16 Best Performing Arts in Sweden

In the off-season, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra plays weekly concerts at this large concert hall, which is also home to the highly regarded Swedish Radio Choir.

When it comes to high-quality international dance in Stockholm, there's really only one place to go. Dansens Hus hosts the best Swedish and international acts, with shows ranging from traditional Japanese dance to street dance and modern ballet. You can also see ballet at the Royal Opera house.

Casting traditional presentation and interpretation of the classics to the wind, this modern company stages productions that are refreshingly new.

If you are interested in smaller movie theaters with character, try the Grand, with four small screens and not a bad seat in the house.

A good art-house cinema housed in an old ivy-covered school.

The home of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the city's main concert hall also hosts other Swedish and international classical music performances.

At the home of the highly acclaimed Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, there's a mural by Sweden's Prince Eugen in the lobby, original decor, and Swedish-designed furniture from 1935.

Gotland's premier stage for catching shows, plays, musical acts, and other performances.

The Malmö Symfoni Orkester is a symphony orchestra that has a reputation across Europe as a class act. Each concert is a finely tuned event. Performances are held at many venues, including outdoors; some are at the impressive Malmö Konserthus.

Medieval Week, celebrated in early August, is a citywide festival marking the invasion of the prosperous island by the Danish king Valdemar on July 22, 1361. Celebrations begin with Valdemar's grand entrance parade and continue with jousts, an open-air market on Strandgatan, and street-theater performances re-creating the period.

One of Stockholm's artistic and literary waterholes since the first Operakällaren restaurant opened on the site in 1787, the Royal Opera House is almost more famous for its restaurants and bars than for its opera and ballet productions. But that doesn't mean an evening performance should be missed. The current baroque building dates from 1898, replacing an earlier opera house where, in 1792, King Gustav III was assassinated at a masquerade ball (the inspiration for Verdi's opera A Masked Ball). There's not a bad seat in the house. For about SKr 110 you can even get a listening-only seat (with no view). Guided tours of the opera house are offered on Saturdays at 1 pm (more frequently in summer).

The 1,250-seat auditorium here has a glassed-in dining area overlooking the harbor.

The strangest movie theater in town would have to be this converted meat market, now outfitted with ten screens. The walls are in various clashing fruit colors, and the floodlighted foyer has sections scooped out to reveal Göteborg's natural rock.

One of Stockholm's oldest movie houses, this three-screen theater shows international art-house films. A small restaurant is in the back.