OPERA HOUSE PARIS
Built
at the end of the XIXth century by Charles Garnier,
it has an ornamented facade, monumental stairs and
Italian type hall with Chagall paintings on the
ceiling. The massive
works were slowed down by the discovery of a water
table that had to be drained before building an
enormous concrete well designed to carry the gigantic
stage and fly tower. The well was filled with water
in order to counter the water pressure (hence the
legend of the underground lake popularized by Gaston
Leroux's Phantom of the Opera). naugurated during
the Third Republic by Field Marshall de Mac-Mahon
on 5 January 1875.
The building, which is a perfect example of 19th century stage architecture, hides its iron frame under flamboyant decoration. The overall impression is harmonious in spite of the diversity of its inspiration and the temes taken up by Charles Garnier. He personally supervised the integration in the architecture of decorative works entrusted to sculptors, painters and mosaic artists representative, as himself was, of state-sponsored artists.
From the end of the XIXth century down to the present
day, several restoration and modernization programmes
have made the theatre increasingly functional without
lessening its appeal as a monument: technical progress
and the evolution of sets under the influence of
"verism". The next step was the building
of a modern and popular opera house: Opera Bastille.
Maria Callas and Rudolf Noureev are among the many
artists who wrote its history as one of the world
foremost scenic stages for opera and ballet alike.
Since the opening of the Opéra Bastille in
1989, the Opéra Garnier is devoted to ballets.
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