Rhone Day 1: Palais Garnier, Paris Opera

Four years ago in October my husband and I cruised the Danube River with MPR and Minnesota Orchestra. It was the most fabulous civilized vacation we have ever experienced. ("Civilized" means not competing with hiking in national parks or driving to Alaska.) Two years ago when the same group cruised the Seine, we didn't go because the April-in-Paris timing conflicted with spring band concerts. When this MPR/MSO Rhone River Cruise again conflicted with Steve's concert band, I told him, "Tough cookie! I'm going anyway." I invited my dear friend, Ingrid, to join me. It took a while to convince her since Ingrid is still a practicing physician. ("Ingrid the internist from Indianapolis, Indiana," she says.) She had to touch base with her physician's assistant daily, but she made it work.

We met up in Paris the day after Easter. The architecture of the Paris airport hinted at the importance of visual spaces here.

The very first night we sat across from two ladies from my husband's home town at the orientation dinner. They had had my father-in-law as a teacher when he first came to town in the 1950s. He retired after 37 years of teaching music there and spent the next 13 years as chairman of the school board, resigning weeks before his death in 2004. Sometimes the school board met in his hospital room those last few years. The high school performing arts center is now named for him. Karen told me, "I can't wait to tell my friends we had dinner with Richard G. Hardy's daughter-in-law!"

This was a musical group, and the next day's Paris tour began with the Palais Garnier, the Paris Opera House, now used primarily for ballet. I was here once before while renovations were going on, and what we saw was a stunning display of costumes in the basement corridors. Renovations are still going on (or maybe it's again?) so this time we came in through the subscribers' entrance. 

The building was designed by Charles Garnier and built between 1861 and 1875 under Emperor Napoleon III who tore down much of Paris to build his grand imperial city. Architects don't normally "sign" their work, but Garnier worked his name and the dates of construction into this motive at the top of the entry hall.

Garnier's idea was to take us from the "cave" of an entry up the stairs

into ever-expanding spaces.

According to our guide, subscribers paid for a box and could attend performance three times a week. The opera didn't change that often. (One subscriber complained of having seen the same opera fifteen or twenty times in a season.) That didn't matter all that much since the main point of going to the opera was to be seen. Hence all the balconies.

Being seen at the opera is still a thing. I guess the Netflix rom-com Emily in Paris has an episode where Emily goes to the opera in a black dress. We saw dozens of girls in black dresses being photographed for their social media accounts.

Our tour took us into the 1,979-seat auditorium.

I've always wondered why old novels have characters carrying on conversations, flirting and spying on other boxes instead of watching the show. I guess if you've already seen the opera half a dozen times or more, the music is only background noise to what you really want to do in those deep subscriber boxes. 

This old librarian was excited for a glimpse at the archives with all the musical scores that have been performed there. Some are hand written.

The opera house could not be heated because of fire risk, so people gathered in small foyers to warm up during intermissions. Except Garnier designed his foyer in the style of Versailles with fireplaces at either end.

The inner wall of the foyer alternates between wide doorways and mirrors. Ingrid and I took a picture in one of the mirrors.

Years ago when we visited Versailles, it was hard to appreciate the beauty. I felt sick to my stomach because all I could think of was the oppression that built it and led to the horrors of the French Revolution. I'm not sure Napoleon III was that much better (he is hated by the French), but at least this opulence didn't lead to the guillotine.

The Palais Garnier is famous today for Phantom of the Opera. Yes, there is water under the building, but more like a sewer than a lake. And yes, a chandelier (or at least, part of one) did fall and kill someone. You can read more here.

There was much more to our fist day in Paris, so see my next post.