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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.
The History of Palais Garnier
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.
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Story: The Opera Garnier Guided Tour
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.
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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.
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.
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.
The Opera Garnier Guided Tour
In 1896, a counterweight fell from the real chandelier, killing a woman in the audience. In Phantom, Leroux also uses a falling chandelier as a major plot point, a dramatic scene (described above) of kidnapping and senseless murder. Erik becomes obsessed with a young soprano, Christine Daaé. He becomes her “angel of music,” giving her complimentary singing lessons. The novel stars Erik as the phantom, a disfigured composer who wears a mask to cover his face. He takes up residence in the underground lake beneath the theater.
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.
La Cenerentola - National Opera of Paris (
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.
The architecture and art is an experience all on its own. The building itself is considered an artful masterpiece, and was one of the most expensive construction projects to come from the Second French Empire under the reign of Napoléon III. The elaborate use of different materials to lend a lavish multicolored facade was typical of many of the works under the rule of Napoléon III, and features sculptures of various figures of Greek mythology. The official inauguration in 1875 was attended by the Mayor of London and Amsterdam, the King Alphonso XII of Spain, and hundreds of members from European high society. Your tour begins at the Rotonde des Abonnés, a glorious vestibule which once served as the audience entrance.
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.
ACCESSIBILITYThe temporary exhibitions’ area and the shop are not accessible for people with reduced mobility. Charles Garnier built the stage and drew up plans for the machinery and gas lighting. Carpenters, painters and glaziers arrived on site as sculptors began their work on the façade. The collections of the Library-Museum of the Opera have been preserving the memory of the theatre for three centuries. The gallery of the museum permanently showcases paintings, drawings, photographs and models of decorations in volume.
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