Palais Garnier, the Paris Opera on place de l’Opéra since 1669

The Opéra national de Paris descends from the opera academy founded on 28 June 1669 at Colbert’s instigation, and has performed since 1875 at the Palais Garnier, on place de l’Opéra in the 9th arrondissement. Louis XIV granted the privilege to the poet Pierre Perrin, and Pomone, the first French opera, opened in 1671.

Lully took over the privilege in 1672. After Orsini’s attack in 1858, Napoleon III decided on a new house. Charles Garnier won the competition, and building lasted from 1861 to 1875. President Mac Mahon opened the palace on 5 January 1875, before nearly two thousand guests.

The great gilded bronze chandelier weighs six and a half tonnes. Beneath the auditorium, a water tank built by Garnier gave rise to the legend of the underground lake that Gaston Leroux used in The Phantom of the Opera in 1910. In 1964 Marc Chagall painted the new ceiling at André Malraux’s invitation, over Lenepveu’s.

A listed historic monument since 1923, the Palais Garnier has shared the Opera’s season with the Opéra Bastille since 1989. It stages operas and the company’s ballets beneath the Chagall ceiling, at the top of the great marble staircase that leads to the grand foyer.