Paris has two opera houses, the older Opéra Garnier and the newer Opéra Bastille. The Opéra Bastille is at the Place de Bastille, the site of the infamous Bastille prison, which was destroyed during the French Revolution of 1789.
Opéra Bastille
The Opéra Bastille is a magnificent structure in a modern architectural style. The concert hall is huge, with excellent seating in all locations.
At the Opéra Bastille, we attended a performance of Les Troyens, a grand opera by the French composer Hector Berlioz. The music was gorgeous, with flawless performances by the lead singers, chorus, and orchestra. We did have some problems with the costumes and staging, which seemed surprising amateurish at times and in no way complemented the masterful work of the performers. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who felt that way. When it was all over and time for curtain calls, all of the performers received thunderous and well deserved applause, but when the stage designers came out, they were resoundingly booed by a big segment of the audience. We had never been at any classical music performance where anyone was booed, so it was a bit of a surprise.
Opera Garnier
Opera Garnier is an opulent opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. The lavish architectural features and decorations were reminiscent of some of the other grand structures we saw, such as the Versailles and Le Louvre.
Le Quatour AKOS
We attended an afternoon concert in a great old church, the Eglise Saint-Vincent de Paul. The string quartet AKOS performed two classic works of the genre: Haydn’s Emperor Quartet and the first of Beethoven’s Razumovsky Quartets, Opus 59. They were great, and it really sounded wonderful in that massive, resonant church.
Paris 2019 