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The Palace Garnier, still known to many as the “Paris Opera”, was the world’s largest theatre and opera house when it opened on January 5, 1875. The opulent Opera de Paris Garnier was designed by Charles Garnier for Emperor Napoleon III. The Opera de Paris is one of the great historical opera houses of Europe. It has a strong orchestral tradition and currently enjoys the use of two major opera houses, each a superior example of theater architecture of its own century. The cavernous building was one of 171 proposals submitted in an architectural competition in 1861. The Palace Garnier took 14 years to build, with its completion being delayed by money troubles, the Franco-Prussian War (when the building was used as a warehouse), and a fire that gutted the interior and killed a fireman in 1873.

The interior of the Opera Garnier building is even more impressive than its exterior. The marble Grand Staircase has a height of 30m/98ft! The 54m long Grand Foyer features a mosaic covered ceiling and a large number of chandeliers. It is so luxurious that it can be compared with the corridors in Versailles. A large building, it has a total area of 11,000 square metres (118,404 square feet) and a vast stage with room for up to 450 artists. The auditorium itself comprises roughly half of the total space, most of the rest being used to house necessary logistical support so that the stage demands of any opera can be met and even surpassed. This can include live horses running on a rotating stage. The opera seats 2,200.

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 eight months of continual pumping. More setbacks came as a result of the disastrous Franco-Prussian War, 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.

You can see the original gilded busts and statues, the rainbow-hued marble pillars, and the mosaics. The Opera Garnier combines ballet and opera, and offers one of the most elegant evenings you can spend in the City of Light. Because of the competition from the Bastille, the Garnier has made great efforts to present more up-to-date dance works, like choreography by Twyla Tharp, Agnes de Mille, and George Balanchine. The box office is open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 6:30pm.