Height of the foundations at the Apollo lyre: 73.6 m However, if you can’t get one, don’t miss the golden and red velvet atmosphere of the building itself (the main hall is open from 11am to 4.30pm). Tickets for a ballet are not easy to obtain. This is how the most spectacular intrigues of a romantic world were woven and unravelled on stage, in the artist’s or spectator’s dressing rooms and in the wings of this mythological palace. Genius composers and choreographers, great instrumentalists, singers and dancers have given the best of themselves in a range of registers from the desperate to the sublime. The Opera is an academy of music and dance as well as a place of enchantment imbued with the passion that has animated the lyric arts since their origin. In the middle hangs a huge six-ton crystal chandelier. The new ceiling frescoes in bright colours were designed and created by Marc Chagall in 1964. Outside and inside, the play of white stone and coloured marbles with the golden bronzes of the statues underlines the majesty of the proportions. The grand staircase, the first ten steps of which form a pompous stairwell, leads to the large foyer which opens onto the dressing rooms with their flowery mouldings. The Second Empire style was a landmark in opera architecture, in particular thanks to the Opéra Garnier, which became a reference in this field. Created by Gaston Leroux, Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, continues, it is said, to carry on its activities there. It should be noted that this massive edifice was built on an underground river that continues to feed an underground lake. The Palais Garnier was inaugurated on 15 January 1875.

The construction work, which lasted fifteen years, from 1860 to 1875, was interrupted by numerous incidents, including the War of 1870, the fall of the Empire and the Commune. The opera project was put out to tender and won by Charles Garnier, an unknown 35-year-old architect. It was built by order of Napoleon III as part of the great Parisian reconstruction project led by Baron Haussmann. It is the thirteenth theatre of the Paris Opera since its foundation by Louis XIV in 1669. It was then the largest opera house in the world. It was completed in 1875 in the early days of the Third Republic. Built in 1862 by the young architect Charles Garnier in the Second Empire style. The Opéra Garnier was built during the great reform of the French capital orchestrated by Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann in the 19th century.

Paris opera house underground lake tour