Not everyone can get to the opera house. Maybe you live regionally. Maybe tickets are beyond your budget. Maybe you have small children and the idea of sitting still for three hours in public sounds like a fantasy. Whatever the reason, the good news is that 2026 is an extraordinary time to experience opera from your couch.

Here’s my guide to the best ways to listen to and watch opera at home, sorted by budget.

Free Options

YouTube

The single best free resource for opera, and it’s not even close. You can find full-length performances from major houses around the world, archival recordings of legendary singers, and an endless supply of aria compilations for casual listening.

A few channels worth subscribing to:

• The Royal Opera House regularly posts full-length productions and behind-the-scenes content.
• Opera on Screen curates classic performances with good video quality.
• Individual singer channels — many working opera singers post recitals, masterclasses, and rehearsal footage.

The quality varies wildly. Some videos are gorgeous HD recordings; others are grainy bootlegs filmed from the balcony on someone’s phone in 2004. But for free, you can’t complain.

ABC Classic and ABC Listen

ABC Classic broadcasts opera regularly, including live relays from Opera Australia and international houses. The Saturday afternoon opera broadcast is a tradition that’s been running for decades, and the ABC Listen app lets you stream it anywhere.

The quality of ABC Classic’s opera programming is genuinely excellent — well-curated, well-presented, and free. It’s one of the best things our national broadcaster does, and I don’t say that lightly.

Library Services

Your local library almost certainly provides free access to streaming services that include opera. Hoopla and Kanopy, both available through most Australian library systems, have opera recordings and filmed performances. It’s worth checking what your library offers — you might be surprised.

Paid Platforms

Met Opera on Demand — $15/month or $150/year

The gold standard. The Metropolitan Opera in New York has been filming its productions in HD since 2006, and the archive now includes over 800 performances spanning decades. The video quality of the recent recordings is superb, and the older archival material includes performances by singers who are now legends.

If you’re only going to pay for one opera streaming service, make it this one. The breadth of repertoire is unmatched — from standard Italian and German works to rarities you’ll never see staged in Australia. They also stream new productions live, which is a fantastic way to see what’s happening at the world’s leading opera house without flying to New York.

Marquee TV — $12/month

A performing arts streaming platform covering opera, ballet, theatre, and concerts from the Royal Opera House, the Bolshoi, and various European festivals. The catalogue is smaller than the Met’s but the quality is high. It’s particularly good for European productions — more director-driven, more conceptually adventurous.

Apple Music Classical / Spotify / Tidal

For audio-only listening, all three are excellent. Apple Music Classical has the edge — its search understands composers, performers, and works properly. Search “Callas Tosca” and you get exactly what you want. On Spotify, you might get a playlist called “Chill Opera Vibes.” That said, Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations can introduce you to recordings you’d never find otherwise.

My Recommended Starting Points

If you’re new to opera and want to know what to listen to first, here are five recordings that will give you a broad taste:

1. Puccini’s La Boheme — the Karajan recording with Pavarotti and Freni (1972). Definitive.
2. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro — the Giulini recording (1959). Perfect in every way.
3. Bizet’s Carmen — the Abbado recording with Berganza (1978). Visceral and exciting.
4. Verdi’s La Traviata — the Callas recording (1958). Yes, Callas. Always Callas for this one.
5. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde — the Furtwangler recording with Flagstad (1952). If you want to understand why people are obsessed with Wagner, this is where to start. The sound quality is old but the performance is incandescent.

One Tip for Your Listening Setup

Opera rewards good audio. Even a $50 pair of over-ear headphones is a massive improvement over laptop speakers. If you have a TV with a soundbar, stream video performances there rather than your laptop. And turn your phone off — opera rewards sustained attention.

Nothing truly replicates live performance. The vibration of a bass voice in your chest, the collective intake of breath in a full house, the physical thrill of a soprano’s high C ringing through a theatre — you can’t stream that. But you can get close. And for many people, streaming is the gateway that leads to a first live performance. Which is exactly how it should work.

— Margot