Garnier’s plan was mocked as a labyrinth, a turkish bath, and wedding cake. Everyone felt entitled to weigh in on the splashy new place.

The tank’s also used for Paris firefighters to practice nighttime swimming.Ĭonstruction of the Paris Opera was also controversial. Even today, the cistern halts the rising water, though water still needs to be pumped out. They created a stone cistern - an artificial lake - for the water and underground tunnels, as a work around. In 1962, the builders discovered a lake underneath the site. Another fun fact: it was the imperial couple’s flashy style that inspired architect Charles Garnier to reach such opulent heights with his stunning new opera house.The sculptures on the Paris Opera, labeled. Some say Merimée, a lover of all things Spanish, found his literary muse in friend Eugénie of Montijo, who would go on to become Paris’s leading tastemaker of the Second Empire, as Empress to Napoléon III. And, surely, its location in the City of Light has contributed in no small part to the inspiration of these beautiful productions.įrench composer Georges Bizet based his now-legendary 1875 work on French writer Prosper Merimée’s 1845 novella of the same name.

And one of the most prestigious: in its long history, the Paris Opera Ballet has attracted the world’s leading composers, singers and dancers, and so has pioneered many ballets and operas that have become beloved classics. While the company has had numerous names over the centuries - currently: Opéra National de Paris - it endures as the world’s oldest national ballet troupe. Ballet was originally performed as an entr’acte during an operatic show, but it eventually pirouetted off into its own art form, standing beautifully on its own en pointe feet. Patron of the arts - founded the Académie d’Opéra. Sun King Louis XIV - who fancied himself as a gifted dancer as much as a benevolent

The Six Ballets and Operas You Must See When in Parisĭe deux, ballet and opera have been in sync in Paris since 1669, when the

Paris opera ballet building