my most impressive church concerts in Bach's Leipzig churches, both the Nikolaikirch, a concert, but more like a marathon deep into night, and Thomaskirche, for the morning service and sing along (most enjoyable sing-along experience I've ever had!).

US/Canadian Venues for Music and/or Opera

• As the most "cultured" city on this shore, New York offers something comparable to major European capitals, probably second only to London and Berlin in terms of performance choices (NYC is, strangely enough, more conservative in musical taste). But I'm not that impressed with the venues. I have been to the Met (terrible! just a giangatic monster! or maybe it's the giant cave for the monstrous dragon from the Ring?), Avery Fisher Hall (so-so), David Koch Theater (good for ballet, but the sound is terrible from the top level seats). Alice Tully Hall is ideal for chamber music, and so is the more classic Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The exception to this is the true classic among them all, the history-rich Carnegie Hall. The feeling that struck me the most the moment I stepped in was the "shallowness" of the hall, both in stage space and in the auditorium itself. Probably this "shallowness" is what give it the "homy" feeling of the hall, where every listener can be at "home" to enjoy the magnificent sound from the stage. Also, interestingly enough, my first experience there was in association with the so call "Spring for Music" festival, truly creative programming by a variety of orchestras from all over the country. Definitely not the same old "conservatism" of NYC classical music world.

• Well, Dallas, the city I have lived in since 1995, has something strong going for her with the newly expanded art district.
  • Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center designed by I.M. Pei is a true masterpiece, and probably the best modern concert hall in the world. The spacious and magnificent lobby and the structure surround the auditorium is out of this world. The aucoustic in the auditorium is perfect, where I don't hesitate to get the cheapest ticket, because you can enjoyed the most wonderful sound from these seats too.
  • With the openning in 2009 of Margot and Bill Winspear Opera house designed by Norman Foster, another gem that matches Meyerson perfectly in the art district, Dallas can boast something few cities in the world can claim. The house is small by American standards, seating only 2200, with every seat with perfect sound -- I know, I have the previlege of sitting furtherest away from the stage and still thoroughly enjoyed the Dallas Opera productions. The only minor misgiving I have about his house is the narrow walkway wrapping around the auditorium, and the lobby that's still somewhat inferior to Meyerson (but how many lobbies can be comparable to Meyerson?). In one giant leap, the Dallas Opera became of envy of everyone from being pitied by everyone because of the Fairpark Music Hall terribly ill-fitted for operas (I probably had my worse operas, aucoustically speaking, there, and stopped going to the Dallas Opera all together before they moved in 2009). To my happy surprise, the 2nd season (2010/2011) produced for me some of the most wonderful performances I have ever witnessed, including the superb singing of Paolo Gavanelli in the title role of Rigoletto, and my best ever, Boris Godanuv, by a almost all-Russian cast under Graeme Jenkins using an old but still striking Tarkovsky production.

• Other cities I used to live in (so I had repeated chances of attending music/opera performances):
  • Boston: The Symphony Hall is nice, so is the Wang Center, but I haven't been to the opera there. But what impressed me most is the Sanders Theater at Harvard, ideal for school orchestras and other ensembles.
  • Washington DC: I attended many wonderful performances at the Kennedy Center, and I do like the concert hall better than the opera house, probably more due to the Rostropovich connection to Shostakovich than anything else. For chamber music, the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress seemed to be the ideal setting.
  • Toronto: Both the Roy Thompson Hall where Toronto Symphony plays and O'Keefe Center where Canadian Opera used to play are terrible. But I did hear wonderful reviews about the new opera house there, and am looking forward to revisit COC. By the way, the chamber music hall at the North York Performing Art Center is really classy, where I heard a mesmerizing all Shostakovich concert by Borodin Quartet in 1994.

• Other cities: The Orchestra Hall in Chicago is nice and classy, but somewhat old, even after the recent restoration (maybe that was the intention), and I enjoyed some wonderful performances there (more than other venues not in a city I lived in). The Los Angeles Opera really needs a new house to replace the cavernesh Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, to go with the new Walt Disney Concert Hall (I'm eagerly looking forward to go there).

• Festivals and venues for them: Well, there are many festivals over the summer months and I really enjoyed attending concerts in them. I enjoyed Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, Ravinia, and Mann Center. However, I don't think they are ideal venues for concerts/operas due to the "open" nature, to let "nature" come in instead of blocking off the ambiant sounds.