The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall is excited to welcome Salute to Vienna New Years Concert to Sarasota on Saturday, December 30, 2023 at 7pm. Welcome 2024 with a festive, European-inspired New Year's celebration, modelled after the world-famous New Year's Concert in Vienna. With timeless music, dazzling costumes, breathtaking dance, stunning floral designs, Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert returns to Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall for an unforgettable New Year’s celebration, full of old-world charm. Salute to Vienna adds a fun and festive dash of traditional European culture to the end of the holiday season. It is a smashing, authentic re-creation of the 80+ year-old Viennese Neujahrskonzert—a concert presented by the Vienna Philharmonic every New Year’s Day—beloved for its lively music and time-honoured traditions. In North America, Salute to Vienna sustains and reinvents these traditions with a frothy 2 1/4 - hour concert of dancing, duets and arias from light operettas, all narrated by a European conductor who is both talented and fun, and backed by a full symphony orchestra. Add this concert to your list of “old ways to make the holidays young again”. Salute to Vienna features selections from some of the most famous operettas: classical music’s marriage of the soap opera to the sitcom. Not as serious as opera, operettas are light, often funny, and almost always based on some combination of love lost, given and longed for, with jealousy, love triangles and obstacles thrown in the way. They are less often performed in North America than they are in Europe, so Salute to Vienna provides a great opportunity to experience highlights from some of the best, performed by some of Europe’s finest operetta singers. Whether you are sending someone or taking them to the concert, it’s an experience that will be remembered. With it taking place soon after gift-giving, it’s a great way to prolong the sense of the holiday spirit, while giving those you love the musical wish of a joyful, happy, and healthy New Year. Tickets start at $58.15 and can be purchased at www.VanWezel.org, by calling the box office at 941-263-6799 or by visiting the box office Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Groups of 10 or more should contact 941-263-6726. Pre-show dining is available through Mattison’s at the Van Wezel which is located inside the theatre. Reservations can be made on VanWezel.org or through the box office.