Palais Garnier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Palais Garnier, also known as the Opéra de Paris as well as the Opéra Garnier, is a 2,200 seat opera house in Paris, France. A grand landmark designed by Charles Garnier in the Neo-Baroque style, it is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of its time.
Upon its inauguration in 1875, the opera house was officially named the Académie Nationale de Musique - Théâtre de l'Opéra. It retained this title until 1978 when it was re-named the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris. After the opera company chose the Opéra Bastille as their principal theatre upon its completion in 1989, the theatre was re-named as the Palais Garnier, though its more official name, the Académie Nationale de Musique, is still sprawled above the columns of its front façade. In spite of the change of names and the Opera company's relocation to the Opéra Bastille, the Palais Garnier is still known by many people as the Paris Opéra, as have all of the many theatres which have served as the principal venues of the Parisian Opera and Ballet since its founding.
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[edit] History
King Louis XIV gave a patent to Jean-Baptiste Lully to establish the Académie Royale de Musique in 1672, the great institution of French theatrical art that was comprised of opera, ballet, and music. Although the opera held its own company upon its founding in 1669, the ballet of that time was merely an extension of it, having yet to evolve into an independent form of theatrical art. However Louis XIV, one of the great architects of baroque ballet (the artform which would one day evolve into classical ballet), established the ballet school in 1661 as the Académie Royale de Danse. From 1671 until Lully's death in 1687, the school was under the direction of the great dancing master Pierre Beauchamp, the man who set down the five positions of the feet and to whom all today's dancers are indebted.
In 1713 King Louis XIV made the Opera company a state institution, including a resident company of professional dancers known as the Le Ballet de l'Opéra. From that time until the inauguration of the Palais Garnier in 1875, the Académie Royale de Musique held 13 theatres as their principal venues, most of which were destroyed by fires. All of these theatres, regardless of the more "official" names which were bestowed upon them, were all commonly known as the Paris Opéra or Opéra de Paris.
The Palais Garnier was designed as part of the great Parisian reconstruction of the Second French Empire instigated by Emperor Napoleon III, who chose the civic planner Baron Haussmann to supervise the reconstruction. In 1858 the Emperor authorized Haussmann to clear the required 12,000 square metres of land on which to build a second theatre for the world renowned Paris Opera and Ballet. The project was put out to open competition in 1861, and was won by Charles Garnier (1825–1898). The foundation stone was laid in 1861, followed by the start of construction in 1862. Legend has it that the Emperor's wife, the Empress Eugénie, asked Garnier during construction as to whether or not the building would be built in the Greek or Roman style, to which he replied: "It is in the Napoleon III style Madame!"
The construction of the opera house was plagued by numerous setbacks. One major problem which postponed the laying of the concrete foundation was the extremely swampy ground under which flowed a subterranean lake, requiring the water to be removed by continual pumping which took eight months. More setbacks came as a result of the disastrous Franco-Prussian War, and the subsequent fall of the Second French Empire and the Paris Commune. During this time construction continued sporadically, and it was even rumoured that construction of the opera house might be abandoned.
An incentive to complete the opera house came on October 29, 1873, when the old Paris Opéra, known as the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (and also known as the Théâtre de l'Académie Impérial de Musique or Théâtre de l´Opéra), was destroyed by fire. This theatre had been the chief venue of the Parisian Opera and Ballet since 1821, and had seen many of the worlds greatest masterworks presented on its stage, as well as playing host to the heyday of the romantic ballet along with Her Majesty's Theatre in London. By late 1874 Garnier and his massive workforce completed the theatre.
The Palais Garnier was formally inaugurated on January 15, 1875 with a lavish gala performance. The bill consisted of the third act of Fromental Halévy's 1835 opera La Juive, along with excerpts from Giacomo Meyerbeer's 1836 opera Les Huguenots. The ballet company performed a Grand Divertissement staged by the Paris Opéra's Maître de Ballet Louis Méranté, which consisted of the celebrated scene Le Jardin Animé from Joseph Mazilier's 1856 ballet Le Corsaire to the music of Léo Delibes.
Although slightly smaller in scale that its predecessor, the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, the Palais Garnier consists of 11,000 square metres (118,404 square feet), seats an audience of roughly 2,200, and has a huge stage with room to accommodate up to 450 artists. An ornate building, the style is monumental, opulently decorated with elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary. Between the columns of the theatre's from façade, there are bronze busts of many of the great composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven. The interior is rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubs and nymphs. The auditorium's central chandelier weighs over six tons. The ceiling area, which surrounds the chandelier, was given a new painting in 1964 by Marc Chagall. This painting proved controversial with many people feeling Chagall's work clashed with the style of the rest of the theatre.
In 1969 the theatre was given new electrical facilities, and in 1978 part of the original Foyer de la Danse was converted into new rehearsal space for the Ballet company by the architect Jean-Loup Roubert. In 1994 restoration work began on the theatre, which consisted of modernizing the stage machinery and electrical facilities, while restoring and preserving the opulent décor and strengthening the frame and foundation of the building. The restoration was completed in 2006.
[edit] Trivia
- The subterranean lake, as well as the rest of the Palais Garnier, is the backdrop for Gaston Leroux's famous Gothic novel, The Phantom of the Opera and all of its incarnations.
- The Phantom Theater at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, NV was custom built to resemble the Palais Garnier.
- Director Sofia Coppola's 2006 bio-pic Marie Antoinette used the Entrée Principale and the Grand Escalier of the Palais Garnier for the scene of a masked ball. Interestingly, this theatre did not exist during Queen Marie Antoinette's lifetime, as it was not completed until 1875.
- The building was replicated in the city-building PC game Sim City 4 as the Opera House, where it can be located in the city as a reward.
- The opera house is used in the animated film Anastasia when some of the characters see the Russian ballet perform Cinderella there.
[edit] See also
[edit] Image Gallery
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 Liberty roof sculpture by Charles Gumery |
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[edit] References
- Allison, John (ed.), Great Opera Houses of the World, supplement to Opera Magazine, London 2003
- Beauvert, Thierry, Opera Houses of the World, New York: The Vendome Press, 1995. [ISBN 0-86565-978-8]
- Guest, Ivor Forbes, Ballet of the Second Empire, London: Wesleyan University Press, 1974
- Guest, Ivor Forbes, The Paris Opera Ballet, London: Wesleyan University Press, 2006
- Zeitz, Karyl Lynn, Opera: the Guide to Western Europe's Great Houses, Santa Fe, New Mexico: John Muir Publications, 1991. [ISBN 0-945465-81-5]
[edit] External links
- Official website (in French)
- History of architecture (in French)
