Visit to the Opéra Bastille

As planned, my opera class then had a visit to the Bastille Opera house!

We had actually already seen the Bastille Opera before since that's where they're currently playing L'Affaire Makropoulos, but this visit was just to learn a little more about the building in general.

Here I am in front of the building by the entrance!

One of the main things I realized about the Bastille Opera is that a) it's very very modern and b) it's very functional.





You can see how modern it is just by looking at the outside. There are squares of glass everywhere, creating a geometric design that makes the building look, in my opinion, cold and stoic.





When we visited, they still had the posters up for The Makropoulos Case.





The inside is very similar to the outside concerning the geometric design and the impersonal feel. I was looking on Wikipedia for a better description, and I found that someone said it looks like an airport lounge. I agree.





The view to the outside was pretty cool, though. In the picture you can see the Bastille monument in the center of the roundabout, and if you look out further to the left, there's a nice view of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. And about a few blocks to the right is my apartment!

I know my opinion of the Bastille Opera house isn't too favorable (especially compared to the Opéra Garnier) but I should give it credit for being extremely functional. Our tour also included some of the backstage areas where the performers rehearse and where they construct the sets. I found out that there are basically 9 stage-sized cubes: one in the front and center that you actually see during performances, 2 on each side of the main stage, and the remaining 6 completing the grid behind the main stage. This allows for them to move entire sets, kept completely intact, out of the way so they can show a different opera the next night. (Remember the King Kong from the Makropoulos opera? He was being kept on the left front stage.)








And here we are going down one of the many stair cases in the building.

The design of the public spaces kind of reinforces the fact that the focus in this opera house is the performance from the singers, and not from the socialites who attend on any given night. As you can see, the curved hallways make it difficult to do any people watching, so I guess that scene will remain with the Opéra Garnier, where the grand staircase gives a great view of the other spectators.

Obviously, I prefer the Opéra Garnier. :)

Bisous XOXO