Opera Garnier

On Saturday, Jen, Chiara (another BCG ambassador from Milan) and I ventured out to tour the Opera. There are actually two Operas in Paris, Opera Garnier and Opera Bastille. Opera Garnier is the old Opera as it was built in the 1860s and Opera Bastille is the new opera built in the 1980s. You might think that the "new" Opera would be more impressive as a hundred years of architecture and engineering innovations would surely have an impact. However, despite Opera Bastille having a more sophisticated stage and engineering, there is really no contest for the beauty of the buildings. That probably has to do with context when the operas were built.

In the 1860s, France still had strong differences in classes in society. The opera was only for the rich aristocracy. Napoleon III (the famous Napoleon's nephew) had it built after the previous one burned down. As such, it is richly decorated with statues, gold trimming, marble throughout, paintings and trim work around all the ceilings and a grand staircase built from 17 different kinds of marble! Apparently, the men used to hang out in the upper lobby before the show and their wives would parade one by one up the grand marble staircase with all the men looking on. Our guide explained to us that they had to have new dresses and jewelry for each occasion as all of "society" was watching.

The Opera Garnier was the inspiration for Phantom of the Opera. Other than some of the characters that existed in real life, there were two other pieces of historical fact that were incorporated into the story. First, one of the Opera's large, several ton chandeliers broke loose and fell killing one unlucky bystander. Second, construction was delayed for years just as soon as it was started when they discovered an underground spring. That spring, once uncovered created a "lake" at the base of the foundation. While visitors haven't been allowed down there for 15 years, we did see a picture of it. It's more like some standing water between large foundation supports, but nonetheless inspired the large underground lake in the Phantom of the Opera.

Opera Garnier

(click for photo album)