The (, "Garnier Palace"), also known as (, "Garnier Opera"), is a historic 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III.Hanser 2006, . Initially referred to as le nouvel Opéra de Paris (the new Paris Opera), it soon became known as the Palais Garnier,"Courrier de Paris", Le Monde illustré 22 January 1876, p. 50. "in acknowledgment of its extraordinary opulence"Beauvert 1996, p. 108. and the architect Charles Garnier's plans and designs, which are representative of the Napoleon III style. It was the primary theatre of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new opera house, the Opéra Bastille, opened at the Place de la Bastille.Ayers 2004, p. 188. The company now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet. The theatre has been a of France since 1923.
The Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica".Hanser 2006, pp. 172–179. This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and, especially, the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and the popular 1986 musical. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive,Simeone 2000, p. 177. it has been described as the only one that is "unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank".Watkin 1996, pp. 391–392.
The Palais Garnier also houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera Library-Museum), which is managed by the "Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra" (in French) at the BnF website. Retrieved 3 August 2011. and is included in unaccompanied tours of the Palais Garnier."Palais Garnier" at the Paris Opera website. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
Dimensions and technical details The Palais Garnier is from ground level to the apex of the stage flytower; to the top of the façade.Nuitter 1875, p. 250. Heights are measured from the ground level of the Place de l'Opéra. The sculpture at the apex of the stage flytower roof is not included, but would add an additional 7.50 metres.
The building is long; wide at the lateral galleries; wide at the east and west pavilions; from ground level to bottom of the cistern under the stage.Nuitter 1875, pp. 249–250. The length is measured from the south side of the principal façade to the north side of the avant-corps of the administration; the widths, between the exteriors of the two lateral galleries, and the east and west pavilions; basement depth, from the ground level of the Place de l'Opéra to the bottom of the cistern under the stage house.
The structural system is made of masonry walls; concealed iron floors, vaults, and roofs.Mead 1991, p. 156.
Architecture and style The opera was constructed in what Charles Garnier (1825–1898) is said to have told the Empress Eugenie was "Napoleon III" styleSarmant, Thierry, Histoire de Paris: Politique, Urbanisme, civilization, (2012), p. 191 The Napoleon III style was highly eclectic, and borrowed from many historical sources; the opera house included elements from the Baroque, the classicism of Palladio, and Renaissance architecture blended together. These were combined with axial symmetry and modern techniques and materials, including the use of an iron framework, which had been pioneered in other Napoleon III buildings, including the Bibliothèque Nationale and the markets of Les Halles.Mead 1991, pp. 4–5; .
The façade and the interior followed the Napoleon III style principle of leaving no space without decoration. Garnier used polychromy, or a variety of colors, for theatrical effect, achieved different varieties of marble and stone, porphyry, and gilded bronze. The façade of the opera used seventeen different kinds of material, arranged in very elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology.
Exterior Main façade The principal façade is on the south side of the building, overlooking the Place de l'Opéra and terminates the perspective along the Avenue de l'Opéra. Fourteen painters, mosaicists and seventy-three sculptors participated in the creation of its ornamentation.
The two gilded figural groups, Charles Gumery's L'Harmonie (Harmony) and La Poésie (Poetry), crown the apexes of the principal façade's left and right avant-corps.Fontaine 2000, pp. 92–93. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype.
Below Gumery's L'Harmonie, in the left (west) pediment, is a sculpted relief of two women sitting down representing Architecture and Industry by Jean Claude Petit. The women surround an escutcheon with the words "ARCHITECTURE" and "INDUSTRIE" in gold. The woman who represents architecture holds a compass and a plan of the Opéra Nouvel, at her feet is a winged genius holding a torch. The woman representing industry holds a lead pig and a hammer, while a winged genius stands at her feet, carrying a cup full of jewels.Fontaine 2000, p. 86.
In the right (east) pediment a sculpture of two women sitting down representing Painting and Sculpture by Théodore Gruyère. The women surround an escutcheon with the words "PEINTURE" (painting) and "SCULPTURE" in gold. The woman who represents painting holds a brush and a palette, at her feet is a putto holding a pencil. The woman representing sculpture holds a hammer and a chisel, at her feet is a putto sculpturing a bust with a mallet and a gouge.
The bases of the two avant-corps are decorated (from left to right) with four major multi-figure groups sculpted by François Jouffroy (Poetry, also known as Harmony),Jouffroy's group is titled l'Harmonie in Nuitter 1878, p. 11, and in Garnier 1875–81, vol. 1, p. 424, vol. 2, p. 273, but is identified as La Poésie in the "Table des planches" of the 1875 atlas folio Statues décoratives (View at Wikimedia Commons), and according to Fontaine 2000, p. 82, is also sometimes referred to as Lyric Poetry. Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume (Instrumental Music), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (The Dance, criticised for indecency), and Jean-Joseph Perraud (Lyrical Drama).Fontaine 200, pp. 82–85. The façade also incorporates other work by Gumery, Alexandre Falguière and others.Fontaine 2000, pp. 85–86.
Gilded galvanoplastic bronze busts of many of the great composers are located between the columns of the theatre's front façade and depict, from left to right, Rossini, Auber, Beethoven, Mozart, Spontini, Meyerbeer, and Halévy. On the left and right lateral returns of the front façade are busts of the librettists Eugène Scribe and Philippe Quinault, respectively.Fontaine 2000, pp. 87, 88.
The attic storey façade is decorated with low and high reliefs with the letters "N" and "E", the imperial monogram (Napoléon Empereur). The low reliefs are by Louis Villeminot, and the high reliefs are by Jacques-Léonard Maillet. The high reliefs consist of four sets of ornamental figures. Each group has two winged women on either side of a putto holding up a medallion bearing the letter ("E") and the imperial crown. One woman has a trumpet and a palm, the other, a torch and a palm. There were four repetitions of these themes. Two groups have a globe and a lyre on the ground, and the two other groups have two scrolls, a mask, and a laurel wreath. There are seven low reliefs with medallions surrounded by scrolls with two children on either side holding up a garland of flowers and fruits. Five are in the central part of the attic storey having the letter ("N") in the medallion and alternate the high reliefs, and the other two are on the east and west returns of the avant-corps.Fontaine 2000, p. 91.
A frieze running along the top of the attic storey has fifty-three comic and tragic antique masks in gilt cast iron by .Fontaine 2000, p. 92.
Stage flytower The sculptural group Apollo, Poetry, and Music, located at the apex of the south gable of the stage flytower, is the work of Aimé Millet, and the two smaller bronze Pegasus figures at either end of the south gable are by Eugène-Louis Lequesne.
Pavillon de l'Empereur 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. It now houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera Library-Museum) which is home to nearly 600,000 documents including 100,000 books, 1,680 periodicals, 10,000 programs, letters, 100,000 photographs, sketches of costumes and sets, posters and historical administrative records.
Pavillon des Abonnés Located on the right (east) side of the building as a counterpart to the Pavillon de l'Empereur, this pavilion was designed to allow subscribers (abonnés) direct access from their carriages to the interior of the building. It is covered by a 13.5-metre (44-ft) diameter dome. Paired obelisks mark the entrances to the rotunda on the north and the south.
Interior The interior consists of interweaving corridors, stairwells, alcoves and landings, allowing the movement of large numbers of people and space for socialising during intermission. Rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubim and nymphs, the interior is characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness.
Grand staircase The building features a large ceremonial staircase of white marble with a balustrade of red and green marble, which divides into two divergent flights of stairs that lead to the Grand Foyer. Its design was inspired by Victor Louis's grand staircase for the Théâtre de Bordeaux. The pedestals of the staircase are decorated with female torchères, created by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. The ceiling above the staircase was painted by Isidore Pils to depict The Triumph of Apollo, The Enchantment of Music Deploying its Charms, Minerva Fighting Brutality Watched by the Gods of Olympus, and The City of Paris Receiving the Plan of the New Opéra. When the paintings were first fixed in place two months before the opening of the building, it was obvious to Garnier that they were too dark for the space. With the help of two of his students, Pils had to rework the canvases while they were in place overhead on the ceiling and, at the age of 61, he fell ill. His students had to finish the work, which was completed the day before the opening and the scaffolding was removed.Kirkland 2013, pp. 283–284.
Cave of Pythia At the foot of the Grand staircase, Garnier wanted to place a white marble statue of Orpheus, but there weren't enough funds for this. Then there were talks about moving the La Danse (Carpeaux) from the main façade, but instead Garnier chose the Pythia by Adèle d'Affry (the artist also known by the pseudonym Marcello). There are two bronze lamps on each side of Pythia, made by Jules Corboz. The intrados of the staircase have plant motifs and musical instruments, masks and shells, the artist imagine it as a Nymphaeum.
According to the Greek mythology, Pythia was the priestess of Apollo, the god of arts, and she delivered the oracles of the god. Marcello wanted her Pythia to look different from Pythias of other artists. She wrote: "will be an Indian Pythia, the one whose tongue Alexander set wagging. A kind of gypsy." "A poor woman of a rather strange and bestial type, illuminated by the spirit." She would be like the fortune tellers of India "with tamed snakes curled around their forehand."
Avant foyer or "Foyer of Mosaics" The Avant foyer is twenty meters long with doors leading to an open salon at each end, in the east to the "Sun" and at the west side to the "Moon" salons. At its north it open to the Grand Escalier, while at its south is connected by three monumental doors to the Grand Foyer.
Chandeliers