A Day at the Opera

The Opera Garnier is perhaps the most opulent monumental building we have visited in all of France, including all the cathedrals, chateaux, and royal residences we have seen. It was one of the main projects during the rebuilding Paris under Emperor Napoleon III during the Second Empire. A young unknown architect at the time named Charles Garnier won the design competition for the new opera house, and it is still known my his name today.

The style and decoration have been called Baroque Revival or Second Empire style, but it also has elements of Beaux Arts style. All of which is to say that this is one of the fanciest buildings you will ever see. The cornerstone was laid in 1861, but it was not completed until 1875. It was home of the Paris Opera from that date until 1989 when the opera company moved to the new, larger, and more modern Opera Bastille. Opera Garnier is still used for ballet performances and other cultural events.

 

The ground level entry foyer, even with all its ornate bronze lamps and stone carvings, is plain compared to the rest of the interior.

The Grand Staircase leading up from the entry foyer is theater in itself. First, it is huge. Second, the stone and marble carvings and the gilded bronze statuary are almost overwhelming. And third, it served as a theatrical set of its own during the Belle Epoque (The Golden Age of France) when Opera Garnier was built. The staircase along with the Grand Foyer were the places to see and be seen in Paris. Women dressed in ball gowns almost as elaborate as the statues swished up and down to be noticed. Since the theater has a capacity for 2,000 viewers, so opera goers needed a lot of space to show off before the performance and during intermissions.

View of the Grand Staircase from the Grand Foyer.

Two huge marble and bronze statues guard the entrance to the auditorium.

This is the Grand Foyer where opera goers could enjoy some champagne and mingling before the opera and at intermission.

One of two massive fireplaces at each end of the Grand Foyer. I am sure they were more for decoration, because this room is so huge, they never could have heated it.

 

Detail from the ceiling of the Grand Foyer.

The opulent red velvet and gold auditorium seats 2,000.

The chandelier in the auditorium weighs 6 tons. Opera Garnier is the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 gothic novel The Phantom of the Opera, as well as for the movies and musical by the same name. This chandelier never actually fell as it does in the Phantom story, but one of its counterweights did fall in 1896 and killed one person. That incident, plus the fact that the Opera Garnier has extensive cellars going down 5 stories for storage of props and sets, and also that it was built over an underground lake, spurred Leroux's imagination and the creation of the Phantom story as we know it.

Detail from inside the auditorium. There is so much gold in this building that it is a wonder there was any left over for the rest of us to enjoy gold jewelry!

With friends from America Chris Rizzo from New York and Thomas Farrell from New York and Manuel Antonio Costa Rica. Thomas lived in Europe for many years and when he visited us in Paris for 5 days, he took us to the BEST out-of-the way and secret restaurants in Paris!


Opera Garnier is a beautiful tribute to the time when France was the leading superpower of the world, and an example of why the French are so proud of their history and their architecture. It contrasts sharply with the ultra-modern Opera Bastille where we attended a production of Salome. Both buildings are beautiful in their own way.