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With nearly 480,000 visitors each year, it is one of Paris' most visited monuments. This isn’t just a library — it’s an impressive museum in it’s own right with 300 years’ worth of history. Along with books, you’ll find paintings, drawings and set models. And if you were curious, the very first opera performed here was “La Juive,” a five-act libretto featuring forbidden love, vengeance, and plenty of dramatic arias. You can appreciate its art and beauty in the live shows and lovely architecture that brightens the 9th arrondissement of Paris. And there’s some intrigue thanks to its connection to the famous Phantom of the Opera, which still draws adoring fans to the opera house today.
The Mysterious Underground Lake of the Paris Opera House
(But not, we assume, for the entire fourteen years.) Most of the interior and exterior statues portray Greek deities. The six-ton chandelier was a marvel for its time, although critics complained (as they will) that it obstructed the views and that the light was too bright. There is a persistent rumor that it was this chandelier that specifically inspired Victor Hugo's classic novel, The Phantom of the Opera.
Capriccio - Opéra National de Paris - Palais Ga...
More setbacks troubled the builders, including the Franco-Prussian War, the subsequent fall of the Second French Empire, and the Paris Commune. The Galerie de l'Orchestre offers a last glance of the Palais Garnier and an audiovisual exhibition recounting its history. The Grand Vestibule, watched over by the statues of the four composers Rameau, Lully, Gluck and Handel, leads to the exit.
Most Popular Opera Houses Worldwide as per Travel App Visited - Newswire
Most Popular Opera Houses Worldwide as per Travel App Visited.
Posted: Tue, 15 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Grand Staircase, aka the Catwalk
Reduced rates and free tickets are subject to presentation of a valid proof of eligibility and an identity document at the entrance to the Palais Garnier. Discover this masterpiece of 19th-century theatre architecture as if you were there in person. Some restoration work was carried out in 1872, before the construction could resume. During the night of 28 to 29 October, the Opera on the street Le Peletier was destroyed by fire.
Now, there’s a replica on the opera facade and the original is in the Musée d’Orsay. The most famous sculptural group on the facade is The Dance by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Construction of the Paris Opera was also controversial. Everyone felt entitled to weigh in on the splashy new place. They created a stone cistern — an artificial lake — for the water and underground tunnels, as a work around. Even today, the cistern halts the rising water, though water still needs to be pumped out.
On 30 December 1860 the Second Empire of Emperor Napoleon III officially announced an architectural design competition for the design of the new opera house. Also known as the Rotonde de l'Empereur, this group of rooms is located on the left (west) side of the building and was designed to allow secure and direct access by the Emperor via a double ramp to the building. When the Empire fell, work stopped, leaving unfinished dressed stonework.
Bluebeard's Castle - Paris National Opera house...
Marc Chagall’s superb ceiling above the stage and auditorium features famous opera and ballet productions. The Palais Garnier library actually falls under the French National Library system and is open to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. While the reading room is reserved for researchers only, the museum section of the library is part of the opera house tour.
Ariodante - Opéra National de Paris - Palais Ga...
It consists of 12 canvas panels and a round central panel covering 240 square meters. His supernatural style work drew from the artistic movements of Surrealism, Fauvism, and Cubism. It was commissioned in 1964 and placed over the existing academic painting by Jules-Eugene Lenepveu, The Muses and the Hours of the Day and Night. This was the place where aristocrats strolled after they were done “acting” on the Grand Staircase or during intermission.
Chidren games experience
While Napoleon III was on his way to the Opéra, then located on the street Le Peletier, Italian anarchists working for Felice Orsini threw bombs into the crowd. The very next day, the Emperor decided to build a new opera house. Once you have passed the “Rotonde des abonnés”, the bassin de la Pythie will lead you to the grand staircase and sumptuous 30-metre-high nave.
If you’re not close enough, head to the orchestra section during intermission to take in the colorful centerpiece. By today’s politically correct standards, with its clunky plot, Phantom of the Opera may seem a bit dated or patriarchal. But I can’t resist a lush high Gothic romance, even if the titular hero is a bit murdery. It’s escapism, as its author Gaston Leroux, a true crime writer and opera critic, no doubt intended. They were made in another era, where comfort didn’t dictate nearly everything.
The 174-member Orchestre de Paris plays in all major performances at the Palais Garnier and the Opéra de la Bastille, which comes close to 280 performances per season. Hardly a block away from the Palais Garnier is the Galeries Lafayette, a shopping experience with all of the luxury brands you can think of. In fact, if you go to the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette, you’ll get a direct view of the opera house and the Eiffel Tower. You can tour it for a fee or stop into the lobby where you would buy tickets, just to take a peek inside. The long gallery has a colorful painted ceiling with themes from music history.
But the main thing to look out for is the replica of Charles Garnier’s bust near a window looking toward the Louvre. The Palais Garnier is an iconic monument of Paris, visited as much by travelers as by the local public. Tours are offered in French or English, usually at different times. The language is indicated in the price list after you select a day and time to visit when you make your reservation, so be sure to check your choice.
It's role as the terminal axial point suggests that as a public space, it should hold much importance in the community. Paris has been mad about opera & ballet since the mid-1600s, during the reign of Louis XIV (AKA the Sun King) who founded the first Paris opera house in 1669. Since then there have been no fewer than thirteen buildings that have housed the Paris Opera Ballet company. Through kings and revolutions, emperors and presidents and wars there have always been ballet and opera playing in Paris. When it was completed in 1875 Palais Garnier was one of the largest opera houses in the world. Emperor Napoleon III's vision was to create a temple to the arts, a world center for artistic pursuits, and an architectural wonder of the age.
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