L’Opera GarnierBy: Paige Morris

L’Opera Garnier is one of the most famous opera houses in the world because it was the birth place of Phantom of the Opera.

The Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, burned down in 1873 which made Napoleon call for reconstruction. They decided to have a competition to decide what to do with the land. Charles Garnier won the competition and decided to make an opera house. All the architecture is done by Charles Garnier. The opera house was founded in 1669 by Louis XVI.

As your walk in and go past the foyer this staircase is the main thing you see. Other than the theatre, this is one of the main focal points in the opera house. The stairs are marble and are lit the whole way up by candles.

Inside the actual theatre room the color scheme is crimson and gold. There are 2,200 seats that are all crimson accented with gold. The stage is 60 meter high with a 45 meter fly tower and a 15 meter under stage area.

The architecture in the theatre is by Charles Garnier. He called his work “the architecture of illustration.” The theatre has eight enormous columns that are supporting the entire dome.

In the theatre there is a 7-ton bronze crystal chandelier that was designed by Charles Garnier. The total cost of the chandelier was 30,000 gold francs.