The Bastille Opéra is a modern opera house located on the Place de la Bastille in Paris.
It is, with the Opéra Garnier, one of the two halls constituting the "Opéra de Paris", a French public institution whose mission is to implement the representation of lyrical or ballet performances of high artistic quality.
It was designed by Carlos Ott and inaugurated in 1989 on the occasion of the festivities of the bicentenary of the Revolution as part of the great works for Paris.
One of the largest opera houses in the world
With its 2,745 seats, the main hall of the Bastille Opera compares to the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera (2,679 seats), the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (1,720) or the Metropolitan Opera in New York (2/3 of its 3,800 seats).
The main hall with its homogeneous acoustics, its unique stage equipment, its integrated workshops for sets, costumes and props, its work and rehearsal rooms, the Opéra Bastille is a great modern theater.
The layout of the building
The main hall of the opera
It is 20 m high, 32 m deep and 40 m wide. Among the materials used are blue granite from Brittany and pear wood from China. The lighted ceiling is made of glass. The orchestra pit can hold up to 130 musicians. It can also be covered.
The stage
The stage, one of the most modern in the world, is 45 meters high, 30 meters wide and 25 meters deep. It has 9 elevators allowing to create several levels. The stage itself rests on 3 main elevators, which allow it to descend to the lower back stage located in the 6th basement.
Two backstage platforms. They are located behind the stage:
The main stage is located on the same level as the stage (1st floor). It includes a large turntable located behind the stage, 4 storage spaces with the same dimensions as the stage and the Gounod rehearsal stage. This rehearsal stage has the same dimensions as the main stage and also has an orchestra pit. It is separated from the rest of the stage by a thick shutter ensuring acoustic insulation. It is thus possible to organize a rehearsal during a performance on the main stage without disturbing it.
The lower stage is located on the 6th floor below (6th basement). It also includes a large turntable and 4 storage spaces of the same dimensions as the stage, as well as additional storage spaces.
These two levels are connected by a large freight elevator, and by the stage platform which can go up and down between the 1st floor and the 6th basement. On each level, a system of rails and motorized carts allows the movement of the sets.
The stage equipment: a spectacular machinery
The clearance spaces, 4 storage areas with the same dimensions as the stage, the backstage, with its turntable allowing the orientation of the sets, the circulation area for the sets between the stage and the workshops, the Gounod rehearsal stage, with its orchestra pit and its dimensions identical to the main stage, constitute the main innovations of the Bastille Opera House
The side rooms. The opera house has two side rooms:
A 500-seat amphitheater located under the main hall,
A 237-seat studio located in the annex building.
Organization of the stage work - The "opera city"
The organization of the work of the technical stage is of the "project" type. It is organized according to specific "show objectives". The technical teams are organized by show, from the creation to the storage of sets and costumes.
So that, once the curtain is raised, the show can take place, hundreds of people unite their efforts and combine their know-how throughout the year. At the Bastille, a veritable city comes to life: stage technicians, sculptors and painters, seamstresses and hairdressers.
The Opera possesses state-of-the-art craftsmanship and techniques for props, costumes, wigs and sets. This mix of technical innovation and ancestral know-how is found in the Bastille workshops.
Operating costs. The Opéra Bastille's budget was 122 million euros in 2015. 48% comes from public subsidies, the rest from ticketing of shows, hall rentals, patronage.
Why the Bastille Opéra ?
President François Mitterrand decided in 1982, on the proposal of his Minister of Culture Jack Lang, to build a new opera house in Paris, considering the Garnier opera house to be too small and outdated in technical terms. He wanted a "modern and popular" opera.
The choice of the Gare Paris-Bastille
The location of the Paris-Bastille train station, located between the rue de Lyon and the rue de Charenton and at the level of the place de la Bastille, was chosen. Work began in 1984 with the demolition of the Paris-Bastille station, opened in 1859 and closed on December 14, 1969. Why on the site of a station? It was probably one of the few important spaces available without a purpose, close to the historical place of the Place de la Bastille dear to the left, also perhaps in order to imitate a precedent: President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had built in the Orsay station a few years earlier the Musée d'Orsay (Click here on Booking Orsay Museum) that we know today.
The available land, with a surface area of 2.5 hectares, has the shape of a quadrilateral, oriented along a South-East-North-West axis.
The architecture of the Opera Bastille as seen by Carlos Ott
The Opera Bastille is the work of Carlos Ott, Canadian-Uruguayan architect, who was appointed in November 1983 after an international competition in which nearly 1700 architects participated. The inauguration took place on July 13, 1989 - the day before July 14, France's national holiday.
Its architecture is marked by the transparency of the facades and by the use of identical materials inside and out. The building, with a total surface area of 160,000 m2, is 80 meters high, 50 meters above ground and 30 meters underground.
The beginnings of the Bastille Opera House
The Bastille Opera was inaugurated on July 13, 1989 for the bicentennial festivities of the storming of the Bastille, with a show directed by Bob Wilson, "The Night Before the Day". More than thirty heads of state or government, including U.S. President George H.W. Bush, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, attended the performance.
Regular performances did not begin until March 17, 1990, with Berlioz' "Les Troyens".
The deterioration of the facade
In 1991, the State filed a lawsuit against the contractors because of the rapid deterioration of the building's façade. A controversy, many audits and studies, a battle of experts will last for many years to define the distribution of blame. However, it should be noted that the only stone that fell was glued and not attached. The urgency of the delivery under political pressure to be ready for the bicentennial of the revolution led to costly shortcuts for the future. The state will finally win this long trial only in 2007. The builders were ordered to pay for the replacement of the 36,000 90 cm x 90 cm limestone slabs, at a cost of nine million euros. The studies having been made in 2005-2006, the works could start in the summer of 2007 and be finished 2 years later.
Tours organized by the Opéra Bastille
Tours led by a lecturer take visitors behind the scenes of this modern theater with impressive dimensions. They are suspended during the Covid period.
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