Opéra Bastille, Contemporary opera house in Place de la Bastille, France
The opera house occupies a large site at Place de la Bastille in the 11th arrondissement, with a facade of metal, glass and steel. The architecture combines smooth exterior surfaces with open interior spaces that spread across several floors connected by wide staircases.
Construction began in the nineteen-eighties after a competition that received more than 1700 entries. The building opened on July 14, 1989, on the two-hundredth anniversary of the Revolution, and added to the older Palais Garnier opera house.
The name recalls the former fortress that stood here before it was stormed during the Revolution. Today audiences from all parts of the city come to experience performances staged on modern stages with contemporary technology.
The building sits directly at the metro station of the same name and is easy to reach on foot or by public transport. Guided tours through technical rooms and rehearsal halls give insight into how the movable stages and acoustics work.
The site stands on the grounds of the former Paris-Bastille railway station, whose tracks in the nineteenth century connected the east of the city with the center. Materials such as blue granite and wood were used throughout the interior to soften the technical aesthetic.
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