Nightlife

Leipzig's active nightlife offers something for everyone. The area around the Markt is full of bars, cafes, and other entertainment options; it's a good place to kick off your search for a nightspot.

The Performing Arts

The Leipziger Oper is one of Germany's most acclaimed opera companies. Its home is the Neues Opernhaus (it's sometimes referred to simply as "Oper Leipzig"), Augustusplatz 12 (tel. 0341/1261275; tram: 4, 7, 8, 10, or 11), opposite Das Gewandhaus . Part of its space is devoted to the Kellertheater (tel. 0341/1261275), a small-scale theater that presents small-ensemble, progressive performances of all types. The box office for both the main opera house and the Kellertheater is open Monday to Friday 10am to 8pm, and Saturday 10am to 4pm. Tickets to the theater are 10€ to 32€ ($16-$51) for adults, with students getting up to one-third off, depending on the performance. Call the box office, or ask at the tourist office, for information. Tickets to the opera cost 10€ to 60€ ($16-$96); tickets to the Kellertheater cost 15€ to 45€ ($24-$72), depending on the performance.

The home of the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra is a modern concert hall built in 1981, Das Gewandhaus (tel. 0341/1270280; tram: 4, 7, or 15), which faces the Neues Opernhaus across Augustusplatz. Founded in 1781, the orchestra saw some of its greatest days under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, who died in Leipzig in 1847. Other notable conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, and Kurt Masur. Concerts, ballets, organ recitals, and other events are staged here. Tickets usually range from 15€ to 45€ ($24-$72).

The main venue for theater in Leipzig is the Schauspielhaus, Bosestrasse 1 (tel. 0341/1268168; tram: 1, 2, 4, 6, 15, 17, 21, or 24), home to several arts companies that jointly stage an eclectic mix of theatrical and musical productions. Tickets cost from 7€ to 27€ ($11-$43) for adults, half price for students. The box office is open weekdays noon to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 1pm, and 1 hour before show time.

Dance Clubs

Leipzigers like to dance, and the downtown area offers several animated nocturnal venues. Appealing to a youngish crowd is Nachtcafé, Petersstrasse 39-41 (tel. 0341/2114000). Open only on Monday and Wednesday nights from 9pm till around 3am and Saturday nights from 10pm till around 5am, it plays soul, house, funk, blues, and whatever's hip and contemporary in London and L.A., with music provided by a crew of DJs who are well known locally. Entrance is 5€ ($8), except for women under 24, who invariably talk their way in free. Attracting a young, raffish crowd is Spizz, Marktplatz 9 (tel. 0341/9608043). Cramped, crowded, sweaty, hot, and usually convivial, they play jazz, boogie-woogie, reggae, pop, and disco music from the '80s and '90s. Entrance costs 10€ ($16) per person. It's open only Friday and Saturday nights from 11pm till around 5am.

Live Music

Built against the old city wall, Moritzbastei, Universitätsstrasse 9 (tel. 0341/702590; tram: 4, 6, 15, or 20), is a jaunty-looking, all-in-one entertainment complex that houses at least two stages for the presentation of concerts and cabarets, a labyrinthine pub with lots of different areas for drinking, carousing, and dancing, and a cafe. It's popular with students. Depending on the night of the week and the time you show up, you'll find either live bands or DJs playing Afro-pop, heavy metal, and rock mixed with contemporary dance music. Some aspect of this complex opens daily from 10am, but the nighttime energy only gets wound up Wednesday to Saturday from 8pm to 5am, when it charges a cover that ranges from 4€ to 12€ ($6.40-$19). Sometimes, in midsummer, films (foreign and German-language) are shown in an open-air terrace in a kind of "be-in" communal venue that will remind you of your college years.

For more blues, jazz, and the occasional presentation of German-language satire and cabaret, head to Pfeffermühle, Thomaskirchhof 16 (tel. 0341/9603253; tram: 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, or 13), on Monday night, when the bands start up at 10pm. Other nights, people gather to drink and talk. The courtyard here is very popular during warm weather.

Gay Bars & Clubs

The friendly, ultra-cool bar RosaLinde, Langestrasse 11 (tel. 0341/8796982), is the central focus of gay nightlife in Leipzig. It's open Sunday to Thursday as a bar from 5 to 11pm; Friday and Saturday, it functions as a cafe, bar, and dance club from 5pm till 3am, with music beginning around 9pm. Come here for a drink and the chance to mingle with conventional, not particularly fetishistic gay men (and to a lesser degree, lesbians) in their 20s and 30s. Another popular gay hangout is Blaue Trude, Sternwartenstrasse 14 (tel. 0341/2126679; tram: 4, 7, 12, or 15), which functions as a bar every night 7pm to 5am, and as a gay (mostly male) dance club every Tuesday to Saturday from around 11pm to 5am. Admission is free.

Variety

Recommended only for visitors who really understand fluent, and highly ironic, German-language nuances, Schaubühne Lindenfels, Karl-Heine-Strasse 50 (tel. 0341/484620; tram: 1, 2, 4, 6, 15, 17, 21, or 24), offers alternative theater and cinema in a laid-back cafe/bar complex and is open daily 10am to 2am. Admission to movies, which are shown almost nightly, costs between 5€ to 8€ ($8-$13) per person. Admission to theater productions costs from 7.50€ to 13€ ($12-$21) per person. Depending on the seasonal lineup, they're presented Thursday to Saturday and sometimes Sunday.