Erected on the site of a disused train station, it is the largest opera house in the world today, with 2745 seats, which makes it even bigger than the Sidney Opera House. Informations: 0 892 89 90 90ĭesigned by the architect, Carlos Ott, this modern opera house was inaugurated for the bicentenary of the French Revolution of 1789. Three times as many people attended its inauguration in 1964, everyone wanting to form their own opinion on the restoration work.ħ to 11 euros. Nothing has been spared to bring you the sense of euphoria and luxury: marble, gold, red velvet…Since 2011, visitors have also been able to dine at i ts in-house restaurant designed by the architect, Odile Decq.Īnecdotally, the restoration of its ceiling, initiated by Malraux and entrusted to the painter, Marc Chagall, was extremely controversial. To everyone’s astonishment, in 1860 the honor of constructing the opera house was awarded to the winning bid by the young, 35-year-old, up and coming architect, Charles Garnier. Visitors to the opera house are immediately awed by the impressive Versailles Hall of Mirrors and grandiose staircase that welcomes them to the foyer. Opéra Garnier was commissioned by Napoléon III, who wanted an opera house to dazzle the rest of Europe and whose performances would be on the agenda of the Parisian aristocracy, at a time when the capital was considered the epicenter of sophistication and style. Good to know: note that the seating in the auditorium is arranged in a horseshoe layout, so your view may not be entirely facing the stage but slightly turned towards the rest of the auditorium – for a simple, historic reason in the past, opera-going was not solely to watch a performance people went there to observe others and to be seen. It is currently undergoing a facelift in its tricentennial year and will reopen to the public at the end of next year. Listed on the register of national theaters in 2005, the venue now stages both operatic performances and plays and its repertoire encompasses all genres, extending from Baroque to contemporary music. Similar in architectural style to the Opéra Garnier, it has the advantage of being smaller in size and, thus, more artist-friendly. In contrast with the other form of opera, which is sung throughout, the role of this opera house was to stage pantomimes and parodies of opera through song interspersed with spoken drama, giving rise to its own genre of performance and eponymous name, Opéra Comique. Let’s get to know them better…įounded in 1714 under the reign of Louis XIV, Opéra Comique is the oldest of the three opera houses in Paris.
Behind the stage are the rehearsal rooms where Degas often sketched.Of differing eras and styles, they all play an important role in the Parisian cultural scene. The dome sits above the audience and orchestra, the high roof over the stage. was meant to be much more than a theater in the ordinary sense.įor Charles Garnier, an architect of the Ecole des beaux-arts, it was a setting for a ritual in which the spectators were also actors, participants in the rite of social encounter, seeing and being seen." The division of the structure supports his vision. The glittering centerpiece of the new Paris. Marvin Trachtenberg & Isabel Hyman have called the huge Opéra house, "the new cathedral of bourgeois Paris. Frequented by Degas and the source for much of his ballet imagery, the Paris Opéra is key to understanding the somewhat perverse culture of voyeurism and spectacle among the prosperous classes of the Second Empire. The Paris Opéra (1860–75), designed by Charles Garnier, is one of the jewels of Napoleon III's newly reconstructed city.
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